Blog entry by Olivia Warwick
Play Their Way – Building a
movement of child-first coaches
Club Matters recently caught up with Joy Shibukawa-James, Senior Marketing Executive for the Play Their Way campaign.
The Play
Their Way movement was launched by
the Children’s Coaching Collaborative to transform the way children and young people are
coached in sport and physical activity by embracing child-first coaching
principles.
A ‘child-first’ approach to coaching is about championing every child’s voice, choice and journey in sport and physical activity. The Play Their Way movement aims to level the playing field by putting children first and helping them to enjoy being active in their own way, where great coaching can inspire a child to stay active for life.
To kick off the movement on 23rd May, CK Flash (Head Coach)
and Olympian Kye White of Peckham BMX Club hosted a media launch event to raise
awareness of how they are transforming the lives of young people through a
child-first coaching approach.
“Our aim is to inspire and
empower coaches to put children’s rights, enjoyment, and fun at the heart of
children’s sport and physical activity experiences. But we can’t do this alone! We’ve been busy raising awareness
of the movement through social media and digital channels and driving people to
find out more by checking out our new and exciting resource hub.”
The hub has been designed specifically for coaches so they can use it to help them on their child-first coaching journey. It’s crammed with articles, videos and downloadable resources which coaches can use in their sessions; and the great thing is it’s all free!
“To help coaches understand child-first coaching principles in practice, we have created a self-reflection tool; the Coaching Compass which coaches can use to assess their current practice. It makes practical recommendations based on their motivation and coaching style, which they can take to build on.”
We need your help!
Although Play Their Way is about creating a child-first coaching
movement, this can’t be achieved without the help
of organisations like yours. Support is needed to empower coaches to explore
this philosophy in their practice and help spread the word about the movement.
“We are here to help your organisation embed and adopt these principles
in the way you work as well. If you want to explore ways you can support the
movement right now, take a look at our be part of something bigger webpage. We have come up with
6 ways you can support, from downloading our communications toolkit to
appointing a child-first champion to your board.”
This is just the start of the Play Their Way child-first coaching journey – “We would love you to join us on this journey to help shape its future”.
If you would like the latest news and updates on all thing’s child-first, join the mailing list by emailing info@playtheirway.org.
Club Matters is excited to support the Play Their Way campaign. For more information on children and young people and supporting their positive experiences, explore the Club Matters website.
Images provided by the Play Their Way campaign website.