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UK Coaching Team

Coaching the Person in Front of You

Discover how to be truly person-centred, putting participants’ feelings, thoughts, ambitions and motivations at the heart of everything you do

Coaching is all about people. This workshop will give you a deeper awareness of why great people skills are an intrinsic part of being an effective coach. Ultimately, the more you understand and connect with people you coach – by observing, noticing and communicating – the more you will be able to support them and help them thrive.

You will explore these three core principles – understand, connect and thrive – in greater detail by engaging in and reflecting on a range of interactive activities that demonstrate how a commitment to taking a genuine interest in the person behind the performer is crucial in developing a lifelong love of sport and physical activity in your participants.

You will explore:

  • Understand (Person/Biography): What have your participants got going on? How are they turning up? What are their motivations?
  • Connect: How noticing can develop your coaching practice and how to build trust in your relationships.
  • Thrive: How to help create a safe space for participants using needs-supportive coaching.

You will learn:

  • how to develop and model a person-centred philosophy and hone your soft skills to enable you to have the greatest possible impact with your participants.
  • strategies and tactics to help you identify a person’s individual needs, motivations and goals using the understand + connect = thrive framework.
  • to become an expert in people so that whatever your objective, you can provide the most engaging experiences for your participants.

You will receive a digital copy of our 'Coaching the Person in Front of You' booklet to guide you in your future coaching. The 40-page resource pulls together research and insight on how to better engage people taking part in sport and physical activity. It includes:

  • Activities to ignite your passion to learn.
  • Space for you to record your thinking, learning and planned actions.
  • An explanation of the PEOPLE acronym.
  • Sections on the art of noticing and observation, and advice on how to understand and connect with people.  
  • A guide to the importance of Emotional Intelligence in helping people thrive.
     

Information for Organisations

If you have more than 6 people to train, we’ll come to you.

Tell us your preferred date and time and we will arrange for one of our tutors to deliver the session. We will help market the event too if you want us to.

 

Session fee with digital resource only

Workshop fee £385 (for up to 20 learners), which includes delivery fee, digital resource and certification for every learner.

 

Session fee with hard copy resource bundle

£450 for up to 20 learners, which includes delivery fee, digital resource, hard copy resource and certification for every learner. Please note: resources are posted to one central location, to a UK address only. Please contact our customer services team for postage costs outside of the UK.

 

E-mail us at [email protected] or call us on 0845-601 3054 to organise this workshop.

If you have an in-house trainer you can deliver this workshop under licence.

Format

3-hour course plus pre and post workshop activities, including signposting to further learning and discussions and follow-up e-mail with key further learning links for coaches.

Number of learners

A minimum of 6 and a maximum of 20 people

Delivery methord

Tutor-facilitated theory and practical workshop, in which coaches will get involved in a range of activities, reflect on their own practice and go away with some strategies that they will try out in their own coaching.

Accompanying learning materials

All learners will receive access to our accompanying digital resource, Coaching the Person in Front of You. If you wish to buy hard copy resources for your coach, we have created a 'bundle' price which incorporates the workshop price, a set of 20 resources, and delivery to one UK address (for deliveries to multiple addresses, or an address outside the UK please contact our customer service team.

 

We will do most of the work for you! We will:

  • send you the accompanying learning materials (if applicable)
  • confirm a UK Coaching trainer to run the session
  • send you and your delgates confirmation of the session, including all logistical information
  • email your learners their certificates after the event. 

But here are the things you will need to do to ensure your learners have an enjoyable experience.

Book a space

A meeting room with enough space for the group to split into smaller groups (at least 12 x 12 metres). All venues must be accessible for all participants, including those who may have additional needs (eg wheelchair users). Where possible, a room with WIFI connectivity would be preferable. Please supply the login and password details to the tutor, where applicable.

To ensure that the venue for hosting the training course / workshop is suitable in all respects, please ensure a risk assessment is carried out. 

Send us your list of delegates (at least 5 working days prior to the session)

Using this we can set up your learners with access to their resource and email the session confirmation to you and them.

Communicate with your learners and take bookings

We will market the event on our site if you want us to. But you will also need to invite your people or advertise the event through your own communications. You will need to make sure it’s easy for people to book on the event and you will need to take any appropriate payment.

Arrange any relevant equipment

Screen or laptop and data projector, flip chart, paper and pens are required. Internet access would be beneficial.

Support your learners

During the event you should be present to meet and support the tutor and provide any additional signposting advice to your learners.

Do you have your own tutor team? Save on each workshop you deliver and take advantage of further benefits by becoming a UK Coaching Licensed Partner.

How will Coaching the Person in Front of You support the delivery of your strategic objectives?

We understand that the partners we work with have a range of different objectives and outcomes which you want to achieve. In our experience, often they are one or more of the following, which all require engaging, person-centred coaching:

  • Engage the least active people in sport and physical activity.
  • Sustain membership.
  • Create a love of activity in children and young people.
  • Help performers to strive for their best.

Coaching the Person in Front of You helps coaches to be experts in people, so that whatever your objective, coaches can provide the most engaging experiences and be truly person-centred.

The learning package has drawn upon research, insight and reports from across the coaching sector as well as from industries outside of sport and coaching. Examples include research into Coach-Athlete Relationships, Talk to Me research (Activity Alliance), Impact of Poverty insight report, Duty of Care in Sport Review (Independent report by Baroness Grey-Thompson) and Coaching in the UK (UK Coaching, 2017).

Does this link to the Coaching Plan for England?

The Coaching Plan for England defines coaching as “improving a person’s experience of sport and physical activity by providing specialised support and guidance aligned to their individual needs and aspirations.” It stresses the importance of ‘soft’ skills to engage people and help them unlock their potential.

Coaching the Person In Front of You provides an interactive learning experience to help model person-centred coaching and hone their soft skills to have the greatest possible impact with their participants.

How does Coaching the Person in Front of You link to the Professional Standards for Coaching?

The Professional Standards for Coaching set out the skills, knowledge and behaviour needed to maximise the participant experience. Coaching the Person in Front of You aligns with many of these such as:

  • How to have a participant-focussed approach to coached activities.
  • How to maximise the participant experience through understanding their needs.
  • Creating a positive and lasting first impression.
  • Delivering coaching that is inclusive, safe, effective and tailored to the needs of a range of participants, that enthuse further participant engagement.
  • Developing relationships with participants through a person-centred approach and excellent communication skills.

We also have a range of specific workshops and other learning opportunities you may want to access as a result of attending and using what you have learnt from this workshop. It may be that you are keen to learn more about how to work with people from a specific population or how to deliver in a specific environment. Our Coaching the Person in Front of You Suite of learning options align to coaching standards.

Is this learning only for people who provide coaching, or does it have a broader appeal?

The learning package has been developed primarily to support those people coaching in sport and physical activity settings. However, the learning does have broader appeal and the themes can be applied to anyone who works with, or delivers to people as part of their role, for example coach developers supporting up-and-coming coaches and coaching industry professionals.

If you are interested in having the learning package delivered to a broader audience then get in touch with the Relationship Management Team at UK Coaching to make your specific request.

Can I tailor/bespoke this workshop?

The workshop has been carefully designed to be about ‘people’ rather than any specific sport, activity or age range. Examples and scenarios can be adapted to make learning more relevant and applicable to those coaches engaging in the learning.

Workshop delivery can also be tailored to meet the needs of specific coaching audiences through the tutor delivery, the examples given and the activities offered. When you make your booking let us know what areas you would like specifically dealt with, and we will embed them within the remit of the workshop learning challenges.

If you are a not yet a Licensed Workshop Partner and would like to make the content bespoke please request this prior to booking. This may incur an additional fee. 

If you want to mix and match content from this learning package with other workshops then please request this prior to booking. This is likely to incur an additional fee.

A Case Study with Premiership Rugby

We want to equip our coaches and our workforce with the skills to truly understand the audiences we are asking them to work with. We want to recruit new audiences into the game, working with them in a rugby development context, but also a sport for development context, delivering some of those wider social outcomes. 

Chris Sawyer, Play Development Manager, Premiership Rugby

UK Coaching delivered an engaging training session to Premiership Rugby’s mix of club community coaches and foundation coaches to equip them with a range of tactics that will ensure they have the greatest possible impact with their participants – whoever they are and wherever they live, learn or play.

If, like Premiership Rugby, you want to invest in your workforce to deliver great coaching, then get in touch with UK Coaching and we will deliver the workshop to your coaches and help them become experts in people.

 

Get in touch to discuss running Coaching the Person in Front of You for your coaches

Developing the Person in Front of You is an adapted version of this workshop – that can be tailored to your specific needs – that upskills your tutors, mentors and coach developers by promoting a person-centred approach. Learn more.

What Coaches Think

The Coaching the Person in Front of You Workshop was a real shot in the arm – it was inspirational and provided a boost to my confidence.

Claire Fox, rowing coach, Tyne and Wear 
 

Can't find a course?

Our partners run our face-to-face workshops across the UK. They may run a workshop near to you if enough people express interest.

If you live in England, get in touch with your Active Partnership to register your interest. If you live otside of England, please contact yyour corresponding Home Nation Sports Council: sportscotland, Sport Wales and Sport Northern Ireland.

Alternatively register with us and you will receive a monthly newsletter detailing the latest workshops running across the country.

Waiting for a course?

In the meantime check out our guidance on what great coaching looks like

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