Lewes AC - inspiring young athletes with young coaches

With cold, dark nights through the winter, it can be difficult to encourage young athletes to persist with training, but Lewes AC have been encouraging young assistant coaches to inspire their youth, alongside their Academy programme to assist youngsters in their pathway through the sport.

We recently caught up with Lewes AC about how they are retaining and recruiting youngsters in their club so well. The club have also achieved their seven out of seven Club Standards, and continue to make a real difference in their community.

Club Chair, Philip Westbury, says achieving the Club Standards was his first goal when he was appointed to the position in 2024, and is proud of the club's achievements since then.

Play Video

Easing youngsters into competition

Lewes AC have a thriving Academy set-up, with up to 200 young athletes who attend the club each week.

Becky Trotman, Vice Chair of the club, says mini competitions the coaches put on to get the youngsters used to what it's like competing, are key.

Endurance coach, Karin Divall, says it's important to encourage the children to try out different disciplines in these competitions in this early stage in their development:

"If they want to go along and do a sprint at one of the leagues in a competition, but they also think about, what about doing a throw or a jump, just trying it and having a go. We always encourage the youngsters to have a go at everything."

Variety is key

The children try out different disciplines in training too, through the Academy, before they start to specify in their teenage years to which event they'd like to persevere with, and are then signposted to specialist coaches in those disciplines, as Jamie Powell, Academy Manager and Coach tells us:

"The culture of getting the young people to take on all the events through the Academy, they get to try everything."

The club have developed the Academy set-up so that the specialist coaches will sometimes take Academy sessions, to give the youngsters a taste of what the step-up might look like before they take it.

Pete Masters, Endurance and Jumps Coach and Honorary President of the club, truly understands the importance of nurturing their young athletes to the future success of Lewes AC:

"The Academy is the bedrock of the club. If we get it right at the younger ages, as they grow older and then become more proficient in athletic activities, then we're okay for the future!"

Bringing young coaches in to inspire the next generation

The club also shared their top tips for recruitment and retention, which included their strategy of encouraging young adults to take their Coaching Assistant qualification to inspire the next generation.

Club Chair, Philip Westbury, says the strategy of bringing young Assistant Coaches in has helped the club take a step forward in many ways:

"Our Academy team are very engaged. They have a lot of energy and passion for athletics."

Lewes AC's top tips to recruit and retain young athletes

• Hosting holiday camps: utilising the school holidays to encourage youngsters to come and try athletics can be key. Lewes AC bring children into their Academy through the camps they hold during half-terms and term breaks.
• Assistant coaches: encouraging older athletes to take their Coaching Assistant qualification who can be mentored by a lead coach, enables these young coaches to engage and communicate with the children in a fresh way.
• Athlete to coach ratios: it's important to make sure there's not too many people in each group, to make sure that athletes are getting the attention they need from a coach.
• Patience: Lewes AC deal with children of all abilities, and think it's important to persevere with young athletes to encourage them on their journey of improvement, no matter the speed of that journey.

We would like to remind clubs that all 7 Club Standards will be mandatory for clubs to affiliate with England Athletics next year.

For support, you can access our Club Standards section of Club Hub here.