Report: Brits need coaches

[kitkat1]

From The Times
January 24, 2008

Steve Cram leads the cry for Britain to break away from ‘culture of amateurism’

Rick Broadbent

“Coaching is for kids. I told Roy McFarland to get his hair cut – that’s coaching at this level.” Brian Clough

Let’s face facts. We are not very good at sport.

The England football team turned from golden generation to rusty alloy in the Wembley rain, the cricketers have descended from their postAshes pedestal to postpedalo bashings and the Olympic Games promise to leave us doing a Paula Radcliffe, crying on the kerb.

Could this be down to the fact that we are close to a quarter of a million coaches short?

That is the message emerging from the Sportnation report issued today. Commissioned from Loughborough University by a think-tank of sporting figures chaired by Steve Cram, the former 1,500 metres world champion, it states that there is a massive short-fall of professional coaches and that the “culture of volunteerism” is threatening to undermine the 2012 legacy.

That is not to damn the volunteers who keep the grass roots of most sports, especially the minority ones, from withering, but Cram cites his story as an example of what has gone wrong.

“I was coached by Jimmy Hedley at Jarrow & Hebburn Athletic Club,” he said. “Jimmy was the sort of bloke who’d be there every night. He gave up 50 years of his life, helped thousands of youngsters and never received a penny. But Jimmy died a few years ago and these people are not being replaced. A lot of people won’t sacrifice so much for nothing. We need a career pathway for coaches.”

The numbers in the report are eye-catching. Twelve sports, including football, cricket, athletics and tennis, were surveyed, performance directors and senior figures were interviewed and it was deduced that almost 70 per cent of the 1.5 million coaches in the UK are unpaid.

In Olympic year, lay people may also be surprised by the fact that there are only 21 salaried coaches in performance athletics.
The report calls for up to 233,500 paid positions to be created by 2016. The panel, backed by the Lucozade Sport Science Academy, advocated the creation of 400 school-based hubs with 34 funded coaches at each. There should also be a coaching model that provides a progression from the grass roots to elite levels and classifies volunteers as helpers rather than coaches.

“The figures are startling, but we need the Government to take this seriously,” Cram said. “We’re losing lots of coaches because it simply isn’t a recognised profession in this country, whereas in the United States coaches are hugely respected figures.”

The panel included Richard Caborn, the former Sports Minister, Micky Stewart, the former England cricket manager, and Hope Powell, the England women’s football coach. “All the emphasis is at the top,” Powell said. “I was paid peanuts when I started as a coach 20 years ago and I don’t think it’s changed much. Women’s football is growing fast, but there are only a handful of paid coaches.”

The report claims that volunteerism leads to social exclusion because white middle-class men are those who can afford to give up their time, with other groups underrepresented. It states: “This deficit threatens to undermine both the London 2012 legacy and the Government’s aim to make the UK the best place in the world for coaching by 2016.”

Cram insisted that Britain needs to break the culture of “gentle amateurism” and said that relying on volunteers at lower levels led to sport looking abroad for the top jobs.

“We have not kept pace with other countries,” he said.

“I went to watch my son at a cross-country meeting and heard a coach speaking the biggest load of nonsense. The business community recognises the importance of coaching, but sport doesn’t.”

Cram said that he hoped the findings would at least spark a debate. However, with “a couple of billion” needed to pay for those coaches and massive redundancies in the pipeline at UK Athletics, that Olympic legacy may have to remain a pipe dream.

Have your say

Ah joke, it’s now because we don’t have enough coaches that we are rubbish at athletics.
It was not that long ago that it was because we did’nt provide enough finance to the sportsmen and women that we were rubbish, they have the money but we are still rubbish.
Ask them to just run a little faster and train a bit harder.

Mark Heward, Loughbrough, England

I’ve been a volunteer coach for the past 30 years - but no longer. I’ve found that your knowledge and ability are worthless when the attitude is that if you are paid nothing then you are obviously not good enough!
Sadly the ability to develop as a coach is hindered by a system that is now being aimed at paid coaches only. If you have a job it is very very hard to reach the level of points some bodies now need to let you have a coaching certificate.
There are other major issues here too. The increasing burocracy which is off putting to volunteers, CRB’s, Working with children, qualification courses, all very laudable it’s off putting to the newcomer. I know in my sport that a number of volunteers walked away when they found out what would be involved just to get started. I think if the current situation was in place in 1977 I would have walked away too. It also doesn’t help when you have seen over 75% of your facilities close too. Sadly, small sports will still rely on volunteers

John Whitby, Peterborough, Cambs

I am one of the “lucky few” who actually make a living as a coach working in state education. We could easily do the whole national curriculum for Maths, Science, History and Literacy by starting school at 8.00 am and running through to 12.30 leaving the afternoons free for a wide range of non compulsory activities including sport. Coaches would then have a basic 15 hour + week as a basis for working full time. Our school system is a main player in hindering the development of quality grass roots sport

mick fletcher, london ,

[maris]

@kitkat1

From The Times
January 24, 2008

Steve Cram leads the cry for Britain to break away from ‘culture of amateurism’

Rick Broadbent

“Coaching is for kids. I told Roy McFarland to get his hair cut – that’s coaching at this level.” Brian Clough

Let’s face facts. We are not very good at sport.

The England football team turned from golden generation to rusty alloy in the Wembley rain, the cricketers have descended from their postAshes pedestal to postpedalo bashings and the Olympic Games promise to leave us doing a Paula Radcliffe, crying on the kerb.

Could this be down to the fact that we are close to a quarter of a million coaches short?

That is the message emerging from the Sportnation report issued today. Commissioned from Loughborough University by a think-tank of sporting figures chaired by Steve Cram, the former 1,500 metres world champion, it states that there is a massive short-fall of professional coaches and that the “culture of volunteerism” is threatening to undermine the 2012 legacy.

That is not to damn the volunteers who keep the grass roots of most sports, especially the minority ones, from withering, but Cram cites his story as an example of what has gone wrong.

“I was coached by Jimmy Hedley at Jarrow & Hebburn Athletic Club,” he said. “Jimmy was the sort of bloke who’d be there every night. He gave up 50 years of his life, helped thousands of youngsters and never received a penny. But Jimmy died a few years ago and these people are not being replaced. A lot of people won’t sacrifice so much for nothing. We need a career pathway for coaches.”

The numbers in the report are eye-catching. Twelve sports, including football, cricket, athletics and tennis, were surveyed, performance directors and senior figures were interviewed and it was deduced that almost 70 per cent of the 1.5 million coaches in the UK are unpaid.

In Olympic year, lay people may also be surprised by the fact that there are only 21 salaried coaches in performance athletics.
The report calls for up to 233,500 paid positions to be created by 2016. The panel, backed by the Lucozade Sport Science Academy, advocated the creation of 400 school-based hubs with 34 funded coaches at each. There should also be a coaching model that provides a progression from the grass roots to elite levels and classifies volunteers as helpers rather than coaches.

“The figures are startling, but we need the Government to take this seriously,” Cram said. “We’re losing lots of coaches because it simply isn’t a recognised profession in this country, whereas in the United States coaches are hugely respected figures.”

The panel included Richard Caborn, the former Sports Minister, Micky Stewart, the former England cricket manager, and Hope Powell, the England women’s football coach. “All the emphasis is at the top,” Powell said. “I was paid peanuts when I started as a coach 20 years ago and I don’t think it’s changed much. Women’s football is growing fast, but there are only a handful of paid coaches.”

The report claims that volunteerism leads to social exclusion because white middle-class men are those who can afford to give up their time, with other groups underrepresented. It states: “This deficit threatens to undermine both the London 2012 legacy and the Government’s aim to make the UK the best place in the world for coaching by 2016.”

Cram insisted that Britain needs to break the culture of “gentle amateurism” and said that relying on volunteers at lower levels led to sport looking abroad for the top jobs.

“We have not kept pace with other countries,” he said.

“I went to watch my son at a cross-country meeting and heard a coach speaking the biggest load of nonsense. The business community recognises the importance of coaching, but sport doesn’t.”

Cram said that he hoped the findings would at least spark a debate. However, with “a couple of billion” needed to pay for those coaches and massive redundancies in the pipeline at UK Athletics, that Olympic legacy may have to remain a pipe dream.

Have your say

Ah joke, it’s now because we don’t have enough coaches that we are rubbish at athletics.
It was not that long ago that it was because we did’nt provide enough finance to the sportsmen and women that we were rubbish, they have the money but we are still rubbish.
Ask them to just run a little faster and train a bit harder.

Mark Heward, Loughbrough, England

I’ve been a volunteer coach for the past 30 years - but no longer. I’ve found that your knowledge and ability are worthless when the attitude is that if you are paid nothing then you are obviously not good enough!
Sadly the ability to develop as a coach is hindered by a system that is now being aimed at paid coaches only. If you have a job it is very very hard to reach the level of points some bodies now need to let you have a coaching certificate.
There are other major issues here too. The increasing burocracy which is off putting to volunteers, CRB’s, Working with children, qualification courses, all very laudable it’s off putting to the newcomer. I know in my sport that a number of volunteers walked away when they found out what would be involved just to get started. I think if the current situation was in place in 1977 I would have walked away too. It also doesn’t help when you have seen over 75% of your facilities close too. Sadly, small sports will still rely on volunteers

John Whitby, Peterborough, Cambs

I am one of the “lucky few” who actually make a living as a coach working in state education. We could easily do the whole national curriculum for Maths, Science, History and Literacy by starting school at 8.00 am and running through to 12.30 leaving the afternoons free for a wide range of non compulsory activities including sport. Coaches would then have a basic 15 hour + week as a basis for working full time. Our school system is a main player in hindering the development of quality grass roots sport

mick fletcher, london ,

Coaching jobs here are few and far between indeed. It’s a shame, because there is a good amount of talent in Britain, and there are quite a few people with good levels of knowledge. However, the way things are at the moment it is difficult to get the two together. If you want to coach at a decent level, you are talking about putting in 15-20 hours a week on top of a 40 hour working week. Not easy!

[ontheball]

Great if we could get more paid coaches. But we’d need people with proven track records in coaching - the Jimmy Hedleys of this world - not bullshitters with academic qualifications and a shortage of real expertise.

[Charlie_Francis]

@maris

Coaching jobs here are few and far between indeed. It’s a shame, because there is a good amount of talent in Britain, and there are quite a few people with good levels of knowledge. However, the way things are at the moment it is difficult to get the two together. If you want to coach at a decent level, you are talking about putting in 15-20 hours a week on top of a 40 hour working week. Not easy!

Now that facilities are coming on line, the advantages of a huge population in a small area should work well in producing athletes (by definition, the talent MUST be there). now money that was once spent for training camps can be better used for early season warm weather competition. As well, the money freed up by dumping redundant employees from the BAAB can be spent on coaches

[maris]

@Charlie_Francis

Now that facilities are coming on line, the advantages of a huge population in a small area should work well in producing athletes (by definition, the talent MUST be there). now money that was once spent for training camps can be better used for early season warm weather competition. As well, the money freed up by dumping redundant employees from the BAAB can be spent on coaches

I hope that the new indoor facilities around London will definitely help discover and nurture some talent. But if there’s no incentive to coach, or it is too hard to coach whilst leading a normal lifestyle, how is the talent going to be progressed??

[Oldbloke]

History would suggest the best developer of elite talent is a small squad based at a high performance centre. British rowing and cycling teams, Clyde Hart, John Smith, Charlie F… Rather than large numbers of coaches. Quarter of a million paid posts - I dont believe it ! That`s probably half the number of nurses in the whole country.

[maris]

@oldbloke

History would suggest the best developer of elite talent is a small squad based at a high performance centre. British rowing and cycling teams, Clyde Hart, John Smith, Charlie F… Rather than large numbers of coaches. Quarter of a million paid posts - I dont believe it ! That`s probably half the number of nurses in the whole country.

I would say that is how UKA are trying set the coaching system up in this country. Of course you need the professional coaches to identify the talent initially though I believe, which in the US you have with college coaches. However, the only issue I see with this is that it becomes increasingly difficult to tailor a programme specifically to an elite athlete if you have several elite athletes working together. I see there being a benefit in having one dominant athlete, with the rest of the athletes almost training to support their development. Of course you need to find other athletes willing to be put in that position. The downside is you need more coaches, as less of the leading athletes can work together.

[d_nasty]

@oldbloke

History would suggest the best developer of elite talent is a small squad based at a high performance centre. British rowing and cycling teams, Clyde Hart, John Smith, Charlie F… Rather than large numbers of coaches. Quarter of a million paid posts - I dont believe it ! That`s probably half the number of nurses in the whole country.

well, i mean look at america’s system.

MASSIVE talent pool, and from youth on up through high school, most everyone is either a volunteer or getting a small stipend ontop of their other job. yet they still manage to turn out results.

then with college and post college the coaches are being paid just as coaches and don’t have other concerns, even with this, some coaches suck and sink talented atheltes quicker than the titanic.

however at the sub college level people are encouraged to become involved in youth sports.

it’s not so much people getting paid, it’s more that they should be encouraged to be involved.

if theres some sort of coaching education in place so that people are by and large at least doing senseable training during their formative years then they’ll have more sucessful pro careers. pretty much common sense.

it’s not more coaches, that are needed, it’s more quality coaches and less burecrats…