London
Name: John Parsons
Workshop titles:
Multi-skill Induction
Multi-skill Clubs in Practice
An Introduction to the FUNdamentals of Movement
An Introduction to Long-term Athlete Development
Analysing Your Coaching
FUNdamentals of Balance/Coordination/Agility
About me: I excelled as an athlete, representing Chelsea Football Club for 5 years and playing Collegiate Soccer in America on a full Scholarship. Whilst there I gained an MSc in Primary Education and began my teaching and coaching career. I taught and coached at all ages and levels for nearly 7 years and also started as an FA Coach Educator. During 5 years working for sports coach UK as a Coach Development Officer and Regional Manager, I lead nationally on Long Term Athlete Development, including the development of fundamentals and multi-skills courses and resources. I am a UEFA ‘B’ licensed coach and currently work for Create Development, where we provide personalized and creative solutions, courses and resources for the sport and education sector. I also coach football at grassroots level on a voluntary basis.
The best thing about being a sports coach UK tutor: I enjoy working with and learning from coaches and individuals from other sports and with people who give up their time and energy to give back to young people.
My sport: My sport is football which I play and coach on a voluntary basis. I also like to run and keep fit and enjoy watching most sports.
My philosophy: As a tutor it is to try and model the behaviours and qualities that I am promoting in terms of high quality coaching.
Sporting hero: I wouldn’t say I have a sporting hero although I admire Roger Federer
Name: Patricia Fairclough OBE
Workshop titles:
Safeguarding and Protecting Children
Equity in Your Coaching
About me: I am employed as an External Verifier for Sports Leaders UK. I also Tutor the delivery of Sports Leaders UK Qualifications and Award courses. I am an active Basketball Official and Tutor Trainer, Course Tutor and Technical Officials Assessor. I have been actively involved in basketball for forty three years from grassroots to international levels of the game and was awarded my OBE at thirty-two years voluntary services to the sport. I’ve worked with many major events including Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships, Goodwill Games, Caricom Championships and the Commonwealth Games. I was encouraged to join sports coach UK whilst employed with Sport England in 2002 and have reduced from tutoring 5 workshops to 1 title. I am a Christian with two sons and five grand-children.
The best thing about being a sports coach UK tutor: sports coach UK give me the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience whilst giving constructive and legal guidance to help support and develop Sport Coaches and Sports Leaders to implement rules and regulations professionally, and be positive role models.
My sport: Basketball, Aqua Aerobics, Wii SPORTS, Tennis
My philosophy: ‘TO BE THE BEST I CAN’
Sporting hero: Mohammed Ali, Dame Kelly Holmes, Ade Adepitan MBE, Colin Jackson CBE, Michael Johnson, Gail Devers
Name: Simon East
Workshop titles:
A Guide to Mentoring Sports Coaches
Analysing Your Coaching
Coaching Children and Young People
Safeguarding and Protecting Children
Safeguarding and Protecting Children 2
About me: Currently a sports academy manager at a college of further education. I also tutor for the Football Association Coach Education, First Aid, age appropriate courses and Safeguarding children. For the past eight years I have been manager for the English Colleges Football Association under19 team.
The best thing about being a sports coach UK tutor: Working with and helping people from grass roots sport who have a genuine interest and passion for sport.
My sport: Football and golf
My philosophy: To work as hard as you can to be the best you possibly can
Sporting heroes: George Best, Lester Piggott, Geoff Boycott and Nick Faldo
Name: Scott Grace
Workshop titles:
An Introduction to Long-term Athlete Development
An Introduction to the FUNdamentals of Movement
FUNdamentals of Balance
FUNdamentals of Coordination
FUNdamentals of Activity
Analysing Your Coaching
A Guide to Mentoring Sports Coaches
About me: I am the England Athletics National Coach Mentor for Youth Development which involves me supporting a group of Youth Development coaches as well as developing youth development resources. In the past three years I have been responsible for the creation and development of Athletics 365 (England Athletics Club based Youth Development Programme). For the past 11 years I have also been a UK Athletics Regional Trainer and Senior Tutor.
Prior to joining England Athletics I worked for sports coach UK as a Coach Development Officer. In my time at sports coach UK I co-authored the FUNdamentals of Balance, Coordination and Agility workshops.
I have worked as a sports coach UK tutor and assessor for the last 7 years and currently hold a CTS and IAPS qualification as well as NGB tutor and assessor training.
In my spare time I coach at the Vale of Aylesbury Athletics Club. I am a UK Athletics Level 4 Sprints and Hurdles coaching qualification and mainly coach sprints and combined events at my club. I have been a volunteer coach for the past 16 years supporting athletes from grass roots to junior international level.
My main area of interest is physical literacy, skill acquisition, fundamental movement skills and how people learn (including deliberate play and practice).
Top motivations and tips for tutoring: It is always rewarding to support coaches on the journey to further developing themselves. There is nothing more rewarding than a coach leaving the workshop with a real desire to put into practice the knowledge they have learned.
Many coaches attend workshop unsure if the material and content is right for them or worried that they don’t know if enough to be at these session. I always try to relate the workshop material to their own sport, environment or coaching practice so as to ensure they feel they can apply this material effectively when they get back to coaching.
Always have an energiser if you are delivering a predominantly classroom based evening session. Coaches will tend to start to flag at about 8.30pm so a quick energiser can really help.
When coaches are challenging on workshops always remember that a part of them must want to learn or they wouldn’t be there in the first place (for most workshops and coaches anyway).
Top motivations and tips for coaching: Coach the athlete then the sport/event. Always encourage the athlete to develop their own awareness through effective questioning. Explain to them that skills and techniques take time and there will not always be immediate success, but with hard work, focus and determination they will eventually master skills they did not think where possible.
Master the foundation movement skills and the higher skills will develop quicker.
I personally like using famous sports people quotes such as Michael Jordon to help inspire the athletes I coach.
Name: Marion Zycinski
Workshop titles:
How to Coach Disabled People in Sport
Coaching Children and Young People
About me: Exercise remedial instructor work full time in rehabilitation for the military.
The best thing about being a sports coach UK tutor: Able to pass on my experience to others and a feeling of helping other succeed in their goal.
My sport: All type of sport and fitness. Used to play hockey, netball and gymnastics.
My philosophy: People can achieve anything if they put their mind to it and want to get there.
Name: Phil Knapett
Workshop titles:
Safeguarding and Protecting Children
Safeguarding and Protecting Children 2
Safeguarding & Protecting Children 16 -18 year olds
Equity in Your Coaching
An Introduction to Long-term Athlete Development
An Introduction to FUNdamentals of Movement
FUNdamentals of Balance
FUNdamentals of Coordination
Keeping Safe in Sport: Safeguarding for Young Volunteers (13+)
About me: Qualified teacher working in Secondary Schools in North London, teaching Science and PE. My career developed into management as Deputy Head of a large school in Haringey with a large variety of children from diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. Main responsibilities were working with pupils and had extensive contact with all the support agencies for young people with challenging behaviour and living in deprived areas.
Offered an opportunity to work for Middlesex County Cricket Club as Head of Recreational Cricket. I have worked extensively in coach education and was involved with the ECB writing course material for UKCC Level 2 cricket course. One of the course modules I wrote was on LTAD and I have worked with IsWan Bayli on several occasions. I am a Field Based trainer for tutors and was involved in training tutors to deliver the courses. I have tutored over one hundred cricket courses in England, ten different European counties, India and the USA.
I have run county age group squads up to u19 and have coached young men who have gone on to play for counties and England professionally. I have extensive knowledge in the practical aspects of using video technology to analyse movement and then to work with players about implementing any modifications to technique.
I have tutored over three hundred sports coach UK courses with the majority being Safeguarding and Protecting Children. Have tutored very senior professionals who work for the Police, Social Services and the Health service and am confident that I have a good working knowledge of good practice and the ever changing legislation.
Cricket has been my main sport and I continue to play regularly. I tutor coach education courses extensively over the South of England. I run competitions designed to ensure young players have an opportunity to have a pathway into a professional career. I am developing a franchise to enable men and women who have not been involved in cricket to play socially a shortened form of the game during summer mid-week evenings.
I am involved in running a cricket club in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets and have good knowledge of some of the problems clubs have in maintaining members. I have extensive knowledge about marketing clubs and where it is possible to attract internal and external funding opportunities to enable them to continue. Ensuring a club is fully inclusive is satisfying, bringing communities together but also opens up a wide variety of funding options.
Top motivations and tips for tutoring: Do not assume that a player has understood what you say. Use open questions to check for understanding of tactical and technical information and then get them to demonstrate any skill. Always use praise and support before making changes.
Name: Michelle Weltman
Workshop titles:
Equity in Your Coaching
Safeguarding and Protecting Children
How to Coach Disabled People in Sport
Inclusive Coaching: Disability
About me:
- Worked in Sports Development for over 20 years and also coach swimming
- Have coached disabled swimmers form grass roots to Paralympics level
- Currently work as a consultant in disability sports
- I swim 2 days a week and cycle around London from job to job
- Worked in disability sports for over 20 years
Top motivations and tips for tutoring: The greatest gift to give anyone is the ability to learn and for you to share your knowledge and then for others to use what they have learned to help develop others.
Top motivations and tips for coaching: Treat each athlete as an individual, find what makes them tick, what motivates them and then allow them to flourish under your coaching by being the best coach you can be.
Name: Mark Curtin
Workshop titles:
Equity in Your Coaching
Safeguarding and Protecting Children
Analysing Your Coaching
About me:
- Over 15 years coaching experience in football, athletics, basketball and multi-skills and multi-sports for young people with SEN. Also have 2 years previous experience teaching sports studies in further education colleges.
- 12 years professional and semi-professional football playing and coaching experience in England and the USA. I was also previously a national club level and English Universities Athlete in 800m, 1500m and 3000m steeplechase. I am currently a competitive club level tennis player and regular distance runner, raising money for various sporting charities having recently completed two London Marathons, over 20 half marathons and various other long distance events including many Bupa Great North Runs and Bupa Great South Runs over the past 10 years.
- In my current role I oversee operations for one of the UK largest grass roots sport coaching charities where I manage over 100 professional sports coaches. This includes all training and workforce development, the lead for safeguarding and child protection and all sports coaching programme operations. A great deal of this work includes special educational needs and disability sports.
- I am also a board member (representing the community & grass roots coaching sector) of the COMPASS Association – a membership trade body/association for the Community of Physical Activity and School Sport providers.
My primary motivation for tutoring and facilitating learning in sport is to play my part in ensuring that sports coaching at all levels has the highest possible standards of best practice throughout. In addition to sharing my own knowledge and experience with others I learn a great deal from the 1000s of professional and voluntary people operating in community and grass roots coaching, all of whom share a passion for using sport as tool for engaging and educating young people.
