The RYA has welcomed two new faces to the Racing team as part of its commitment to evolving and improving the youth and junior racing pathway.
Hannah Wilcox has recently come on board as the new Pathway Club Manager, with Huw Griffiths taking on the role of Talent Academies Manager.
Both programmes are key strands of the new approach to the pathway which, following a strategic review, has reinforced the need to make youth and junior racing more affordable, accessible and engaging and improve the performances of aspiring young British talents.
Hannah Wilcox will support the new Pathway Club programme, underpinning Racing for Life, which aims to create a network of high-quality clubs that make racing fun, develop great fundamentals and create a lifelong love of sailing for young sailors.
Hannah has experience in the sport as a competitor and a coach and over the years has also supported various club committees, so is sympathetic to some of the challenges club face when introducing a new programme.
She is an RYA Dinghy Trainer and a Race Coach Tutor and more recently has been supporting aspiring RYA Instructors and Race Coaches to develop the necessary skills to become qualified.
Hannah is a qualified secondary PE teacher and latterly has had a successful career in fundraising. Teaching, coaching and sailing have all remained a constant as she brings a fresh supportive approach to this brand new role at the RYA.
“This is such an exciting time for RYA Racing as the pathway evolves and I can't wait to work with clubs to support young racers,” Hannah said.
“I believe great quality coaching will underpin much of what we do when supporting safe, accessible, fun racing for junior racers. It’s a privilege to work with clubs and their coaching teams to achieve this and I’m really looking forward to getting to know everyone at the clubs involved.”
Find out more about the RYA Pathway Club programme in our webinar, and complete our form to express an interest in your club becoming part of this initiative.
You can also hear from Hannah and RYA Junior Racing Manager Chris Atherton at the upcoming RYA Connected Conferences. Hannah will be at the Halifax (Saturday 16 November 2024) and Ipswich (Saturday 23 November 2024) events and Chris will be in Taunton (Saturday 26 October 2024), Leicester (Sunday 17 November 2024), Crawley (Sunday 24 November 2024) and Southampton (Saturday 30 November 2024).
Huw Griffiths joins the RYA to focus on establishing and supporting a network of Talent Academies across the UK. This is a new initiative creating high performance environments at a regional level for aspiring youth sailors, which will identify sailors with high potential annually, develop them as both people and sporting performers and provide them with the tools to go on to achieve their sailing goals at Olympic level or elsewhere in the sport.
Huw brings an extensive background in supporting talented young athletes across a range of sports. As a former junior international in squash, understanding how best to develop potential has been both a personal and a professional fascination.
He spent 10 years at Swim Wales as National Paralympic Swimming Manager, implementing structures and programmes which supported multiple swimmers on to the Aquatics GB World Class Pathway – some of whom went on to medal-winning success at the highest level.
In addition to working for an Active Partnership in Hereford and Worcestershire, he also spent two years as Performance Manager at British Wrestling, creating a long-term development structure that centred around holistically developing athletes and embedding a culture of continuous improvement.
“As well as the opportunity to be part of developing the next generation of Olympic sailors, I am excited about what the RYA is trying to do in making the sport more accessible,” Huw explained.
“Not only is there a chance to have a direct role in supporting the next wave of sailors coming through, it is also a chance to play a part in opening up the sport to an audience that may not have previously seen sailing as a viable option.
“I'd like to create an environment where all of the sailors look back on their time within the RYA's pathways as an experience that has helped them to develop positively, whether that is within sailing or through other ventures; that the environment gave them the support and experiences to reach their potential and develop skills and experiences that have enabled them to achieve.”
Find out more about the Talent Academy initiative in our webinar.
RYA Director of Racing Nick Scott said: “The Pathway Club and Talent Academy programmes are key to our aims of creating great local and regionally-based environments for young racers to grow and develop, and we’re delighted to welcome Hannah and Huw on board to help drive these initiatives in partnership with our club and class association network.”
Read more about the evolving RYA youth and junior racing pathway. Contact pathway@rya.org.uk for more information or questions about the Pathway Club or Talent Academy schemes.