Paul Greaves, a University of Stirling sports lecturer, has been selected to coach the Great British Trampoline Team at the World Championship held in Birmingham starting from November 9.
The World Championships are instrumental in deciding what athletes will represent their country at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Greaves is no stranger to how important a positive outcome is at this competition.
Greaves previously coached Silver Olympic medal winner Bryony Page at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
However, with only 16 Olympic places available and over 1,000 gymnasts attending, the World Championships promise to be highly competitive.
Even with this pressure, Greaves is incredibly confident in his team.
“It’s a very exciting time for the Great Britain team – we have some fantastic athletes and I am really privileged and honoured to be supporting them going in to this competition and hopefully, see some of them go through to the Olympics next year.”
Paul Greaves
Team GB has an extremely talented team filled with veteran Olympians such as Laura Gallagher and Bryony Page. As well as former men’s British Championship Zak Perzamanos – it promises to be an interesting competition.
With only days until the World Championships, the team are going through finals checks to get them competition ready.
“At this stage, I’m helping to make final tweaks and ensuring every technical aspect is correct. I’m also there to help them believe in themselves and have the confidence needed to succeed in a competition of this magnitude,”
Paul Greaves
Greaves brings a unique understanding to his coaching as Greaves himself is a veteran athlete previously, competing in 1999 British Championship.
“I started coaching – initially just to help out when a staff member was ill – in my club at the age of 14. At 18, I set up my own club in Sheffield…By 25, I was a Level 5 High Performance Coach but was keen to keep learning. “
Paul Greaves
He later progressed to coaching athletes at an international level. Then moved to Stirling in 2022, using the variety of skills he has developed coaching athletes who have had a broad range of abilities.
Paul Greaves is very passionate at promoting trampolining from a minority sport into the mainstream. He aims to make the sport more accessible to people from a range of economic backgrounds.
You can follow Greaves’ journey through his Instagram.
Featured Image Credit: The University of Stirling
