Swim England partner with UK Coaching as number delivering physical activity falls

Swim England has partnered with UK Coaching as part of a nationwide drive to expand the coaching workforce.

The aim is to inspire more youngsters and people from diverse backgrounds to coach swimming, diving, artistic swimming and water polo.

The partnership will see UK Coaching supporting Swim England’s coaching recruitment and retention, with a view to significantly increasing the aquatics coaching workforce over the next 10 years, and ensuring the nation is fully supported to become more active, more often.

Latest Sport England data suggests an alarming drop in the number of people giving up their time to support others to be active, which could continue to exacerbate already decreasing activity levels.

A total of 6.6 million people (14 per cent of the adult population) gave up their time to lead activity sessions from November 2020-21, a fall of more than 3.1 million people compared to the year before and this follows a drop in numbers in the years prior to the pandemic.

In response to this worrying new data, UK Coaching – the UK’s leading charitable organisation for physical activity and sports coaches – is leading a nationwide drive to expand the coaching workforce.

Empower current and future coaches

The campaign will see the organisation engage with seven of the nation’s leading sports, including swimming, to ensure coaching becomes more accessible, inclusive and innovative than ever before.

To support the recruitment drive, UK Coaching have launched #Born2Coach – an initiative that aims to significantly boost the coaching workforce by inspiring people to become coaches and empowering current coaches to enhance their abilities.

The announcement comes at the start of UK Coaching Week – the annual national awareness campaign which empowers athletes, coaches and the public to celebrate great coaching.

On the partnership, Swim England head of coaching, Lindsay Trimmings, said: “We are excited to be partnering with UK Coaching to inspire more people to get involved with coaching across our aquatic disciplines.

“Coaches play an important role in supporting any participants journey, from early club years through to those competing at the elite level, and we want to ensure everyone enjoys a positive and fulfilling experience.

“We hope to significantly increase the aquatics coaching workforce over the coming years and we look forward to supporting the #Born2Coach initiative to empower current and future coaches.”

Active, happier and healthier nation

Mark Gannon, UK Coaching CEO, added: “We are delighted to be working closely with Swim England to help encourage more aspiring coaches into the workforce.

“As we learn to live with Covid and seek to recover from the challenges of the last couple of years, we want to play our part in supporting physical activity and sport to help rebuild a more active, happier and healthier nation.

“Coaches will be an important conduit for engaging a broader range of people from more communities in physical activity and sport, and with the help of our network and partnerships, we will be able to empower existing coaches and recruit the next generation of coaches.”

To search for the latest aquatics coaching jobs, visit Careers in Aquatics.

To find out more about how you can get into aquatics coaching, visit www.ukcoaching.org/born2coach.