Overview
When: 1 December 2025
Where: The Queens Hotel Leeds, New Station Street, City Square, Leeds LS1 1PJ (map)
Please note: Some elements of the day may be offsite in the local area.
New for 2025, around 200 nominated coaches will gather for a dedicated day and evening event. This unique opportunity will allow for the coaching community to connect and collaborate across Olympic, Paralympic, summer, and winter sports. As the largest coach-specific event UK Sport has delivered in the past two Olympic and Paralympic cycles, it marks a significant step forward in how we support the coaching community.
Who Should Attend the Coaches Day:
Head/Lead coaches and coaches working with funded athletes/are working as part of a funded programme.
What to Expect:
The purpose of the Coaches Day will be to help coaches feel connected, valued, and supported in their ongoing growth and development. It will offer time to explore topics that are relevant to high performance coaching, encourage learning from peers and other sectors, and recognise the coach community. The event will also provide a platform to share future thinking and plans by UK Sport for the support and development of coaches within high performance sport.
Agenda
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Session
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Timings
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Session Title & Description
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Arrival
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1000
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Coaches to gather at Hyde Park Cinema
73 Brudenell Road, Leeds LS6 1JD
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Welcome
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1030-1035
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Welcome & Scene Set – Danny Kerry
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Session 1
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1035-1125
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Coaches, Coaching & Thank you
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Break
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1125-1145
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Session 2
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1145-1300
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“Building and Transitioning an International Rugby Team.”
Steve Borthwick, England Men’s Rugby Head Coach (and UK Sport Elite Coach alumni). This session will explore Steve’s approach to preparing the England Men’s Team for major competitions under high expectations from fans, media, sponsors, and the RFU board. The session will explore Steve’s experiences, learning and approach to working with performance staff in preparing the team to compete.
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Lunch
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1300-1415
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Head to Queens Hotel and Lunch
City Square, Leeds LS1 1PJ
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Session 3
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1415-1545
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Choice of either:
Option1:
“Ethics at the edge of high-performance coaching.”
Laurie Marsden (UK Sport Coaching Team & Prof. Julian North, Leeds Beckett University). To be the best in the world often means going to places that no one else will go - to succeed means confronting the realities of competition preparation, selection, or deselection, and competition itself. This session will face directly into the complexity and difficulty of this area - into the grey between comfort and discomfort. It will explore what it's like to work in high-performance, and more specifically, the ethical dimensions of supporting people in their pursuit of excellence. We will share some thinking tools to help coaches navigate this difficult space and explore the use of photography as a representation of lived experience.
Option 2:
“Performance Planning: A Coaches Perspective.”
Jon Norfolk, MBE, supported by coaching peers from Paralympic/Olympic landscape.
World-leading Performance Planning is an extension of an athlete-centred, coach-led journey and not a one size fits all, static process. Through coach storytelling and case studies, we will bring to life some great examples of coach practice in different sports and contexts and bust some of the myths and misinterpretations around the current performance planning landscape. We will explore how coaches in a modern sporting context can leverage Performance Planning to release the power of the team, maintain organisational confidence in the plan and to also use it to express amazing, impactful coaching.
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Break
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1545-1610
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Break
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Session 4
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1610-1730
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“Performance Coaching: What’s Coming Down the Road – Getting on the Front Foot.”
Danny Kerry, MBE, Coaching Lead, UK Sport. An overview of the opportunities and challenges currently present, and on the horizon, for coaches working within the performance landscape. The presentation will highlight the on-going thinking and planned work to meet the needs of coaches and performance towards Brisbane 2032. The session will take the format of a presentation, followed by Q&A.
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Break
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1730-1900
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Check-in Hotel
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1900-2300
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Dinner: Socialising and Connection.
White Cloth Hall, Leeds, 27 Crown Street, Leeds LS2 7DA
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