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Mr Sergio Lara-Bercial
Senior Research Fellow and Manager for Strategy & Development,
Leeds Beckett University and International Council for Coaching Excellence
Presentation Slides
Effective Youth Coaching - The Path to Success
What Youth Coaches Can Learn from Olympic Serial Winning Coaches
Effective Youth Coaching & What It Means for Sports Parents


Sergio Lara-Bercial played professional basketball in Spain and the UK and was a Team GB coach between 2005 and 2009.  


In his current dual role as a Senior Research Fellow for Leeds Beckett University and the International Council for Coaching Excellence, Sergio has led or taken part in multiple international projects with UEFA, The European Commission, The FA, the US Olympic Committee, the Japanese Sport Council and the India Sports Authority.  

He is the co-author of the International and European Sport Coaching Frameworks and principal investigator for the Serial Winning Coaches and iCoachKids projects.

Sergio has researched and written extensively into coach education and development, high performance coaching and youth sport.


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Ms Lorraine Lafrenière
Chief Executive Officer,
Coaching Association of Canada
Presentation Slides

As CEO of the Coaching Association of Canada, Lorraine Lafrenière was twice named to the Canadian Association for Advancement of Women and Sport Top 20 most influential women in 2014 and 2015. During this time she successfully led the partnership to complete the transition of the National Coaching Certification Program. She also supported the Canadian Sport System to launch the Responsible Coaching Movement to protect youth in sport through coaching strategies. Her career spans more than 30 years across many sectors within the Canadian Sport system including roles with the Canadian Olympic Committee, CanoeKayak Canada, Cycling Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as Petro-Canada, one of Canada's leading Olympic and Paralympic Games sponsors.

Lorraine has participated in more than a dozen Olympic or Paralympic Games in various leadership capacities. Prior to joining the Coaching Association of Canada in November of 2013, Lorraine held Chief Executive Officer positions with CanoeKayak Canada from 2009-2013, one of two sports in Canada to produce three Olympic medals in London 2012, and with Cycling Canada from 2006-2008 where she contributed to re-establishing the organization's financial stability and its high performance and development structure in order to improve Canada's performances on the international stage.

Along with her passion for sport, Lorraine’s commitment to volunteerism has been consistently demonstrated throughout her career. She has had the honour to serve on the boards and committees of many organizations including the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame, Canadian Cancer Society (Ottawa-Carleton), Run for the Cure, Big Sisters of Ottawa, and Ottawa-Carleton Epilepsy. She was also the co-chair of the 2004 Ontario Summer Games held in Ottawa. Lorraine is a mother of two and she is a proud cancer survivor. She is an advocate of resiliency in all facets of life.

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Mr Stephan Widmer

National Head Coach and
Performance Director,
Singapore Swimming Association

Presentation Slides

Stephan has worked in high-performance sport for more than 20 years, the first 15 of which was at Queensland Academy of Sport. During his active coaching time, his swimmers won 20 World Records, 3 Olympic Gold Medals and 16 World Championship Gold Medals.

His coaching concept is based on a process driven and race pace specific training model to create athletic swimmers. Stephan employs people management skills, explores human behavior and has a highly complex understanding of swimming techniques. Stephan understands the complexity of human limitations, both physically and mentally. He knows what it takes to lead athletes to their true potential, how to find the key to their ability to break World Records, to win World Championships or reach the pinnacle of sport, an Olympic Gold medal.

In 2014 he was appointed as the Swimming Queensland Head Coach and Mentor Coach. With this professional change came also a cultural shift in his passion for the sport:
  • Facilitate learning and mentoring opportunities for swimming coaches.
  • Improve the coaching specific education for each developmental stage by designing world-class coaching methods for each development stage
  • Integrating athletic development, movement and physical literacy into the LTAD model

Since July 2017, Stephan has applied the same coaching and mentoring philosophy to Singapore Swimming, where he is employed as the National Head Coach and Performance Director.

Stephan completed a Bachelor in Physical Education and Master of Science degree in Zürich, Switzerland.

Stephan Widmer Achievements:

  • Medal of the Order of Australia: For Service to Swimming as a Coach
  • 2004, 2008 and 2012 Australian Olympic Team Coach
  • 4-time Swimming Australia Coach of the Year

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Mr N. Subramaniam
Former Sports Coach 
Cedar Girls' Secondary School
Presentation Slides

Mr N. Subramaniam was a teacher for 40 years and spent a significant amount of time and effort coaching the Cedar Girls' Secondary School Hockey and Track & Field teams. He has numerous coaching achievements under his belt, leading the Cedar Girls’ hockey team to win the Serangoon District Championship and bagging medal after medal at the National Schools Track & Field Championships.

Mr Subramaniam was crucial in laying the foundation and helping the Cedar Girls' track & field team evolve into the powerhouse that it is today, and among the lives he impacted were national sprinters Jenny Lim and Dhana Devi Balaretnam.

He is not only a firm advocate of discipline and values in sports, but genuinely cares for his student-athletes' well-being.

He is a family orientated person and his pastime since retirement has been reading books related to spirituality.