Being an athletics coach can be a hugely rewarding pursuit but it can also be costly and undervalued with a culture desperately in need of change

This year I coached at the European Championships, went warm-weather training in Portugal with England Athletics, guided English Schools winners, national age group champions and top-ranked athletes in the horizontal jumps and multi-events across all age groups. I had athletes from the USA and Singapore come and train with me while, on my social media channels, I have close to 60,000 followers and my YouTube channel gets thousands of views every day. On the face of it, I appear to be pretty good at coaching, yet the reality is that financially it can be a real struggle.

I often say to myself that I shouldn’t complain – after all I am being paid to teach people to jump into sand and run faster. I’ve done what I call much harder, “proper” jobs in my life. The trouble is, though, I shouldn’t be thinking like that. Coaching athletics is a proper job and it needs to be rewarded and acknowledged as such.

Is coaching valued?

I’m probably one of the few “professional” coaches in the UK who isn’t working for a governing body or tied to a university. The majority of coaches in this country receive little or no financial reward – in fact, the likelihood is that coaching actually costs them.

Those who are “hobby” coaches are expected to turn up to sessions come rain or shine and often go all over the country, sometimes abroad, to watch their athletes compete for little, if anything. We value what we do, but is the coach actually valued?

The athlete always takes centre stage. Governing bodies support the athlete and, if they become good enough, they are placed on to funding programmes. These programmes don’t exist for coaches, however, when it’s safe to say that a talented coach puts in as much, if not more, effort than an athlete. 

It’s also worth considering that it’s unlikely for that athlete to have made it on to funding without their coach’s intellect and experience. 

“In that case, a funded athlete should support their coach,” I hear you cry. Yet herein lies another problem. In that scenario, if the athlete loses their funding then so too does the coach. 

However, the coach may have more athletes in his or her pipeline and have a strong record of producing, yet this is neglected. Isn’t that a better investment? 

What exists seems a soft foundation on which to try to be a professional or even amateur coach.

The funding of coaches

I’ve often thought that coaches could be funded, or given bursaries, for their successes.

Consider that an elite coach is not someone who just develops elite senior athletes. Our sport’s judgment gets clouded with that. In what way? It’s often said that the “best” coaches should work with young athletes – as only then will those athletes be physically, technically and emotionally ready for optimum development at senior level. 

Yet, it is often the pervading mentality that the best coaches are the ones who coach only great senior athletes. Coach ego gets in the way here a bit and moreso the lack of renumeration, so it’s not surprising that coaches usually go where the money is.

Going by my own personal experience, to me it’s of much more value – and indeed a harder job – to develop an under-20 long jumper to reach over 6.20m (female) and 7.50m (male), than it is taking someone already at that level to the next. 

Yet, due to cherry picking by certain universities – and particularly in the States with its collegiate system – the coaches who pick up these already ripe athletes are getting the plaudits and the money. 

I have coached around 20 athletes to a level that got them into the US collegiate system, as well as UK scholarships, yet much of the work I did went unrewarded. 

Knowledge is being given away

I’m probably relatively unique as a coach in that I have been involved in our sport as an international athlete before then having written about and researched a range of sports for over 30 years.

I have both a substantial practical and theoretical experience of sport yet, like so many other coaches with so much knowledge and experience, I am not truly professional. 

You can be a master builder or a master mariner but there is little recognition as a master coach. 

Try getting your plumber or electrician to fix your house for no renumeration. It’s not going to happen, yet coaches are often expected to give their “trade” away.

Do clubs stunt coach development?

Perhaps the culture of some athletics clubs doesn’t help. Athletics does not have to be the charity sport. Clubs in swimming, gymnastics, martial arts, as well as football, rugby, tennis or golf, have an entrenched pay-to-be-coached policy. Those clubs don’t seem to be short of members. 

Where I coach there is a tumbling club which is packed with paying children and adults. Adding an extra amount to athletics club fees could enable some coaches to be paid or, as has happened in some parts of the country, a suitably qualified coach development officer to be appointed. That officer can oversee the club’s coaching and can also go into schools to gain greater membership (and funding).

Yet many clubs seem to be living in the past. Am I right to say much of the old guard does not want change? Indeed, an AW survey earlier this year indicated that 51.3% of respondents disagreed when it came to whether athletics clubs should charge more for membership and training. I wonder how those people make their living?

Coach education

I see all standards of coaching on my travels and I hear from many coaches through social media who are in a similar position to me or are fully amateur. Most want to see some change and to receive better coaching education. 

In my opinion, what’s being offered really does not enable coaches to become professional or, dare I say it, even enable them to become good coaches. 

I have to say that there are many plausible reasons for this but, because I am someone who has seen the potential, more use could be made of accessible social media to provide real information which will actually help coaches working at club level and beyond. 

It’s of little use showcasing information that will shave milliseconds off the 100m sprint when a club coach needs to learn how to teach sprint technique and structure training for fledgling sprinters.

Is change coming? 

In a post I wrote on my own blog earlier this year I explained how I had to crowdfund to get to the European Championships in Munich to support Jahisha Thomas in the long jump. People were incredulous. 

You only find out a couple of weeks before the championships that your athlete has been selected and therefore all the travel and accommodation prices will often be at a premium. 

I did not have the spare cash lying around but of course I wanted to go.

I required more than £1000 and it would have had to have gone on a credit card, had it not been for the contributions I so gratefully received through a go-fund me style campaign. 

I even had to buy tickets to get into the stadium and then had the worry of: “Will I be able to actually get out of my seat and coach Jahisha?”

Thankfully all worked out but it’s an instance which highlights why it all seems so difficult to be a good coach sometimes. 

Could there be a fund established to at least partially support non-governing body coaches financially in these kinds of situations? 

I enjoy coaching and it is a hugely rewarding pursuit. I have managed to just about make a living from it yet, despite my achievements, there is very little stability. It’s through my own efforts that I have reached some level of professionalism and I am helping others to do so. 

Change, however, really is needed.