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The mercy rule in children's sport - help or hindrance?
Kids don’t begin playing sport with the sole intention of winning. So what does it say when one sport implements a ‘mercy’ rule in an endeavour to avoid astronomical losses and ‘preserve the fun’, while another sport eliminates the mercy rule saying it sucks the fun out of playing because it promotes the idea that losing is shameful?
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Everyone matters! How design thinking and universal design principles could help us build better & more inclusive sport programs
Inclusive design takes into account the broad range of diversity in our society such as age, gender, race, culture, language, socio economic background, ability, sexual orientation and other types of difference.
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When tragedy strikes
We all experience personal tragedy from time to time: the loss of a parent, the death of someone else close to us, perhaps a house fire or an accident that results in disability. At times like these, those around us – our communities – play an important supportive role. For many of us, our local sporting club IS our community.
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Safe Celebrations
Everybody loves a club function. They’re a great chance to celebrate the club, get together with teammates and build comradery and team morale. The best celebrations are events where everyone feels safe and involved.
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PaRANTING from the sidelines
If you have a child who plays sport then aim to train yourself, from the very first blow of the very first whistle, to offer encouragement and encouragement only from the sideline. Learn early how to bite your tongue when you feel you would like to add anything more than this to the game.
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Let Kids Be Kids
Parents all want their children to shine on the sports field. Yet there’s nothing that will dull a child’s sparkle more than having parents and spectators pressure them from the sidelines.
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Governance is just a word for doing business better
Governance is just a fancy word for doing the business of your sport’s board or committee better. But good governance is essential to keeping your club or organisation safe, fair and inclusive. These 10 tips are written to help you and your board/committee do the job you were elected to do as well as you possibly can.
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It's not what sport children play, but how they play it that matters
Sport is massive and it’s everywhere: on TV, in videogames, and on the streets. As a consequence, myths about the inherent greatness of sport have grown. One such myth is the belief that sport itself is ideally suited to help disadvantaged young people.
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The rise of emotional abuse in children's sport
Emotional abuse is the most common form of injury in children’s sport. It largely goes unseen but can have profound and long-term effects, not just on the sports field.
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7 ways how yelling at officials is hurting children
In March the community website from the USA, Switching the Field, published an interesting article that resonated with over 17,000 people on the Play by the Rules Facebook page. Switching the Field describes themselves as “humble members of the greater soccer community doing our part to help the game.”
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