Designing sustainable models of mentoring for sports clubs

The partnership between the university and the sports club created a space for sharing, reflecting and developing expertise in mentoring and coach professional development. The impact of the mentoring project was multi-layered and positively influenced participant learning. The programme structure encouraged mentors to work closely together enabling the distribution and propagation of mentoring knowledge. The LACE principles promote working and learning together to achieve a solution, being aware and considerate of context when problem-solving, and developing metacognitive skills and the use of reflection as a communication bridge between the mentor and mentee to engage in learning. Creating sustainable mentoring programmes in sports clubs helps them to educate their volunteer workforce, create better learning environments for participants, and distribute knowledge throughout the organisation. The local sports organisation developed competence and confidence in their ability to conduct an internal Coaching the Coaches programme.