The sports coaching market in United Kingdom

Coaching refers to the practice of providing personalized support to a client, who in turn seeks to achieve a goal related to any aspect in life. Coaching has traditionally been associated with sports, although new paths are on the rise, focusing more on personal or professional development.

Coaching in the context of sport is associated with fitness instructors or personal trainers. Although the definition of coaching is slightly different from that of a trainer, for the scope and delimitation of this market study, we will refer to all three types mentioned.

Although the sports coaching market is currently difficult to estimate globally because sports coaching networks are usually local or national, it appears that the market is concentrated in the richest regions of the world, i.e. Western Europe, North America and Oceania. It is also in these regions that the link between health and the practice of a sport activity is best known.

Through the emergence of new coaching applications, performance measurement technologies and new sport education methods, the personal trainer business is evolving, offering more customizable offers.

In the United Kingdom, the sport coaching market has been booming parallel to a growing interest for sports and health in society. In light of this, sport coaching has become a more regulated activity, which today requires certificates and sometimes even a degree. Of all coaching in the UK, a study by YouGov revealed that 37% of males who coach are in sports, and 16% of females. This made it the most common category of coaching.

The market structure is two-folded: either personal trainers are employed by a company which allocates their employees (coaches) as sports consultants to clients, or sports coaches operate independently. Nomisweb estimates that there were around 69,000 coaches in the UK in 2019. This is an increase by 25,000 since 2011 and shows how the market has expanded to meet an increasing demand for this service.