Welcome

In March 2020 we were looking forward to welcoming over 50 people to take part in a symposium exploring the future role of those who support the development of sports coaches. Then the global COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption which affected everyone.

During the lockdown period many new opportunities to learn and interact with each other emerged. The disruption to our normal daily routines also provided an opportunity to pause, reflect and think about things differently.

The aim of this symposium is to capture and share your experiences of an extraordinary time and look forward towards a potentially different future.

This is an Open Space Symposium where we learn from each other through the supportive exchange of knowledge and ideas and where we can share our thoughts and be at our most curious.

Find out more about how you can contribute below.

Symposium information

The symposium will be hosted on this website. Here you can view all the contributions and discuss them further through the forum. There will also be a live event on Friday 4 December where each contributor will be invited to provide a brief overview of their submission.

Contributions are welcomed from anyone with an interest in coach development. We actively encourage novel, innovative and varying contributions that focus on:

• The future of coach development –
• what will be different?
• what should be different?
• what new perspectives can emerge?
• can established ways of working be changed for the better?
• Reflections on our support for coaches during a period of social distancing – what have we learned and what will change in our future practice?
• Insights from research and directions for research – what do we need to know more about and why?

Contributions can be based around essays, articles or extended abstracts that are between 500 and 1500 words. Other contributions such as video blogs (less than 3 minutes), short podcast style audios, posters and infographics are welcomed and encouraged. 

Contributions should offer a stimulating and thought provoking insight into coaching or use a creative perspective that is different and even experimental.

Help with editing and refining your contribution is available from the symposium organisers.

For more information on any aspect of the symposium contact Alex Twitchen at Alex.Twitchen@open.ac.uk.

Inspired? To attend the event or make a contribution please do the following:

• Register for the symposium 
  You then have options to:
  
  – submit a contribution to the symposium 

  – just attend the live event and access the forum discussion. 

  
  
• Submit your contribution
  As part of your contribution please provide a maximum 25 word biography for each person associated with the submission.