When I finished competing I was recruited into coaching and supporting the World Class Performance Disability Sprints Squad of UK Athletics, and was a team coach at several European and World Championships and Athens Paralympics in 2004.
When I retired, I was supported into a career in coach development. Not only have I forged a career in sport because of athletics, but I also met my husband as result of athletics and we now have two children.
I cannot imagine my life without athletics, and the opportunities that have arisen because of the people that have supported me. But early negative experiences nearly had me excluded completely from sport. I could have very easily thought sport wasn’t for someone like me.
We asked Esther what success would look like to her from a coaching perspective?
It is over 20 years after my story began and we know that disabled people are still under-represented in sport and physical activity. We also know that the coaching workforce is still not confident working with disabled people.
Society needs to do more to ensure that disabled people can access all elements of sport and physical activity as part of a full life. We need to work to understand and remove all the barriers (perceived and actual) that disabled people face getting into sport and physical activity.
Through the development of the Professional Standards for coaching and the coach development workforce, the industry has a real opportunity to address the ‘fear factor’ that still exists within the workforce around working with/including disabled people.
I want to see a set of Professional Standards/qualifications that supports and develops all the coaching workforce to be able to confidently work with the person in front of them, irrespective of who they are, as an integral part of all qualifications and training produced.
Coaches need to understand and be confident with the knowledge that a good coach can be a good coach to anyone.
Additional development opportunities and training should be provided to all coaches to help them get better at what they do, but a perceived lack of knowledge or training should not block someone’s entry into sport or physical activity, or their opportunities to flourish.
My story has illustrated how meaningful and life-changing sport (through the people who supported me) can be. Everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from coaching and coaches the same way I did.
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