Euan Burton spent over a decade at the top of his sport and, following a gold medal at his home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 35-year-old judoka has now stepped off the mat for good.
Coaching has played a steadily increasing role in Burton’s career, so much so that at Glasgow 2014 he prioritised supporting the team’s preparations over his own performance ambitions.
“We made the decision early on that I was going to focus on my coaching role until the last minute possible and only at the very end was I going to focus on myself.
“For most of the 18 months leading up to the Commonwealths I was a coach, for some of that time I was a coach first and an athlete second, but for big parts I was just a coach.
“I was obviously very proud of my gold medal, but I was even more proud of the performance of the team because I had played a part in that success.”
Following London 2012 the former world and European medallist gradually took on more responsibilities in coaching, working with athletes at the sportscotland Institute of Sport. He admits that he was initially concerned about how his peers would regard him.
“One of the things I thought might be most difficult was the transfer from being seen as an athlete to being seen as a coach.
“I was lucky that my judo career went deep into my 30s and by the time I’d finished competing, I was older than 95% of my training group.
“I think they saw me as a senior athlete or an athlete/coach before I officially switched over anyway, so that transfer was much easier.”
Having represented Great Britain at two Olympic Games, Burton brings a huge amount of first-hand experience into his role but is keen not to impose this on his younger charges.
“During my GB career I was very focused on making sure that no stone was unturned in my pursuit of being excellent, so I have tried to bring that approach to my coaching role.
“You’re shaped by what’s gone before, so what has happened to me definitely influences my coaching, but I also think you’ve got to focus on what you can best do for your athletes.
“I’d like to think that I bring more to the table as a coach than just relying on my own experiences.”
Burton has recently been accepted onto UK Sport’s Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme (ECAP), which aims to develop coaches working within the high performance system, and is looking forward to the challenge.
“When you’re working within performance, you need to meet challenges and keep improving because if you’re not improving, someone else is and you start to go backwards.
“I’m hoping that it’s going to make me question what I do and how I do it, and hopefully through that reflection I will be a better coach at the end of it.”
Among his other challenges is coaching his wife, Olympic silver medallist Gemma Gibbons, and says the key to success is making clear when they are husband and wife, and when they are coach and athlete.
“Obviously it’s difficult but we’re both quite clear on what our roles are, but if it does start to spill across, we take a moment and say ‘let’s deal with this training issue first’ and then we can have a conversation about what’s for dinner!”
Euan Burton is one of 13 coaches selected for the 2014-16 Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme (ECAP). The programme aims to create a bespoke development pathway towards coaching excellence, based on the needs of each coach and their sport.
The selected coaches are:
- Glynn Tromanns (Boccia)*
- Gareth Wilson (Canoe Slalom)
- Nancy Smith (Curling)*
- Adam Smallwood (Diving)
- David Ralph (Hockey)
- Euan Burton (Judo)
- Michael Peart (Para-Archery)*
- James Harris (Rowing)
- Ross Harvey (Sailing)
- Kevin Gill (Shooting)*
- James Gibson (Swimming)
- Jolyon Finck (Swimming)
- Rob Harvey (Triathlon)
*denotes new sport to engage with ECAP