“I feel like everyone should be exploring and participating in movement and physical activity”

From a young age, Danny Hatcher dreamt of being a PE teacher.

Now, the 27-year-old is launching Eastbourne Trampoline, which will open this September at the Hillbrow Health and Wellbeing sports centre in Eastbourne. 

His journey and passion for sport started in childhood.

“I started playing sport when I was very, very young, four or five years old, playing football, involved in gymnastics,” he says.

“My parents were very open to letting me try lots of different sports, athletics; I was in scouting, so rock climbing, archery, shooting, all those sorts of things. 

“My sister is five years younger than me and was also very involved in sport.”

When Danny was a teenager, he helped coach his sister, who was playing on a boys’ football team.

Then, the manager was unwell one summer, and Danny stepped in to help.

“I took the team for the tournament, and the team won their first couple of games ever – success!” he says.

“I’ve always liked helping people understand something, whether that’s in sport, in maths or school. I just enjoy helping others. 

“So that was my first experience helping others, and there was an obvious, measurable outcome of success.”

Fast-forward a few years, and Danny completed a degree in sports coaching and a master’s degree in strength and conditioning.

To get on-the-ground experience, Danny volunteered at various local clubs and later did some paid coaching for a football academy.

He realised his coaching ethos was radically different from how others wanted him to coach.

“A lot of what I was trying to do was frowned upon,” Danny explains. “It wasn’t the way that they wanted me to coach. 

“For example, if someone was doing something wrong, [their philosophy was] they needed to be punished either by doing a lap of the pitch or press ups or something like that. And I didn’t want to do that.

“They also wanted me to focus on the ‘better players’, which I had very little interest in. I wanted to help everyone.”

During this time, he worked with a group of children who had various different needs.

“That’s where I found what I wanted to do,” he says. “I wanted to help individuals who, in more elitist coaching, would be rejected or forgotten or left out because I feel like everyone should be exploring and participating in movement and physical activity.”

Danny’s new venture, Eastbourne Trampoline, uses the tagline ‘Fun First Trampoline’ 

“Academically speaking, fun is not unstructured mess,” Danny says. “There is direction, there is a focus, there is a challenge to individuals, but it’s appropriate challenge for the individuals and their way. 

“The point of the club is not to compete. If people want to compete, they can. We can help them do that. But I would much rather see 12 people spread over four trampolines smiling. 

“I’m thinking about participation over performance.”

Danny prioritises accessibility and inclusion. He is half-deaf and recently lost most of his sight in one eye, so his lived experience has helped shape his offering.

“For some individuals, it can get very tiring on a trampoline,” Danny explains. “It’s physically demanding, and that’s for children. 

“You’ve got adults or vulnerable adults or individuals that are not unfit but untrained; they get tired quickly.”

With this in mind, he will keep sessions to 40 minutes and will also keep numbers low to help those with communication difficulties.

“It becomes more of a community, rather than you’re just turning up to this big group session of lots of people,” he says. 

“So for those that do struggle socialising with lots of people, like myself, it makes it easier.”

So why trampolining?

“Trampoline is a sport that I feel free doing, because you’re in the air, there’s an element of weightlessness when you’re jumping. 

“You can take the anger out on the trampoline, and you won’t hurt anyone apart from yourself if you lose control.

“But then I’m also in complete control. It’s not like I’m relying on someone else, whether it’s a coach or another player, or when you’re playing cricket or tennis, the opponents are trying to get a point past you; it’s just me. 

“And then the third thing is, I don’t have to worry about communication.

“Because of my hearing, if someone’s shouting at me from the sideline, I can’t hear them, or I hear just noise but can’t isolate any words. 

“Yes, there are still communication struggles, such as when the coach is trying to shout, ready, set, go for a skill, but I just tell them to shout louder, and I face the way that I’ve got my good ear to them.”

He adds: “Some people call me crazy when I say I want to coach sport as a job. Low pay. Crazy hours. Dealing with children and their parents. Unexpected expenses. But, for me, seeing the confidence grow, independence develop, and the smiles on participants’ faces makes it all worth it.”

If you would like to find out more about Eastbourne Trampoline, visit https://eastbournetrampoline.com/