GB Taekwondo is pleased to announce that Sivakumar Ramasamy has successfully enrolled onto Sport Coach UK’s Talent Coach Programme Aspire 2015/16.

Aspire was established three years ago to bridge the gap between sport-specific programmes arranged by Governing Bodies of Sport and the world-class programmes facilitated by UK Sport.

The programme provides the opportunity for coaches from a wide variety of sports to share their knowledge and become self-aware of their coaching practices.

Sivakumar, Head Coach at GB Talent Club Gurumu Taekwondo and a GB Development Coach, has been involved in developing the country’s top talent for the last four years.

Following in the footsteps of a previous graduate of the Aspire programme, Gareth Brown, now a Senior High Performance Coach for the World Class Performance Programme (WCPP), Sivakumar is really excited about this unique opportunity:

“I am extremely thrilled to be selected as one of the coaches for the Aspire 2015 / 2016 Programme. This unique opportunity will certainly help me develop and accelerate my coaching skills to a new level.

During the next 18 months I will have a mentor who will support my personal coaching development and planning of the programme and I will be taking part in a variety of core workshops including a 360 degree review process, and coach behaviour analysis which I’m thoroughly looking forward to.

I also cannot wait to meet coaches from other sports and for us to share our knowledge and experience and our coaching journey so far which has brought us all together”.

Sivakumar has been a part of a coaching team with GB Taekwondo since 2011 and has seen the pathway evolve into a programme which is producing high quality athletes for the WCPP. More recently he has been involved in the major championship success at the 2013 Cadet European Championships where the team had its largest ever medal haul.

However, Dean Leak, Performance Pathway Manager, believes this programme will really accelerate Sivakumar’s development in the coming years to benefit all levels of the pathway,

“Having worked with Sivakumar for a number of years now and witnessing the level of professionalism, willingness to learn and share his learning and use this to impact on those around him, this course is going to have wide benefits for GB Taekwondo.

Whilst we will see more immediate growth in Sivakumar’s development, this will no doubt extend to the GB pathway athletes, his Talent Club athletes in Gurumu and the coaches he will be working with on a daily basis”.

Whilst the Talent Development Pathway is about identifying and recruiting athletes to ensure there is a high quantity of athletes across all weight categories, providing the right culture and learning environment is fundamental in the athlete’s journey.

“The next year is important for the programme as it prepares for the 2015 major championships calendar and continues to develop athletes for the long term. Providing effective learning environments for athletes and coaches to thrive in will be key factors in how the pathway develops athletes for ultimately senior Olympic success”.