Inspiring Coaching Advice and Resources
Coaching insights, stories and tools for every day’s theme of UK Coaching Week 2025
Dive InNot complete - see Saturday note, plus ideally images sorted and all boxes lined up. Anything produced by Blake needs to be here as well
Discover essential coaching resources and stories inspired by UK Coaching Week 2025
Quicklinks
Monday: Coaching the Person in Front of You
Coaching the Person in Front of You
Do you really understand the people you coach; your participants, and the people you coach with? Through insight and experience, UK Coaching has identified three principles to help you coach the person in front of you.
Learn More
Coaching Conversations: Understanding the Individual
Drawing from their own journeys, coaches provide practical examples and strategies to help you grasp the concept of ‘understanding the individual’ and enhance your ability to connect with and understand your participants
WatchTuesday: The Art of Effective Communication
Communication Techniques
Understanding that the way you engage and communicate with your participants can significantly impact their overall development and has the potential to either foster positive holistic development or lead to confusion, frustration, poor performance, limited growth and withdrawal is essential.
Learn More
Coaching Conversations: Understanding the Individual
Drawing from their own journeys, coaches provide practical examples and strategies to help you grasp the concept of ‘relationships’ and master the art of having crucial conversations.
WatchWednesday: Women in Coaching
Coaching Conversations
Hear more from inspiring female coaches as they share practical insights and strategies through our bite-sized videos
VIEW ALL
People First Always
Coaching is about the people who are in front of you at any given moment.
GB7s Women's Head Coach
Connect with the Person
It’s about getting to know them as people so that I can get through to them as learners and help them do things in ways that make sense to them.
Women’s Super League Academy Coach
Confidence Builds
My message to females who may be thinking about getting into coaching and may lack the confidence to take that first step, is that the more you do it, the more it comes automatically, and the more your confidence grows.
Assistant Coach of Cottenham United Colts FC Under-17s Girls
Never Stop Growing
I find coaching so rewarding and so stimulating, because your learning never stops. There are so many opportunities to grow your craft.
Head Coach, London Borough of Hounslow Swim Club
Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner!
GB7s Women's Head Coach Giselle Mather has made a habit of breaking through glass ceilings. A champion of change for gender equality in coaching, she spoke to UK Coaching about meeting the challenge of unconscious bias and gender stereotypes head on, and says she hopes that by blazing a trail of firsts in rugby union, she has “prepared the path” for other female sports coaches to create and grasp opportunities to advance their careers
READ
Cognitive Diversity Key to Better Coaching Environments – for All
Women’s Super League Academy Coach Ali Speechly discusses how diversity in coaching and mental health awareness can elevate any and every coaching environment, improving the experience for everyone involved
READ
Muslim Coach a Role Model in Race for Greater Diversity
Tahira Islam is an empowering female role model who has demonstrated that anyone can coach, breaking racial and ethnic stereotypes and raising awareness of the benefits of building a more diverse coaching workforce. Urging other women to not let fears of prejudice deter them from pursuing their passions, she tells UK Coaching that she has experienced support not setbacks, appreciation not abuse, on her coaching journey
READ
Water Story! Swimming Coaches Put Residents of London Borough in Buoyant Mood
London Borough of Hounslow Swim Club is a community powerhouse. The inclusive club holds group sessions for all ages, abilities and backgrounds, including refugees. Head Coach Lisa Graham’s infectious passion for coaching, strong sense of purpose and love of learning have been instrumental in the club’s success story
READThursday: Lifelong Learning in Coaching
Coach as a Learner
Learning is an ongoing process that takes time and many episodes, so it is useful to think about the many ways you can do your learning.
LEARN MORE
Kickstarter: Understanding Self
What is your ‘go-to’ way of learning? Download activities that invite you to reflect, consider, and try out new approaches to enhance your self-understanding and self-awareness
DOWNLOADFriday: Building Confidence
Performance Skills: Confidence
Confidence and Competence go hand in hand. Participants gain confidence from feeling competent, and the ability to perform skills, techniques and tactics. When they complete these skills and perform them well, they gain confidence from them.
LEARN MORE
Sport Psychology Kickstarter
Download activities that invite you to reflect, consider, and try out new approaches you can use to support participants to improve their mental focus, gain confidence, and be the best they can be.
DOWNLOADSaturday: Inspiring Change
To discuss with Chris, email unclear re one as links to same thing
Sunday: Celebrating Success
Rebuilt with Care
He has built me back up to be the upstanding citizen that I should be. He helped ground me and give me the discipline I needed. Q’s more than a mentor. He’s a father figure as well.
Heart of Portsmouth Boxing Academy
Catalyst to Success
My coach was by my side through each one of those experiences. The public don’t get to see the ups and downs, the fears, the turmoil, the tears, the arguments. But that whole relationship is the catalyst to success.”
four-time Olympian
Coaching Journey
This has all snowballed into something a lot bigger than what I ever thought it would be. Now I’m a qualified BMX coach, a bike mechanic, and looking at starting a full-time job in coaching.”
Ozzy Wheels BMX club
Finding My Calling
Coaching was an opportunity for me to make a change in my life. But it wasn’t until I started to see the impact it had on kids that it truly felt like my calling.
Bright Star Boxing Academy director
Coaching Key to Helping Young People Make Better Choices
UK Coaching visited Heart of Portsmouth Boxing Academy, where Q Shillingford and Gareth Tennant offer unflinching testimony to the power of coaching as an effective tool to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour
READ
Donna Fraser Pays Tribute to her ‘Amazing’ Coach: I Wouldn’t be Person I Am Today Without Him
The four-time Olympian presents an intimate insight into her memorable journey with long-time coach Ayo Falola. “Coaches do not get the recognition they deserve,” says Fraser, who lauds the phenomenal impact Falola had on her career and her wider life
READ
The ‘Rocky’ Road to Success for BMX Coach
By combining unbridled passion with a pioneering spirit, Jay Plimmer has created life-affirming and life-altering opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds in one of the five most deprived areas for children in the country
READ
How Great Coaching Can Tackle Crime, Improve Well-Being and Change a Life
For the launch of the Open Goal campaign, we caught up with Bright Star Boxing Academy director Joe Lockley, who is leading the fight in empowering vulnerable people to make positive changes to transform their lives
READ