Play Their Way campaign launches to prioritise sport for children

A campaign to prioritise children’s enjoyment of sport has launched, with experts saying that the method could lead to more Olympic medals for Team GB.

Play Their Way, a campaign launched by the Children’s Coaching Collaborative and funded by Sport England and the National Lottery, aims at putting children’s enjoyment at the heart of all sport and physical activity. According to the campaign, a child-first approach to coaching is about championing the playful and fun approach to sport, and encouraging all children to have the best possible experience in sport. This approach would lead to more children staying in sport throughout their lives, and could eventually lead to more success for the UK within competitive sports.

The campaign, which will work with 2.6 million coaches across England, has launched after a survey by Sport England found fewer than half (47%) of children regularly exercise.

Heather Douglas, head of coaching and policy at UK Coaching, said: “The Play Their Way campaign has been in our minds for around two years, and came together based on some research done by Sport England on the activity levels of children that weren’t that great.

“So we looked at that evidence and thought: ‘How can we bring the enjoyment and fun back to physical activity to young people?’ because that’s what they site as the biggest motivator for them”.

Phil Smith, the executive director for partnerships at Sport England, said that coaching from a child-first perspective could lead to more sporting success on a competitive level. He said: “It’s not necessarily different from most forms of coaching. But Play Their Way is just reminding coaches that the single biggest driver of participation is fun. And coaches have got a lot to