Swindon Harriers: the home of athletics in Swindon
Swindon Harriers Athletics club started in the early 1990s and now has over 400 members. The club boomed after the London 2012 Olympics and became the home of athletics in Swindon. We got the chance to talk to Steve Sparkes, the U11s team manager, about the club and the range of support and activities they offer to athletes and coaches.
After the growth the club experienced after 2012, the club was not geared up or prepared for the increase in numbers when Steve turned up with his boys on the first night along with 128 other children. Since then, the club has built a structure, adopting our funetics programme to support their young athletes.
Our funetics programme helps children to have fun and get active whilst building their confidence for the future. Steve told us; "We love funetics, we started it in June 2023 with a pilot group of 17 children. After struggling to find a volunteer to look after the group we recruited a personal trainer, Bryony, who has now been running it for the best part of nine months."
Opening doors with funetics
We managed to talk to Bryony after one of their Monday night sessions who told us; "funetics is a great introduction for the kids, they get to run, jump and throw during the sessions with us. It teaches them all the basics so that they can understand how to do certain skills before they progress into athletics when they grow up."
Steve commented; "I would recommend that you absolutely give funetics a go. Do what we did, if you can't get a volunteer then get yourself a personal trainer and some students from your local sixth form college. Once you bring it together, it will self-fund."

"Start small and follow the funetics programme - it is a gift, and it just runs every week like a recipe. Just follow the recipe every week and the kids will love it."
We know that capacity issues can be a real issue for clubs, so we asked Steve how funetics has helped them with their capacity. "funetics has been a great gateway for us and has helped us take some pressure off our waiting list. It has also been a great entry point for some of the Swindon College students we have with us, who are now working their way through the Coaching Assistant qualification and will hopefully use this as part of their careers going forward."
With more people working towards their Coaching Assistant qualification, this has allowed Swindon Harriers to work on a larger scale. With more volunteers and coaches coming in they are able to increase their capacity and reach a wider range of athletes, taking more and more pressure off their waiting list. Steve said:

"The club pays for anybody who wants to become a coach and we definitely have got a couple who are interested. At the minute, one lady works with us on a Monday night with the year threes and she's now started to help our pole vault coach. So again, helping to grow and increase our resilience and offering to the town."
We asked Steve if he had any advice for others who are thinking about getting into athletics coaching. He told us: "My number one piece of advice would be, make sure you have a mentor, somebody in the club who is already qualified, they will give you great advice and can check any plans you are given. It is important to find something you enjoy, be willing to study for it and make sure you have got someone who has been there, seen it and done it before and that will save you a lot of time."
At England Athletics, we love supporting and watching clubs grow all over the country. Steve commented;
"Working with England Athletics I couldn't have asked for a more supportive group. Chrissie, our funetics coordinator, has done a great job. You can feel the enthusiasm in her emails, she is really proactive and the kit we received from England Athletics has really helped us get the funetics programme up and running. The bag comes with all the cones and bean bags and everything, it's been really really helpful."
Feeling inspired by the work that Swindon Harriers are doing? Why not have a look at our funetics programme and get your juniors running, jumping and throwing! Or browse our range of courses to take your first step in becoming an athletics coach.
Learn more about funetics View our coaching qualifications