iCoachKids Literature Review

Millions of children and young people take part in sport and physical activity across Europe every day. However, the majority of their coaches are either not qualified or hold lower level generic qualifications that do not prepare them specifically to work with this age-group.

iCoachKids (iCK) is an international, collaborative, multi-agency, Erasmus+ co-funded project aiming to support the development of a Specialist Children and Youth Coaching Workforce across the EU to ensure all youth sport participants have a positive experience led by suitably trained coaches.

This literature review is a central piece of iCK. It has provided the necessary evidence to aid the development of a European Coaching Children Curriculum to guide those developing training opportunities for coaches of children and young people in the European Union and beyond. The literature review and the ECCC are also informing the development of three Massive Open Online Courses during 2018 and 2019 that will be the final outputs of the project.

The results of the review indicate that children's sport should be:

• FUN

• Informed by a holistic approach to child development

• Ensure wide access and participation

• Provide developmentally appropriate opportunities to train, play and compete

In light of the findings of the review, the iCK expert group have developed the iCK Pledge which includes 10 Golden Rules for Coaching Children that coaches and sport clubs should adhere to in order to guarantee positive experiences.

In addition, the iCK Team have created a Practical Summary of the literature review and The iCK Pledge to provide clear and pragmatic advice to coaches on the ground. 

We look forward to hearing your views and experiences using the iCK resources on @iCoachKidsEU