Ian Barker is sailing’s first UK Sport Elite Coach

by Karenza Morton on 15 Nov 2008
Skandia Team GBR 49er coach Ian Barker has become sailing’s first UK Sport Elite Coach after graduating from the prestigious three-year programme this week.

Barker, 49er Olympic silver medallist at Sydney 2000, was part of the second of intake of high performance coaches whose graduation from the programme was celebrated at UK Sport’s annual World Class Coaching Conference at The Belfry on Tuesday.

The aim of the Elite Coach Programme is to accelerate the development of coaches with the potential to be the driving force behind home medal success at London 2012.

After receiving his graduation certificate from legendary rowing coach Jurgen Grobler alongside seven other 2008 graduates, including fellow Olympic medallists Chris Boardman (cycling), Kate Howey (Judo) and Karen Brown (Hockey), Christchurch-based Barker said the programme had proved to be a hugely valuable experience.

He said: 'Coaching was always going to be my next step after I gave up professional sailing and when this opportunity came along to join the Elite Coach programme I knew it would provide me with a much better education than trying to teach myself how to be a World Class coach.

'The aim of the course is to pack 20 years of coaching into three years and we have had the opportunities to speak to and get the advice from so many different experts from different fields during that time. It has also been brilliant being with people from other sports, learning all about how they do things and visiting their places of work. The sharing of ideas between sports has been hugely valuable.'

UK Sport Elite Coach builds tailor-made programmes around each coach, which allows them to develop both their technical skills by working with and observing the best in action and develop the leadership skills that are the hallmarks of the world’s best operators, not just from the sporting world but also the worlds of business, industry and the arts.

Cardiff-born Barker, 42, achieved Olympic silver helming for Simon Hiscocks eight years ago and after briefly undertaking Star and Tornado campaigns he started seriously exploring coaching and in 2007 helped Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes to 49er World Championship gold before the duo followed that up with silver in 2008.

He admits one of his biggest challenges was embracing the shift in mentality from elite athlete to coach.

'It was difficult at first making the transition from the mindset of selfish athlete to selfless coach, and the most I have learned is about myself and how I deal with people. It’s a big shift because you want to make things happen but you can’t do that by being imposing, you need to tease the answers out of the athletes themselves.'

Skandia Team GBR 49er Development Squad and Paralympic SKUD coach Harvey Hillary will become sailing’s second UK Sport Elite Coach when he graduates from the programme next year. Both Barker and Hillary hold the title of RYA National Racing Coaches.