Sportscoach UK announces High Performance Coaching Manager

sports coach UK is pleased to announce the appointment of Alan Olive as High Performance Coaching Manager.

Alan joins sports coach UK from the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) where he was Coaching Development Manager, heading up the development of continuous professional development programmes for all racing coaches from grass-roots through to elite level. This role has included working with coaches of athletes going forward to the Beijing Olympics this summer.

At sports coach UK Alan will lead on high-performance coach development work, a key area in the UK Coaching Framework vision to build a world-leading coaching system in the United Kingdom.

Among his early priorities will be work in connection with Level 4 of the UK Coaching Certificate and the proposed UK Centre of Coaching Excellence.

The appointment of Alan at sports coach UK has been made in ‘tandem’ with a separate recruitment of Gordon Burton at UK Sport as Coaching Consultant within their Performance Development Consultancy Team. The two organisations will work closely together to take forward the development of world-class support for coaches in their respective spheres of responsibility.

On his appointment at sports coach UK, Alan said I have been very proud to be a part of the successful British Sailing Team in the Olympic & Paralympic Classes and am looking forward to sharing these experiences and skills with all sports in their pursuit of coaching excellence. I believe the UK Coaching Framework offers a very real opportunity for developing coaching expertise within the World Class Programmes and feel excited about joining a team that will make a difference to British sport.

Chief Executive Officer of sports coach UK, Dr Patrick Duffy stated that Alan Olive is a key addition to the sports coach UK team as it gears up to lead the implementation of the UK Coaching Framework. Alan will work closely with colleagues in UK Sport, Home Country Sports Councils and Governing Bodies of Sport to build a world leading system for the support of the coaches of emerging and elite performers in sport.

Gordon Burton, Coaching Consultant at UK Sport, said: Alan’s appointment will reinforce the working relationship between UK Sport and sports coach UK in delivering to high performance sport. I look forward to working with Alan to strengthen and widen the impact on sports’ performance and the coaching pathway in the UK.

Alan will formally commence work with sports coach UK on 4 March 2007.