Maximising the potential of people in sport and life. Lessons from the Benson community project

This paper explores how one particular community sport project in the West Midlands uses a coaching for development approach to maximise the potential of people in sport and in life. It has frequently been suggested that it shouldn���t be a taken for granted assumption that positive development will simply occur, rather, key decisions need to be made about the best way to shape sports projects to maximise the chance that they will result in successful outcomes . This paper examines how one club ���coaches for development���, and in doing so, supports individual development-one of the outcomes identified by Sport England in their 2016 strategy- Towards an Active Nation. An independent evaluation of Benson Community Project was carried out by the University of Wolverhampton in 2019. Observations of sessions were carried out over a 5 week period. Observations were followed up by semi structured interviews with 6 volunteer coaching staff to capture in depth accounts about the project. Four emergent themes were identified from the observations and interviews. These were safe space, freestyling, relationship strategy and alternative pathway