Eddie Van Hoof selected to UK Sport’s new Elite Programme

Eddie Van Hoof, Men’s Artistic Head Coach, British Gymnastics, said: “This is a really exciting time for British sport. For British Gymnastics the Elite Programme will offer us opportunities to grow and expand the sport. I look forward to working with the other coaches to develop new relationships and ideas.”

UK Sport has identified high performance coach development as a crucial area of focus if British sport is to better the incredible performance by Britain’s athletes at London 2012 in Rio in four years’ time, as well as creating a stronger, more sustainable high performance system, and the coaches selected have been identified as future leaders of coaching in their sport, capable of sharing their knowledge and expertise.

Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport, said: “I’d like to congratulate the coaches selected to our World Class Coaching: Elite Programme. UK Sport has set some highly ambitious goals for the next cycle, not the least the challenge of delivering a stronger, more sustainable high performance system. The system will only ever be as successful as the people within it, and these coaches have been selected for the important role they will play.

“These coaches are fantastic ambassadors, not only for their sports but for the coaching profession, and I commend them for embracing this opportunity to learn from other sports and industries, to be open and willing to share their own expertise and of course their commitment to continuous improvement for themselves, their sport and their athletes. We look forward to working with them on this exciting journey for British sport.”

UK Sport’s Head of Coaching, Graham Taylor, said: “Our aim is to take British Coaching from world class to world leading, and with these 10 excellent coaches selected to our Elite Programme I think we’ve made a fantastic start. These coaches possess second to none technical ability and proven track records of success, but we want to take their skills to the next level; they will support, learn from and inspire each other to innovate and anticipate, while engendering these characteristics in their athletes and teams to make brilliance business as usual in their sport.”

UK Sport has worked with over 200 coaches on their professional development over the past eight years, and of these, more than 50 worked with athletes who competed at London 2012 where Team GB and Paralympics GB achieved outstanding medal hauls. These coaches worked directly with athletes who secured at least 32 of the medals won across the Olympic and Paralympic Games, including 12 golds.

With the launch of the Elite Programme, the career development pathway for high performance coaches working in British sport is complete. From the foundation programmes supported by sportscoachUK, for coaches operating at the home country level, through UK Sport’s Apprenticeship Programme and now the Elite Programme, world class coaching in the UK is in a stronger position than ever before.
* Source: British Gymnastics