The Making of a Canoe Slalom Coach

This a personalised account of the author's involvement in canoe slalom. It charts the growth of the sport from a recreational activity in the 1960's to a sport in which Great Britain has been successful on the world and Olympic stage. The level of his involvement is best exemplified by the fact that, in the 1973 World Championships in canoe slalom, he was team manager, team coach, driver of one of the team buses, competitor in the individual and team events, and, as a qualified international judge, was partially responsible for the repositioning of several of the gates when sudden spate conditions caused the river to rise dramatically after practice runs. Even so, he managed to finish in fifteenth place! After retiring from competition in 1974, he became national team coach and started the Stafford & Stone Canoe Club, which has now won more medals at world championships than the whole of the British Team during the history of the sport. He has coached several paddlers, including Albert Kerr, Richard Fox, Lynn Simpson and Liz Sharman towards world titles, before retiring from international coaching in 1996 after more than thirty years.

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