What Coaches Think

Child-first coaching will look different for each coach and each sport, but the focus on voice, choice and journey as the founding principles of the Play Their Way movement will be consistent.

As a grassroots coaching movement, the Children’s Coaching Collaborative are committed to making sure the campaign development is representative of the coaching voice. During the campaign’s conception, we have undertaken focused exploratory research with coaches, as well as with children and young people to inform and inspire the movement.

The research enabled us to understand and creatively explore:

What the Research Told Us

Research Recommendations

Of the coaches we spoke to, many have given their lives to sport or their community and are very motivated by positive outcomes for children and young people. 

Many felt that coaching is harder work than it used to be, but that they recognise their role is to help young people in a way that goes beyond developing sporting skills.

To inspire and support coaches at scale and to boost the positive experience of children and young people our research identifies that the Children’s Coaching Collaborative must:

• Showcase best practices to demonstrate impact and leverage wider change
• Support coaches to develop their child-first coaching practices
• Deliver wider systemic awareness to facilitate change
• Provide a clear child-first intention to persuade behavioural change