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Coaching Key to Success: Minister

Minister for Sport and Olympics Hugh Robertson says having the right coaching structure in place is one of the cornerstones of producing medal winners. 

The Minister also said coaching, as part of sport, is fortunate as changes to the National Lottery will see an extra £50m per year made available to sport as part of ensuring a participation legacy from London 2012. 

He added that with finances tight a long-term challenge is to raise the importance of sport across the whole of government as part of joined up working across departments. 

Speaking in a message to the 2010 UK Coaching Summit the Minister said: ‘I think coaching is one of the four key components needed to produce a sporting champion.  

‘Somebody said to me a while ago that to produce an Olympic champion you need to have the right funding – we have in this country through the lottery. Second is to have the right systems in place, increasingly that is so in sport. Third is to ensure you have the right coaching structure and fourth is that the athlete has the right mental desire.’ 

Referring to funding he said: ‘Sport is luckier than most parts of the economy because it has not only the exchequer funding, which clearly is going to be cut, but also the National Lottery and whatever it can raise through private funding or broadcast deals. 

‘In terms of the Lottery we have made a commitment to increase the share of money that sport gets through the Lottery to 20 per cent, therefore releasing £100m to sport by 2012. That will help enormously to drive a proper mass participation sports legacy from London 2012.’ 

Touching on how sport can benefit other areas of government he said: ‘One of the great challenges facing us is how to make sport mean more across other government departments, how to draw in what is happening in health, in education, in social inclusion in terms of the Home Office, and build it up into a much more meaningful offer for sport.  

‘In times when money is tight that challenge is even greater and we must join up what is happening in the DCMS, Department of Health, Department of Education and the Home Office to use four examples.

 ‘Sport is, I think, one of the most under-used tools of government and one of the great challenges is to push sport out so that it starts to mean more across government.’ 

Ends 

For more information please contact: sports coach UK Implementation Director John Driscoll: Tel 0113 2043502; Mob 07974015751; e-mail jdriscoll@sportscoachuk.org 

sports coach UK Communications Manager James Hook: Tel 0113 2043285; mob 07980 584624; e-mail jhook@sportscoachuk.org  

sports coach UK Communication Officer: Tel: 0113 2043526; Mob 07974015710; e-mail cpearce@sportscoachuk.org  

Notes to Editor 

sports coach UK is the central agency for coaching. The vision of the organisation is UK coaching excellence enabling all children, players and athletes to follow their dreams, have fun and fulfil their potential. To realise this vision sports coach UK supports UK partners to recruit, develop and retain coaches to achieve partners’ participation and performance goals (in the context of the UK Coaching Framework). 

The 2010 UK Coaching Summit is co-hosted by sports coach UK and Sport Wales. The Summit is an annual event that provides key stakeholders with the opportunity to review progress in coaching and coach development over the past 12 months, share best practice, reaffirm objectives and commitments, and to network with colleagues from other organisations.