The English Institute of Sport (EIS) and British Gymnastics (BG) are working in partnership to seek an exceptional individual to play a leading role in the support of the British Gymnastics Olympic disciplines to achieve their dreams performing at the highest levels on the world stage at the Olympics. Whilst employed by the EIS as part of the network of 400 people providing services to all our sports, this role works embedded exclusively in British Gymnastics focused on working with the Performance Director on delivering their strategic priorities.
The role of Head of Performance Support is one that exists within all sports working with the EIS. The role ensures that performance priorities can be delivered through aligned sports and science medicine provision to the sport’s specific needs.
Are you passionate about high performance sport with a deep knowledge of developing performance planning in support of individual athlete plans? Can you bring your strategic thinking capability to support the Performance Director in developing the future of the BG World Class Programme? Then this would be the job for you. We don’t require you to have a background in Gymnastics, but we will want you to learn fast to adapt your experience to this field. If you believe you have what it takes to be successful in what is a demanding but rewarding role working across three Olympic disciplines in one of the UKs most successful sports, we would love to hear from you.
Background
The English Institute of Sport (EIS) was established in 2002 and has evolved into the ‘team behind the team’ with a modern day mission: to pioneer the delivery of science, medicine and technology services to drive medal success at Olympic, Paralympic and international competition. We are in the process of reviewing our mission for beyond Tokyo in 2021 which will see the EIS seeking to build on its success to date in supporting Great Britain’s inspirational athletes adding even greater support and value to the High Performance System (HPS) overall.
Since its inception, through working in partnership with the National Governing Bodies of Sport, the EIS has significantly influenced the development and adoption of Performance Support in Olympic and Paralympic sports. It is considered a world leading high performance institute due to the sustained positive impact it has had on British medal success over the past four Olympic and Paralympic cycles. As the wider backdrop of elite sport continues to be ever more competitive, the EIS must embrace the opportunities presented by a new cycle, both in terms of the advances in Performance Planning and Performance Support as well as new, alternative ways of working. In response to this challenge the EIS, in consultation with sports and staff, has set out an ambitious future strategy which will enable TeamGB and ParalympicsGB to remain at the forefront of sporting success and continue to inspire the nation.
British Gymnastics (BG)
BG is one of largest and most widely recognised National Governing Bodies of Sport in the UK. Over the last 140 years, the organisation has supported, led and inspired all those involved or interested in gymnastics from grassroots participation to Olympic Podiums. Gymnastics plays a hugely important role in the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people across the UK. It provides children with many key physical and social skills, laying the foundations for a healthy lifestyle, delivered primarily by over 1400 member clubs within local communities.
This is a transformational time for British Gymnastics as it looks to build on past successes and to reset its culture to be able to take advantage of future opportunities. There are many exceptionally talented gymnasts that compete in the sport across the Olympic and non-Olympic disciplines. British Gymnastics wants to help every athlete to achieve success and inspire the next generation. Through the high-performance programme and investment in coach education, British Gymnastics is here to promote world class performance and world leading coaching and judging, whilst also working to help every gymnast, no matter what level, have an enjoyable experience in the sport.
Key relationships will include:
- Performance Director (PD);
- Performance Leadership Team and Head National Coaches;
- EIS Directorates, Disciplines and Services.
Purpose of Post
The HoPS role for British Gymnastics will be required to provide the leadership of performance support services to the British Gymnastics World Class Programme including accountability for the line management of science and medicine staff.
Working with BG to deliver world leading performance support to WCP athletes, the successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate they have highly effective leadership, management and interpersonal skills in order to be able to:
- Lead a diverse support team encompassing Performance lifestyle, strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, sports physicians, performance nutritionists, performance psychologists, soft tissue therapists, biomechanists, and performance analysts.
- Ensure that performance support services achieve maximum impact and are fully aligned to all activity across the WCP through an embedded Performance Planning process and evolving an understanding of ‘What it Takes To Win’ (WiTTW).
Principle Responsibilities
- Provide support to the Performance Director and Performance Leadership Team (PLT) by taking a leading role in the development of WCP strategic direction and performance planning.
- Provide leadership of performance support services to the WCP including accountability for line management and development of performamce support practitioners.
- As part of the WCP Performance Leadership Team (PLT), maintain and develop strong relationships with the Performance Director, Head National Coaches, Head of Performance Programmes, Performance Coach Developer, Performance Pathway Manager, and Performance Coaches, bringing insight, knowledge and challenge to the WCP.
- Ensure an accountable and responsive performance impact of practitioner work through facilitation of world class Performance Planning and alignment to Performance Coaching.
- Conduct technical planning meetings with the Performance Support Team to identify the priority performance support plans which capture how the objectives and outcomes of performance support will align to performance.
- Provide a real time feedback loop to the leadership, coaching and performance teams on operational delivery and how it is helping support athlete and sport plans.
- Drive a significant contribution to the process of evolving and developing an understanding of WiTTW.
- Provide point of contact between NGB-EIS services (e.g. Technical Leads, Operations, Business Services) in relation to the development of SSSM staff and operational management of appropriate EIS sites and services.
- Create and implement a long-term strategy for the development of performance knowledge and service provision for the WCP.
- Oversee research and innovation projects working with the EIS Performance Innovation, Head National Coaches, Performance Director, PLT, and external partners.
- Reflect the professional codes of conduct of sports science and sports medicine and ensure that this is respected and adhered to in order to keep the athlete’s health and welfare at the centre of concern in all aspects of training and competition.
The EIS is a dynamic, growing and fast-moving organisation that will offer you a flexible, positive, stimulating and challenging work environment with real opportunities to make the best better. Working for the English Institute of Sport brings its rewards not only in its salary and benefits package, but also in the opportunities for learning and career development.
The deadline for applications is midnight on Sunday 9 May 2021.
We are committed to creating an even more diverse and inclusive workforce that will bring different perspectives to our work. So that we can more closely reflect UK society, we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups including Black, Asian and people with other ethnically diverse backgrounds, those with a disability or long-term health condition and people returning to work after a career break.
We also understand the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, so all of our roles are open to flexible working and, in many cases, remote-working too. We ask only that you work with us to find an arrangement that meets our sports and business needs and enables you to perform the role in full, in a way that works for both of us.
