For the past four years we have invited applications from across our sector for funding, courtesy of SkillsActive and the Nancy Ovens Trust, to allow individuals to undertake a personal development project to enhance skills and knowledge outside of the day-to-day work environment.

Rachel Light helping young athletes

This has encouraged development in ways quite removed from traditional training, with work experience and shadowing of top coaches in a certain field proving a popular way to glean the personal insight that perhaps doesn’t exist when undertaking a training qualification.

This year, out of over 50 applicants, we are delighted to have chosen five bursars who will be blogging for us over the course of their time on the bursary. They’ll be introducing themselves here over the coming month, but here is a quick introduction to two of them.

Rachel Light
Dorset swimming coach Rachel Light plans to spend two weeks in Australia this summer to discover the secrets of the nation’s sporting success so that she can assist top young athletes in this country.

Rachel has focussed her work on, and is particularly passionate about, those just outside of the elite sporting programmes. It is difficult for those just outside the top programmes to continue at a high level, so Rachel assists by providing them with guidance ranging from nutrition to strength and conditioning that they would otherwise receive from their NGB.

Judo coach Mike Newton

Read more about Rachel’s bursary here and check back over the coming months to see how her plans for the trip progress. You can also listen to Rachel discussing her trip, and read more, over on the BBC Dorset website.

Mike Newton
Rutland judo coach Mike Newton plans to spend a month next spring in Japan, the home of judo, in order to shadow top children’s judo coaches. Having helped establish Vale Judo Club in 2003, Mike has since established the club as one of the leading clubs in the region with members in national squads, as well as developing a strong schools judo programme.

You can read more about Mike’s dedication to the sport and youngsters, along with his planned trip to Japan here, while you’ll find him blogging here soon.