National Coaches Week is a week to celebrate the tremendous positive impact coaches have on athletes and communities across Canada. This week is an opportunity to recognize coaches for the integral role they play by simply saying #ThanksCoach.
Over the last few weeks, we asked you to submit profiles of your coaches, letting us know how they inspire you and help you to be your very best, both on and off your bikes. We’re sharing those stories throughout the week.
Nigel Ellsay wrote in to tell us how his coach, Richard Wooles, has inspired him to pursue his dreams and drives him to achieve his best. Ellsay, racing with the Silber Pro Cycling UCI Continental cycling team, has obtained some of his most impressive results to date in 2016, including his recent 7th-place finish in the Tour of Alberta GC.
I have been working with Rich for over six years. It is his guidance that has seen me continue to grow each year. He is the reason I have continued to believe I can be one of the best in my sport. It is his tireless work that keeps me going. He is the kind of coach that flies on his own dime to see me, burns the mid-night candle to get me what I need and hits me with the real motivation no one else can give me.
Richard Wooles has over 30 years in the sport of cycling, and is currently Cycling BC’s Senior Director of Sport Development, a role he transitioned to after successfully leading the organization as Executive Director for three years. As a coach, he has had leadership roles with British Cycling, a professional team and with the UCI. His coaching has taken him to the Summer Olympic Games four times, working with athletes such as Zach Bell, Jasmin Glaesser, Tara Whitten, Alex Cataford, and Gina Grain.
Click here to read more about how Wooles helped Ellsay to prepare for his 2016 race season, where he has achieved some of the best results of his career, racing throughout North America with Silber Pro Cycling.
With events held across the country to celebrate coaching, National Coaches Week provides coaches with the recognition they deserve for the time they devote to ensuring Canadians live an active, healthy lifestyle.
Stay up to date with everything happening during National Coaches Week by visiting the Coaches Association of Canada site, and by following along on Facebook and Twitter using #CoachesWeek and #ThanksCoach.
