New coaching plan launched to support coaches across all aquatic disciplines

Swim England have launched an ‘exciting’ new coaching plan which looks to ‘transform lives through inspirational coaching’.

The plan, which runs until 2025, will support coaches across all of the aquatic disciplines and links closely with Sport England’s ‘Uniting the movement’ and ‘Coaching Plan 2.0’ strategies.

It is being led by Swim England’s new dedicated coaching team that is headed up by head of coaching, Lindsay Trimmings, alongside coach engagement officer, Lisa Wright and coach development manager, Jo John.

The Swim England Coaching Plan’s mission is ‘to build a diverse and inclusive coaching community that are empowered to create positive experiences for everyone involved in aquatic sport’.

The plan states four key strategic aims that it’s looking to achieve by the end of the three-year period. These are connecting the coaching community, empowering our people, setting standards and tackling the inequalities within coaching.

Work on the plan has already begun, which included the launch of Swim England’s coach membership packages back in August.

The Coach and Coach Plus schemes offer industry leading tailored, comprehensive insurance and provides opportunities for coaches to connect and interact with their peers.

The memberships will go alongside a number of projects that will help develop the coaching workforce and overcome any barriers that stop people getting involved in coaching aquatic sport.

‘Providing further support to our workforce’

The 10-page document explains how each of the four targets will be met to help Swim England reach the vision of ‘a nation swimming’.

It has been developed across the organisation with the coaching team specifically working alongside Swim England’s Insight team to take into account the views of coaches across each of the aquatic disciplines.

A number of focus groups were run before a survey was taken with aquatic coaches with the plan being designed to address the coaches’ feedback.

On the launch of the plan, Swim England’s head of coaching, Lindsay Trimmings, said she’s excited to work alongside the coaching community to bring these ideas to life.

She said: “We’re really happy to be launching this plan which we’ve been working on for some time now.

“Everyone at Swim England is committed to expanding and providing further support to the coaching workforce and this plan will allow us to improve coaching from the grassroots of our sports all the way up to elite level.

“Coaches are the life-blood of our clubs and sport programmes so we want to take positive action to support coach wellbeing but equally, we must hold them accountable for reaching the highest standards of safe and effective practice.

“And the whole emphasis of this plan has been about creating a better experiences for coaches so that they can learn new skills as well as developing and sharing their knowledge across the community.

“That’s why it was so important for us to develop this plan with coaches’ feedback in mind so we could understand how best to support them.

“We’re excited to be working with our key partners to help bring the plan to fruition.”

You can view the Swim England Coaching Plan here.

If you wish to contact the coaching team, you can email them at [email protected].