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11 Sep 2018 287

European medal success for graduates of performance coaching programme

Two graduates of UK Coaching’s Women into High Performance programme took their athletes to medal success at the 2018 Para Swimming European Championships in Dublin.

Swimming coaches Jacquie Marshall, director of swimming at Northampton Swimming Club, and Amanda Bell, head coach at City of Derby Swimming Club, saw their athletes Maisie Summers-Newton, Ellie Robinson and Lewis White win an array of medals.

Maisie took gold in a world record time in the SB6 100m Breaststroke – ahead of Great Britain team-mate Ellie Simmonds – and won two more golds in the 200m Individual Medley and 4x100m Medley Relay, followed by bronze in the S6 400m Freestyle. Ellie won gold, silver and bronze in the S6 50m Butterfly, S6 100m Freestyle and the S6 50m Freestyle respectively. And Lewis medalled twice for GB, winning silver in the S9 100m and S9 400m Freestyle events. 

Both Jacquie and Amanda were selected for the fourth Women into High Performance programme, which aims to support female coaches with the potential to transition into high performance coaching and is run by UK Coaching’s Talent and Performance team.

I was very pleased to have been nominated by my governing body and was quite intrigued to attend an all-female programme, said Jacquie. 

“The tasks were good fun, thought provoking and challenging; they certainly gave me the skills to communicate effectively with my athletes, other coaches and my governing body. I gained confidence in my own ability as well. Working with coaches from other sports was very interesting and made for a great learning environment; sharing ideas and experiences.

“I think my increase in confidence certainly contributed to the recent successes of my athletes as they use my confidence to fuel their own beliefs.”

Canadian Amanda said the programme allowed her to work with like-minded women in coaching and build a network of supportive individuals.

“The course offered frequent self-evaluation, which I found useful for application in coaching and managing my club. At the time of the course, I was only in my second year of living in the UK and still adapting to my surroundings. Working through the course content helped me build the confidence, knowledge and network that I needed at the time.”

In total, 18 coaches across 10 sports were selected by their respective governing bodies of sport for the 2017-2018 edition of the programme, coming together for a total of four seminars to develop their skills, behaviours and knowledge.