National Play Their Way campaign shows up in the Black Country

The event held at the Walsall Campus of Wolverhampton University saw practical child-first sessions run by local Community Interest Company Black Country Coaches Club alongside introductions to the Play Their Way campaign and the principles of child-first coaching.

Coaches attending the day also signed up to the Play Their Way movement to get a host of free online resources and support to help them deliver child-first coaching to children and young people they work with in their local communities.

Coaches from a number of clubs and organisations in the region including Any Girl Netball, Wolves Foundation, Stourbridge Pocket Snooker Club and InPower Academy who deliver mixed martial arts to children and young people, attended the event which was also supported by Active Black Country and Sport Birmingham.

The event was part of a national Play Their Way coach engagement programme of ‘Showing Up’ events focused in communities where children are least active, and where a child-first approach that focuses on positive experiences and prioritise fun and enjoyment to help increase physical activity levels.

Play Their Way ‘Showing Up’ follows Sport England’s place-based approach to tackling physical inactivity by putting communities at the heart of efforts to create local solutions with practical sessions at events led by organisations that are well-known and respected within local coaching communities.

Martin Dighton, Senior Coach Developer, UK Coaching, said: “It was great to bring the Play Their Way campaign out into the community and understand the challenges coaches face locally and how child-first coaching can help them. We need more coaches to be aware of, and practise child-first coaching to ensure children have more enjoyable and positive experiences of sport, which will help them stay active for life. In my experience, when coaches adopt a child-first approach, they enjoy what they are doing even more so it’s a win-win for coaches and children.”

Lee Meacham, from Black Country Coaches Club, added: “Seeing these coaches further explore their child-first coaching journeys was brilliant and vital to helping children develop a love for sport and physical activity and ultimately creating happy and healthier communities across the Black Country. It’s important for coaches because it develops them professionally and personally and they can see how supporting children to have ownership of their experiences, through a child-first approach, can impact their enjoyment of sport.”

Daisey Cotterill, Founder of AnyGirl Netball and one of the coaches who took part in the event, commented: “We’ve always attached a huge importance to giving girls a voice in our approach to coaching because they haven’t necessarily had that in sport and in their daily lives and having that voice can be really empowering. Every coach who works with children and young people should be delivering their sessions in a child-first way. Listening to the young people you are working with is so important to making sure they have fun. As a coach, facilitating and providing those opportunities for them to enjoy their environment and have fun is vital if you want them to come back to the next session and develop a love for sport.”

The Play Their Way movement was launched in May 2023 to transform the way children and young people are coached by prioritising their rights, needs and enjoyment in a ‘child-first’ approach. The campaign is funded by Sport England and The National Lottery, is delivered by UK Coaching and led by 16 partner organisations that make up the Children’s Coaching Collaborative (CCC).

To learn more about the campaign, access resources and sign up to join the biggest grassroots movement to transform the way we coach our children and young people visit playtheirway.org