This article is an opinion piece
British Rowing’s Coach Development Opportunities kicked off at Caversham earlier this month. Becca Sproston argues that, beneath the surface, the initiative is too focused on the role of “coach developers” and does too little to empower coaches from underrepresented backgrounds.
Rowing has a diversity problem.
Nearly 70% of British Rowing members who had a coaching qualification in 2022 were male, despite female rowers making up 46% of athletes in the sport.
This is the problem that the new Coach Development Opportunities are supposed to help overcome.
No-one can question the importance of the initiative. But, unfortunately, the Opportunities are marred by a heavy focus on “coach developers” and by the distinct lack of diversity among these developers.
Across three cohorts – coaches with specific projects, women in coaching, and the next generation of coaches – 44 coaches were chosen to participate in the year-long Opportunities.
The coaches participating mostly came from underrepresented backgrounds, with the ambition to develop their skills and knowledge further.
The coach-led initiative consists of:
- Six online workshops about technical rowing know-how, run by expert speakers. Participants had the chance to decide what topics they would like to be covered at the launch event;
- Six coaching cafes, with the chance to discuss with fellow coaches the holistic qualities needed to be a good coach;
- And one-to-one meetings with a “coach developer”, taking a form agreed by the coach and coach developer. For example, a coach developer could shadow an outing run by the participant
What’s the problem?
The phenomenon of “coach developers” is relatively new. It combines training and mentoring, with the coach developer providing ongoing support and advice.
The International Coach Developer Framework, developed by the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE), suggests coach developers are: “Trained to develop, support and challenge coaches to go on honing and improving their knowledge and skills in order to provide positive and effective sport experiences for all participants.”
Many sports across the UK, and the world, are using coach developers, namely England Football and Canoeing.
Sarah Harris, who heads up the Learning, Education and Development Team at British Rowing, said: “What I’ve tried to do is move us much more towards learning and development. We want coaches to have a lifelong love of learning.
“This is a step-change not just for our sport but for lots of sports.”
Sarah Harris
British Rowing took on two coach developers last year – Doug MacDonald and Georgina Williams. For the Coaching Development Opportunities, there are a total of 15 coach developers, 13 of whom have no experience of rowing.
These developers have a variety of backgrounds – from the Lawn Tennis Association and the English Football Association, to corporate jobs.
Harris added: “If we want different outcomes in terms of developing coaches, then we need a variety of different perspectives. So, we were really comfortable with working with people outside of rowing.”
But, what can these coach developers actually teach?
It’s not technical rowing knowledge, but rather corporate “leadership” language, according to someone who took part on the course. But can these skills actually be taught?
Indeed, a 2023 research paper by Christine Nash, Michael Ashford and Loel Collins suggested that: “Many individuals currently involved in coach development do not possess the requisite knowledge to move the field forward.”
One participant on the initiative, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “Most of the exercises we did on the launch day, like writing down “key words” to define our coaching cafes, felt like time-filling and a lot of corporate jargon.”
Another said that their hopes for the initiative were to “pick up tips and useful skills for future coaching positions”. That’s a robust goal, but is it £1500 worth of value, as British Rowing evaluate the cost of providing the Opportunities for each participant to be? It is worth noting that British Rowing only charge participants £250 and state participants could pay in instalments if the cost was prohibitive.
And then we have to consider the stark lack of diversity among the coach developers.
Of 15 coach developers, just three are women and all are white.
To a certain extent, that is understandable given the demographic of rowing as a whole – but a bulk of the coaching developers were not from our sport. So, a situation emerges where majority white men are telling coaches from underrepresented backgrounds how to be a “good coach”.
In fact, one participant said that a coach developer completely dismissed the idea of “inclusivity” in coaching, saying that it was boring and merely a formality.
How can we hope to change a sport and facilitate the progression of people from underrepresented backgrounds through coaching without role-models and people who understand their perspectives?
The same participant said: “I felt just as excluded from this posh, white sport as I did before it started.”
British Rowing does admit they would have liked to see more diversity in the coach developers. British Rowing also relayed that any participant who was unhappy with their coach developer was invited to switch at any point and on a discrete basis.
Harris said: “I think because it’s such a new industry, we would love to see more representation from our coach developers. A lot of them are very used to opening doors for others. While we would love to extend our reach and have a truly representative group from British society, we’re not there yet. It’s something we’re aspiring to.
“As we move through this process, as we have more stories to tell and as those coaches and coach developers can champion what we’re doing, we’re hoping they’ll open doors for others to follow.”
Sarah Harris
British Rowing also stated that 75% of women who applied to be a coach developer were taken on.
But is the notion of mostly white men “opening doors” for coaches from underrepresented backgrounds challenging in and of itself?
British Rowing’s Coach Development Opportunities have only just begun and it remains to be seen how participants’ views change over the course of the year.
But, from the outset, there are red flags that will need to be addressed as the course evolves.
Despite commendable intentions, the focus on “coach development” and the lack of diversity in coach developers suggests that the real barrier to people progressing through a rowing coaching career have not yet been fully considered.
Photos ©British Rowing
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