BRSF Coaching Directors Report 2007 Presented at the 2008 Annual General Meeting

During the last year the coaching initiatives of BRSF have made significant progress in many areas, all of which have been linked to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) provisionally agreed with Sport England and Sports Coach UK for BRSF coaching and referred to in last years Coaching Directors Report:

Significant development towards a whole sport development plan for the whole sport of skating; to include new disciplines and recreational skating which are seen as key growth areas by all potential funding partners.

The last year has seen the development of a whole sports plan which has been discussed with and seems in principle to be acceptable and meet the requirements of both Sport England and Sports Coach UK. This is referred to in more detail in both the Presidents report and the report of the Development and Funding Officer; it discharges part of the responsibility of the BRSF as a National Governing Body.

The submission and acceptance of such a plan is and always has been a requirement of Sport England for all National Governing Bodies. It is also a prerequisite when looking for funding from Sport England for both core funding and specific project funding by any of the four national Sporting bodies and any funding partners they may introduce to us.

This was made clear and documented to the BRSF at its inception (1999) but has not been implemented by the British Roller Sports Federation until now.

The support of new federations joining BRSF to adopt and implement its coaching strategy.

Over the last year the BRSF has developed a Level 3 and a Level 2 National Governing Body award for skateboarding. This has been done in conjunction with Sports Coach UK and skateboarders as part of the “bridge project” Their development and delivery has been monitored and found fit for purpose by Sport England.

This is one of the reasons skateboarding factions now see BRSF as a way forwards for their discipline to gain recognition and develop into a recognised more “mainstream” sport. Professional skateboarders and youth workers who have attended these courses have given very favourable feedback as to how they see these courses developing within schools especially within the “extended school day” and within the new school PE curriculum being adopted in schools across England during the academic year commencing September 2008. The 'Extended School Day' now being referred to as 'Sport Unlimited'

We have also developed and delivered a Level 3 award in aggressive skating which has been similarly endorsed. Participants have included the current British number one male skater and current world number four female skater.

“Grandfathering-in” where possible, of existing federation qualified coaches to the BRSF system at level three.

Federation of Inline Speed Skating All FISS coaches have now done this apart from three; these are now being processed and on receipt of the relevant documentation will be included on the national data base along with their colleague coaches.

Federation of Artistic Roller Skating In October at the request of FARS coaches and clubs a meeting was hosted and paid for by a FARS club to explain the situation regarding “grandfathering in” of coaches as their position appeared unclear to them, 37 of the 50 odd coaches that FARS seems to have, attended that meeting. Subsequently a meeting (again funded by a FARS club) was held to explain in detail the situation to the FARS board of management. It was agreed that existing FARS coaches could be “grandfathered in” providing that they met the same criteria originally set out for this and an extension in time was offered until 31st of March for the federation to do this.

British Inline Puck Hockey Association BIPHA has submitted information on coaches eligible for “grandfathering” and its Welsh region has this month organised and delivered the Sports Coach Wales courses that they needed to be admitted to the National Coaching data base. A similar extension will be allowed for them as Sports Coach UK has had difficulties honouring its course commitments due to restructuring

National Rink Hockey Association of England The NRHA has not submitted any listings of its coaches or given any information on their prior training which would allow “grandfathering in” to proceed and enable them to be included within the BRSF National Coaching Database, despite requests to do so and two formal meetings.

British Inline Skater Hockey Association BiSHA has no formalised coaching structure although a high proportion of its coaches would seem to be on the BIPHA data base as they play and coach both versions of inline hockey. They wish to be included but due to changes within the structure of BiSHA have not been able to proceed with coach development and cannot do so until their next Annual General Meeting. It is suggested that as they have expressed a genuine wish to formalise their coaching structure within the BRSF recognised system, they be given the chance to do so.

UK Freestyle Skating Association Our new member federation has a number of International Inline Skating Association qualified coaches who would meet “grandfathering in” criteria, providing they complete the same two Sports Coach UK modules required and agreed by Asha Kirby, head of IISA in Great Britain to allow conversion and inclusion within the BRSF’s coaching data base.

The development of the Club Mark Initiative made possible by adoption of BRSF Level 2 by federations for new coaches (to allow federation clubs to access funding).

A presentation on Club Mark was made by Clair McCloud the National Club Mark manager to the BRSF Board of Directors last meeting.

She was very complimentary about BRSF Board Smart as this now allowed skateboarding clubs to gain Club Mark status. Apparently five skateboarding clubs have already done so and are now applying for funding from various funding sources. She expects to be able to support them in their submissions.

No requests from member federations of BRSF for further information on this initiative have been made.

The implementation by all member federations of a discipline specific Level 3 coaching award.

It should be noted that a continuing problem seems to be a lack of interest/ understanding or commitment from some member federations management to allow their coaches or clubs access to information on how to do this.

There seems little reason for this as the 70% generic content for these has now been mapped out for federations by BRSF with the help and guidance of Dr. Hamish McD Telfer of Cumbria University. All that is required is that member federations contribute and develop the discipline specific element of this award.

Most coaches and clubs seem to see the relevance and need for national organisation, registration, standardised and regulated coaching to gain recognition and funding for their clubs from funding organisations and to allow them more freedom of access to schools and facilities.

The setting up of the BRSF Coaching Database, will allow unaligned coaches to register with the BRSF direct if they so wish and so allow clubs and coaches to access funding which they are currently blocked from getting.

The fact that the BRSF Coaching Database now contains over twice the number of coaches of any member federation has been commented on in other reports and it will continue to grow and develop over the coming year.

It should also be noted that the provision and maintenance of a detailed coaching database is now a requirement of any National Governing Body to facilitate requests from the four Home Country Sports Councils, Sports Coach UK and County Sports Partnerships and local authority leisure centres who now are regularly asking for information and coaching contacts within their area.

The BRSF Level 2 coaching award is now firmly established and it is anticipated that demand for courses will greatly increase over the next year.

To facilitate this it will be necessary to identify, recruit, train and deploy a number of coach educators, assessors and verifiers to facilitate this.

This is likely to be the major need in BRSF coaching over the next year.

Our coaching development program has already lead to offers from three noted sports academics to work with BRSF and its member discipline to aid future development over the coming year.

We now have two universities who wish to include skating on the curriculum for Sports course undergraduates and allow them to qualify as coaches as part of their degrees.

It is in this comparatively healthy position that I now ask the board to accept Nigel Dickerson currently assistant national coaching director to take over the position of coaching director for the next year of my presidency.

Nigel has spent the last year preparing for this and both understands and is committed to the program in which we are engaged.

David Nicholls

BRSF National Coaching Director.