The first Wild Water Racing Coach Award

The Wild Water Racing Coach Award launched in January 2018 and supports you to coach Wild Water Racing. We hear from Jamie, who recently become the first person to qualify as a NEW Wild Water Racing Coach, and Hannah, who ran the first Wild Water Racing Coach Assessment.

Hear from Jamie, the first NEW Wild Water Racing Coach…

I have been involved with Wild Water Racing (WWR) for over 40 years and competing at an international level for almost 30 years as a member of the senior team and as a master. I have always been keen to give something back to the sport and have helped over the years coaching on junior team trips and helping other paddlers come into WWR.

More recently I have become involved with Break Out Canoe Unit who offer introductory courses to Leicestershire Scouts. For those Scouts who are interested in trying competition (Slalom, Wild Water and Marathon), they continue and join the club. So indirectly, without really being conscious of it, I have been coaching for a long time. Because I still want to race at a high level and coach, I have never really been able to find the time to go though the formal coaching process.

The APL route offered a very simple and time efficient way for me to gain a coaching qualification and formalise what I actually do.

White Water Racing is my passion, it requires skill, tenacity, experience and physical fitness to do well. For me it was the obvious choice to become a WWR Coach.

My next steps are to help develop the next and future generations of paddlers coming into White Water Racing, helping them to enjoy our wonderful sport.

Hear from Hannah, who ran the first WWR Coach Assessment…

Jamie is a well-known within the discipline of Wild Water Racing, having been a competitor himself across both kayak and C2 categories to running international team trips as Team Manager. His involvement within the Wild Water Racing teams over the past 12 years has developed his understanding of the specifics required for coaching this discipline. Both through his own paddling ability, as well as his immersion amongst skilled coaches, his personal coaching philosophy has been developed. In recent years he established his coaching through working with a group of juniors at a local club, building in progressive practice with goal orientated sessions. This has driven success across multiple disciplines, a fundamental of Jamie’s philosophy.

His interest in undergoing the British Canoeing Awarding Body Coaching route to formalise his understanding and coaching practice naturally led us to the APL route. This process allowed Jamie to log his previous learning and experiences which resulted in him registering for the assessment with myself. Clarifying the process and developing a personalised action plan, Jamie went away to complete his required prerequisites and log his coaching experiences. Once completed, the automated system from the membership portal checked that his prerequisites where correct which then allowed us to check in for assessment.

Through a virtual discussion task, Jamie documented the work he was doing with the group of juniors over a series of rivers and sessions. He illustrated the learnings around coaching the technical model and how he adapted the session content to both suit the needs of the individuals, in addition to keeping the group safe. This successful discussion task allowed us to head straight to the practical coaching assessment.

Together we set a day for the practical assessment to take place…

During the day Jamie coordinated two coached sessions, one coaching from the bank using video feedback for technical elements around forward paddling. With the second session, we saw Jamie coach from the boat, running a structured session involving sprints down a rapid with a technical paddle back up the course. The session saw Jamie add layers of complexity and simplicity for different individuals in line with their personal skill level. Resulting in a success session for all.

As it was the first time the qualification had been assessed, Darryll Shaw very kindly agreed to come from Paddles Up Training for the day to ensure quality control.

At the end of the session, we were able to create scenarios to allow Jamie to demonstrate the rescue techniques required. Even showing off his rolling skills on both sides for the important self-rescue.

All in all it was a successful day, observing Jamie coaching from both the land and water we happily passed him to be our first qualified Wild Water Racing Coach under the new British Canoeing Awarding Body system.

Interested in becoming a Wild Water Racing Coach?

The WWR Coach Award is designed for people whose core function is to coach paddlers on who want to gain/improve their WWR skills. This will include coaching beginners new to WWR, or paddlers looking to further develop their skills.

The WWR Coach Award consists of a Core Coach Training, WWR Coach training and the Coach Award eLearning. This is concluded by a WWR Coach Assessment. Find out more and start your journey to become a WWR Coach today!

If you already have previous experience and knowledge to by-pass the training, submit an Accredited Prior Learning application through your membership portal.