\n Michelle Dean, a 44-year-old coach from Bradford, discovered her passion for coaching after volunteering at The Lion Gym in Greengates.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seven years later, she is seeing the vast benefits of coaching and is determined to inspire other women to give it a try.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dean’s journey started when she was looking for a role in sport and found The Lion Gym in BD10.\n<\/p>\n
\n As soon as she became involved, she quickly became engaged with and enthusiastic about the sport, despite having limited experience.\n<\/p>\n
\n That enthusiasm has never left her, and she continues to coach at The Lion Gym with the same energy she brought on her first day.\n<\/p>\n
\n Along the way, Dean has seen her confidence grow, both inside and outside the gym.\n<\/p>\n
\n She helps youngsters who enter the gym feeling shy leave full of confidence, and the impact on her is just as significant.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dean said: \u201cIt\u2019s made me want to learn more outside of boxing.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m more confident with my family and friends now, and it\u2019s given me the belief to push myself forward.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Boxing has long been seen as a male-dominated sport, and when Dean first started securing her qualifications, she was often the only female on the course.\n<\/p>\n
\n This did not faze her and she explained: \u201cI attended my Level Two qualification, and I was the only female on the course, but I didn’t feel like it was them against me.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI saw myself as a coach, just like everyone else, who was there to learn, grow, and contribute.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Female boxing coaches are continuing to transform lives throughout their communities, through mentorship, support, and personal growth, showing how coaching can act as a catalyst for wider social impact.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dean first got involved to help people grow, and that remains one of her biggest motivations.\n<\/p>\n
\n Michelle Dean has helped many young boxers at The Lion Gym go on to achieve great success. (Image: Run Communications)\n<\/p>\n
\n She admitted: \u201cSeeing people grow is what keeps me involved.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI want them to learn things and win, but I also want them to gain things they can take into the future.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Dean hopes other women around the country can follow in her footsteps and experience the same joy and passion she has experienced from coaching.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: \u201cI think sometimes you just need to go for it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cYou’re not going to know if it’s not for you until you try it and every coach is really supportive.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe female section is growing, and because of that, they need female coaches to help women and girls feel like they belong.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n UK Coaching is committed to reversing the decline in female coaches and is continuing to work with partners on further research to develop a deeper understanding of the reasons for the drop-off in female coaches.\n<\/p>\n
\n They only made up 38 per cent of the coaching population in 2024, compared to 44 per cent in 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are also dedicated to celebrating inspiring coaching stories from every sport, at every level, to shine a light on the unsung heroes who are building stronger clubs, communities, and futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle Dean, a 44-year-old coach from Bradford, discovered her passion for coaching after volunteering at The Lion Gym…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-328043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}