Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Global audience for European iCoachKids project
Under the overall theme of ‘Developing Effective Environments for Children in Sport’, an international line-up of renowned youth sport experts delivered speeches, workshops and demonstrations across the two-day event. Attending coaches had the opportunity to listen to and debate some of the top issues in youth sport, such as talent identification and development, effective season and session planning, holistic coaching, the pedagogical and motivational sport climate, and the role of parents in sport.
The iCoachKids YouTube channel, which contains over 50 educational videos for youth coaches, was launched at the conference, which also saw the premiere of the first beta version of the iCoachKids Massive Open Online Course – a free e-learning package aimed at supporting coaches and helping them understand their role in the context of children and youth sport.
ICoachKids Project Director and Reader in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University, Dr Sergio Lara-Bercial, said: “It’s a dream come true – 200 plus coaches from multiple countries and sports is a massive step forward. It demonstrates a world-wide appetite for the creation of a development community around this specific coaching population.
"Thanks to all the iCoachKids partners, Leeds Beckett staff, Human Kinetics, the amazing speakers and most importantly the coaches who gave up their time to be here.”
iCoachKids is co-funded by an Erasmus+ grant and led by Leeds Beckett University (LBU) and the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE). It brings together another six world-class organisations with a common desire to support children and youth coaches and a proven track record of doing so. These include Sport Ireland Coaching, the Hungarian Coaches Association, the Netherlands Olympic Committee, the European University of Madrid, Lithuanian Sport University, and the Royal Belgian Football Association