Gillette concluded its ‘Great Stars’ campaign of providing grants to amateur sports coaches this week when  24 of the successful applicants spent a day with Olympians Sir Chris Hoy and Liam Tancock and their coaches Shane Sutton from Cycling and Ben Titley from swimming.
The campaign ran through the Olympics and was tied to the theme of ‘inspiring a generation.’ It was managed in conjunction with Sports Coach UK and invited coaches to nominate themselves through Gillette’s facebook page.
The importance of coaching at an early age is key to producing sports stars of the future. Yet in almost every circumstance the coaches are parents or helpers who happen to have become involved in the local club.  Many sports including all the major ones do run specific coaching programmes but this campaign was clever in that it sought to bring those coaches who were working off foundation or an entry level of coaching to go one step further and so raise the overall standard of coaching in the areas they are involved.
In Ireland we are fortunate that we have a strong level of grassroots involvement in sport and through clubs but a similar raising of coaching standards through commercial support of individuals through existing programmes could have real benefit.
It should be noted that two of our Olympic and Paralympic stars of the summer, Katie Taylor and Michael McKillop were both brought to their world beating level by well qualified coaches who also happened to be their Fathers.
Speaking about the British focused campaign, P&G Brand Manager Jared Regan said “Gillette has a rich heritage in sport and we appreciate the crucial role that both amateur and professional coaches play in the success of sport. Coaching is the sporting embodiment of a great start and we’re delighted to be able to sponsor these grants and help inspire the next generation by encouraging people to get into coaching.”
Procter and Gamble is on target to raise a sum of €4 million this year to support youth sports programmes around the world.  The main ambassador for the brand in Ireland is Brian O’Driscoll and he has been involved in a number of coaching initiatives through the Gillette brand in rugby over the past six years.
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