The Rugby Football League (RFL) is proud to announce that it is now a ‘Play Their Way Community Builder’ and will be championing child-first coaching in local communities – starting with a pilot project alongside Leeds Rhinos Foundation.
Being a Community Builder means the RFL will now be one of the leaders of the grassroots movement ‘Play Their Way’, building a network of coaches who will ensure children’s voices are heard and their choices respected as part of all sport and physical activity. Research from the Play Their Way campaign indicates that the majority of coaches align with the idea of child-first coaching, yet nearly a third of them say they don’t apply the behaviours of it in their coaching sessions.
Active partnerships and coaching organisations were invited to apply for a limited number of £5,000 contracts to grow a localised network of child-first coaches. The pilot project will focus on meeting the needs of the community to best support children and young people, to feel empowered to collaborate with their coaches and play an active role in leading their individual sporting journey.
The RFL will continue to advocate and champion a child-first coaching approach within the local community, with the wider objective of ensuring everyone has fair and equal access to sport and physical activity.
As part of the pilot project, UK Coaching – the sole organisation to support the nation’s three million coaches on best practice, learning, and research – will be deploying their coaching team to provide specialist support to help guide the pilot project.
RFL Community Coach Development Manager, Chris Spurr, said:
“We are currently changing our playing offer across the community game from under 6 to under 9 from 2024-2027, implementing Touch/Tag up to under 9, where contact will be introduced during the playing season.?
“We saw this as a great opportunity to run a localised programme with Leeds Rhinos Foundation to support and educate coaches at under 6 and under 7 years groups in the lead up to the 2025 season to foster a child-centred approach and embrace the new playing format.
“Both the RFL and Leeds Rhinos Foundation believe that children should be at the centre of coaching and that they should create their own journey within the sport. All participants should be able to enjoy the sport and get equal development opportunities through child first coaching.”
Heather Douglas, Head of Coaching and Policy at UK Coaching, added:
“We are delighted to continue our grassroots led approach and support more organisations to engage their peers and become advocates for a child-first rights respecting approach to coaching.
“The community benefit that we see thanks to great coaching is profound, and it is so important that coaches are correctly supported to be their best and embed a child-first approach in everything they do. Play Their Way is working at a local level to make a national change in how young people are treated in sport and physical activity – it is our mission that every child has their right to be heard, play, develop and be respected throughout their journey in sport and physical activity.”
The Play Their Way campaign was launched in 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 and is led by the 17 partner organisations that make up the 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 www.playtheirway.org.