Olympian Tom Haffield inspires young sports ambassadors at Coleg Sir Gâr
A former Olympic swimmer volunteered his time to inspire newly appointed sports ambassadors at Coleg Sir Gâr, in partnership with Youth Sport Trust and the college’s Active Wellbeing team.
As part of the Youth Sport Trust Ambassador Programme, Tom Haffield, who has competed in the Commonwealth and Olympic games, delivered a session in leadership in sport.
He talked about planning and promoting activities, leading and evaluating activities, practical delivery, action planning and provided examples of how to adjust sport for people with challenges such as visual impairment.
Tom trained 10 of the 16 student ambassadors who have been selected from not only sports courses but public services, A-levels and foundation programmes.
The ambassadors will work closely with Kayleigh Brading, the college’s Be Active Coordinator and receive guidance and opportunities to coach, support the department’s activities and gain coaching and development qualifications.
Through Youth Sport Trust, they will also be eligible to work towards bronze, silver, gold and platinum awards.
It is aimed that the ambassadors will help facilitate getting more students active across all seven campuses of Coleg Sir Gâr and Coleg Ceredigion with the hope of Coleg Ceredigion becoming part of its own region of Youth Sport Trust.
Kayleigh Brading, Coleg Sir Gâr and Coleg Ceredigion Active Wellbeing coordinator said: “We’re really thankful of Tom’s time in supporting the ambassador programme as a mentor with Youth Sport Trust.
“His experience of competing at world-class level, retiring and running his own sports business and his whole coaching journey was an excellent insight for students.
“We have tried to recruit ambassadors that have a keen interest or take part in sport outside of their studies to give them opportunities to develop and receive guidance.
“I am looking forward to working with the ambassadors and developing activities college-wide. As the current YSA become more independent, I will be looking to welcome some more in September”
Kayleigh will soon be speaking at the Regional Active Wellbeing conference hosted at Coleg Sir Gar’s Graig campus with her sports ambassadors to help promote the ambassador programme.
Anyone interested in applying to be a Youth Sport Trust ambassador should contact kayleigh.brading@colegsirgar.ac.uk.