Coaches' Corner
Southport Waterloo AC, ...swac online...
Ron is looking for more coaches to help with the teenage middle distance group at Litherland. If interested in getting more involved on Tuesday and / or Thursday evenings please speak with Ron.
Welcome to the Southport Waterloo coaches' page, set up to provide information for coaches, helpers and anyone who's interested in coaching athletics. 
Contributions to the coaching page are welcome from anyone and we're interested in your views and comments on coaching at Southport Waterloo whether you're a coach yourself, a parent or an athlete. 
All our coaches are volunteers who give up their spare time to help Southport Waterloo athletes enjoy and improve their abilities in athletics and we are all interested in your comments on how we're doing and how we can improve our sessions.
We are always looking for new coaches. If you are aware of anyone else who might be interested in coaching, please ask them to contact me and I will talk to them about courses etc.
All our active coaches are listed on the Contacts Page.

Neil Rothwell Coaching Secretary,
46 Belmont Street
Southport
PR8 1LY
Tel: 01704 514549 Email neil.rothwell@hse.gsi.gov.uk
Updates & Notices.
For the protection of all our young athletes, Southport Waterloo's coaches need to be cleared through the Criminal Records Bureau. This is known as CRB checking. To get your CRB clearance, you need to 'phone the CRB on 0870 9090844 quoting UKA ref. 22525500000 and tell them you are an athletics volunteer and need an enhanced disclosure. A partly filled application form will be sent to you for you to check and sign.
You then need to take the completed form to Southport Waterloo Local Verifier (Ron Scott) together with documentary evidence of identity.

Want to be a first aider? Please contact Paul Wilkinson at Sefton Council (0151 934 2358).

Coaching courses are detailed on the UKA website. Under Coach Education, follow the link for level 1, level 2 etc..

Risk assessments are needed to help ensure the health and safety of our athletes and to meet UK Athletics' requirements. Although paperwork alone doesn't prevent incidents, it does demonstrate that we've considered the risks and provides a means of recording appropriate ways of minimising them. The need for SWAC coaches to carry out risk assessments is limited to training and other activities which are put on by the Club rather than something that a group of

members chose to do amongst themselves.
Essentially this means coached training runs (e.g. on roads / beach etc.); training at Greenbank High School and Christ the King High School. There may be others - if you're in doubt please check with me. There is no need for SWAC coaches to prepare risk assessments for training at Litherland Track because exemplar assessments have been developed by UK Athletics that cover all relevant activities. However, it is essential that SWAC coaches refer to these documents and implement the precautions specified in them. The assessments are available on the H&S Section of the UKA web site.

There is also no need to prepare assessments for e.g. seniors' Sunday morning pinewood runs and similar runs which, although they involve primarily SWAC members, are considered to be events that individuals choose to do amongst themselves rather than organised coached events.

To ensure that we meet UKA's requirements could relevant coaches (I anticipate that this will not apply to many of you) please send me your assessments. I will then approve them on behalf of SWAC, amending & advising as necessary. Please see the attached example for one of Ron Scott's training sessions which may help you prepare your own assessments. Most of the hazards and precautions will, I imagine, be common to other coaches' sessions.

Resources available to Club coaches include an Information Pack, issued to all those coaching Club athletes. This provides you will all the basic information you need but contact Neil if you need anything else. All the documents in the Pack are listed below. To download any of these from the internet you will need Adobe Acrobat reader, available free here.

Welcome Leaflet for new members (not available online. Copies are available from Ron Scott)
Code of Conduct for Coaches, Team managers, Officials and other Volunteers
Child Protection Policy
Equity Policy Statement
Rules for Junior members
Parents Code
Attendance Register
Role of the Junior Coach
Role of the Assistant Junior Coach
Risk Assessment Form
Guidelines for dealing with an incident/accident
Incident/accident Report Form

Other suggested Resources are:

UK Athletics website follow the links (getting involved > coaching) to the coaching page
Sefton Council's Coaching and Management web site
An On-line Sports Injury Clinic
Sports Coach web site edited by Brian Mackenzie, a level 4 athletics coach
The National Coaching Foundation web site
The Drugs Information Database
An online track calculator and predictor

Coaching Courses UK Athletics has a 5-level Education and Training Scheme for coaches:

Level 1 is a basic introduction to the coaching process dealing with running, jumping and throwing. It allows coaches to assist in delivering coaching sessions
Level 2 provides coaches with the competences to coach athletes at club level in a selected group of events
Levels 3 & 4 focus on either performance coaching (supporting athletes to the highest level of their performance) or development coaching (ensuring that all athletes experience the highest quality activities and are retained and developed in their early athletics improvement)
Level 5 is directed at both performance and development coaches operating at national level.

In April 2007 UK Athletics simplified the arrangements for renewing coaches' licences . The revised arrangements are described in the attached document.

Courses should be booked through Debbie Beresford, North West Regional Education and Training Administrator based at Sportcity; but speak to Neil first as there may be special deals available.

The Level 1 course lasts 1 day and costs £60. Southport Waterloo will re-imburse you if you go on to coach for us, usually after you've completed 6 months' coaching.

Application Form for UKA coaching courses (but speak to Coaching Secretary before sending off).

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