Inspiring Cowfold powerlifter in the running for national coaching award

Callum Barney has been nominated as part of the 2018 UK Coaching Awards, continuing the organisation’s celebration of great coaching.

Callum is a finalist for the Heather Crouch young coach of the year award.

Despite just four years of experience, the powerlifting coach has made great strides in the last 12 months, successfully coaching many participants from complete beginner to national level.

He has dedicated a lot of his time over the past four years to his athletes, ensuring he is available day and night to help them with any questions about technique and form they may have.

Away from powerlifting, Callum has started an outdoor strength and conditioning session for the community, introducing people to accessible exercises and charging just £1 per session.

He said: “I love the community aspect of coaching, when I started doing this myself as an athlete I didn’t have anyone to turn to or a group that shared the same goals.

“I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to create that opportunity for my athletes.

“I have ridiculous expectations for myself, I went from complete beginner to two-time world champion so I know that journey.

“The goal down the line is to have as many people I coach go from complete beginner to that stage until they don’t need me.

“I want to leave an impact on the entire sport.”

Nominating him for the award, Sarah Leeves said: “Callum is an inspirer.

“It’s impossible not to be positively impacted by his passion for the sport and his ‘live life to the full’ approach to everything.”

Hosted by UK Coaching, the showpiece annual event is seen as one of the most prestigious by the coaching community.

It will be held at the HAC, City of London on Thursday November 29.

The principle of the awards is to recognise and reward great coaching from people and organisations across the UK at all levels across sport and activity, from community to high performance. Previous winners include coaches and organisations making a huge difference in their community as well as the coaching elite working across a wide variety of sports on the world stage.

Emma Atkins, Director of Coaching at UK Coaching said: “Great coaching takes place across the UK every day and the UK Coaching Awards is our chance to formalise our recognition, congratulations and thanks to coaches for all their hard work.

“Last year, over nine million adults received coaching in the UK, with the majority of participants enjoying a positive experience.

“To celebrate this, we hosted our first ever coaching week and got our great coaching message out to over 50million people across the UK.

“In the same week we launched our principles of great coaching designed to help people recognise what great coaching looks like.

“The UK Coaching Awards has been staged for over twenty years, and we are confident that this year will be the biggest celebration of great coaching yet.”

Brighton-based Netball coach Danielle Lewis-Collins has been nominated for children’s coach of the year. She has grown her club, 5 Ways, to almost 250 juniors in the last 12 months.

anielle has had a huge impact on the majority of her junior players and five members of her U12 team have recently gained sports scholarships.

England Netball’s head of coaching, Sian Foley-Corah said: “Danielle is a really great example of how her coaching not just impacts a person’s performance but clearly makes an impact on her members’ drive, their confidence and their ability to function in social settings.

“Danielle really puts a person at the heart of what she does. Without people like Danielle we wouldn’t have young girls playing netball until they’re in their sixties.”

For tickets, table sales and more see their website at www.ukcoaching.org/about/our-awards