Welcome To South Yorkshire Sport

UKA and England Athletics

England Athleticsdevelops grass roots athletics in England, supporting affiliated clubs to prosper, developing more and better coaches, recruiting and supporting volunteers and officials.  England Athletics provides competition opportunities at an international, national and area level and through developing the quality of coaching.

UKA (United Kingdom Athletics)is the international governing body responsible for a key number of high level functions, including the provision of World Class Performance Athletics.

What we do

England Athletics has three core objectives:

1. To increase participation across a wider cross-section of the community
2. To improve the quality of experience of every participant.
3. To support the development of the next generation of champions.

England Athletics delivers services, support and funding within the sport. Our role includes working with affiliated clubs, officials, schools, and coaches. We also provide national level competition and work on athlete development beneath world class performance level. Our role is directly related to the work of the many volunteers whose efforts are fundamental to the success of athletics in England.

The work of England Athletics includes:

• Clubs – Clubs are vital to the provision of athletics in England. Schemes such as Athletics Networks are designed to deliver funding directly to where it can be used most effectively. Our aim is to raise standards and participation levels with minimum bureaucracy. The work done by England Athletics in other areas, such as coach and official development, is designed to help clubs thrive and achieve a high level of independence. England Athletics staff work with clubs to help in areas such as funding applications too.
• Coach education– Coaching is a major priority for England Athletics due to its deep rooted, long term and wide spread benefits. We provide courses and assessments to enable people to qualify as coaches, and provide wider opportunities for coaches to increase their skills. These include coaching conferences, seminars and mentoring.
• Officials– we provide Level 1 and 2 courses (with Level 3 managed by UK Athletics) and oversee the Tri-regional groups who manage senior officials in England.
• Competitions – we hold national championship events with the support of volunteers who are able to offer a high level of expertise. We commission and support other competition providers where their expertise and role makes them the most effective provider of the appropriate competition.
• Schools – we work in partnership with the English Schools Athletics Association, Quadkids and Sportshall athletics initiatives to provide suitable development and competition opportunities for youngsters. We believe schools athletics is an important way of attracting youngsters into the sport and introducing them to an enjoyable and successful involvement in athletics.
• Participation – England Athletics works to improve participation at all levels of the sport. This includes the work done with clubs and schools but is also expanding to include wider initiatives such as Run In England to ensure as many people as possible are able to enjoy our sport.
• Joint initiatives– we co-operate with many other organisations to promote and develop athletics.

England Athletics works with UK Athletics who also provide many services within athletics in England and across the UK. UK Athletics works to develop and sustain elite performance at world class level. It acts as a policy maker and works with the home countries, including England Athletics, to secure resources to enable the development of the sport at a grassroots level. For more information see www.uka.org.uk.

For information on coaching courses and the new coaching pathway please click here (http://www.englandathletics.org/page.asp?section=449&sectionTitle=Coaching)

South Yorkshire Athletics Network

Clubs in Network
(currently engaged)     

•     Rotherham Harriers AC
•     Doncaster AC
•     City of Sheffield
•     Hallamshire Harriers
•     Barnsley AC
•     Wombwell  SAC

Clubs in Network
(future engaged)     

•     All clubs affiliated to SYCAA (34 in 2009)

Other Partners     

• South Yorkshire County Sports Partnership
• Local Authorities:
• Sheffield City Council
• Rotherham MBC
• Barnsley MBC
• Doncaster MBC

FE/HE:

•       Sheffield Universities
•       School Sports Partnerships:

Network Chair/ Contact     Chair - Steve Gaines: SandJGAINES@aol.com
SYAN Development Officer - Ashley Little: ashley.little@sysport.co.uk
CCSO - Emma Brady: abrown@englandathletics.org

Aims     

The network will link the key clubs, the school sports partnerships, the schools competition managers, the CSP, the FDSO area lead, the area CCSO and will enable:

•   An overarching strategic direction & approach to Coach and club development for all SY clubs affiliated to EA.
•   A consistent framework for competition pathways, new initiatives and improved or new competition formats for schools and athletes in the 4 boroughs and South Yorks.
•   The introduction and funding of a dedicated Network Development Officer to lead planning and deployment of the agreed plan.
•   The development of  other local funding partners or sponsors to sustain the network beyond the 3 year current funded programme