UEFA AND DISNEY’S INCREDIBLE INITIATIVE TO HELP MORE GIRLS IN WALES PLAY FOOTBALL THROUGH PLAYMAKERS

Playmakers employs an innovative storytelling approach featuring much-loved Disney characters to help more girls see the fun in regular physical exercise and football. 

Girls across Wales are being encouraged to kickstart a lifelong love of football through a groundbreaking Playmakers football programme from UEFA and Disney.

Using Disney’s world-renowned storytelling and inspired by academic research showing the positive role of storytelling in helping children take up sport, Playmakers aims to increase the proportion of girls meeting the World Health Organization’s minimum standards for physical activity – currently, just 16% (see WHO report).

Targeting 5-8 year-old girls not currently playing football, Wales is joining UEFA in committing to roll out Playmakers through primary schools, and local communities.

Movement, teamwork, imagination

Unlike traditional football programmes, each of Playmakers’ ten initial training sessions follow the narrative of billion-dollar global box office smash hits like Disney’s Frozen II and Disney and Pixar’s Incredibles 2. Equipped with footballs, bibs and cones, trained teachers encourage participants to play the roles of popular characters, such as Elastigirl and Elsa and Anna, bringing the films’ action scenes to life through movement, teamwork and their imagination.

FAW Head of Women and Girls Football, Lowri Roberts explained, “Our women’s football strategy Our
Wales: For Her is based on our vision to inspire confidence in women and girls to be their best self, and confidence is certainly something we see in abundance in these young girls participating in today’s launch event at Thornhill primary school. Disney Playmakers is the innovative initiative we need to get new girls into the game and ensure their first experience in the game is a positive one filled with fun and smiles!”

As Playmakers rolls out across Europe, new Disney storytelling will be added to the programme.

Creating an environment for girls to flourish

In its early sessions, Playmakers focuses on building girls’ confidence in their movement, encouraging creative thinking and communicating easily with their friends. Later sessions introduce girls to basic football skills, but the programme continues to put the emphasis on making sport fun.

Emma Salmoni, Teacher Ambassador (Thornhill Primary School) added, “I love football and have always wanted to encourage young girls into the game, I’ve never felt confident enough to coach a team and
the Disney Playmakers training really helped develop my confidence to deliver a fun football programme for the girls in Thornhill primary school and ensure that we were providing just as many opportunities for the girls as we were the boys. Nearly every girl in year 3 is attending the session weekly.”

UEFA-funded research into play-based learning

The play-based learning at the heart of Playmakers’ unique approach follows a literary review by Leeds’ Beckett University in England, which was commissioned by UEFA. The review assessed academic research into what motivates young girls to participate in sports, identifying best practice coaching methods to create a safe learning environment. Its findings put particular emphasis on the benefits of play-based education.

The programme is also the result of a knowledge-transfer partnership with the English Football Association (FA), who are currently running the “Shooting Stars” programme in partnership with Disney.

Time for Action

Playmakers represents a first step toward achieving one of the main goals of “Time for Action” the UEFA Women’s Football Strategy – to double girls’ and women’s participation in football by 2024. “If you’re going to teach football through the power of storytelling and play, you have to do it with the best stories and characters in the world, and Disney is the perfect partner for this,” said Nadine Kessler, UEFA Chief of Women’s Football.

“It is UEFA’s duty as European football’s governing body to empower girls to play the game,” added UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin. “Through this partnership with Disney, we will open up football to an audience not yet engaged with our sport.”

Disney’s Healthy Living Commitment

Across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Disney has a long-standing Healthy Living Commitment, using its storytelling to get families more active and working to educate and inspire children about healthy eating. This has led to a variety of partnerships on inspirational campaigns, such as Public Health England’s “10 Minute Shake Up” which inspired two million kids to “get active” and register more than 100 million extra minutes of physical activity.

In Poland, Disney launched its successful #GetMovingWithDisneyJunior initiative, a campaign spearheaded by local sporting champions, which reached more than 30,000 youngsters. The campaign involved the creation of more than 30 films, which featured children exercising alongside Disney Junior characters.

Nicole Morse, Disney EMEA’s Vice President of Integrated Marketing, said: “This brilliant Playmakers initiative is another great example of Disney’s long-term commitment to help future generations lead healthier lifestyles. By using our much-loved characters and stories as a force for good, we can really make a difference and inspire families and children to be more active. So we’re very proud that by partnering with UEFA on the first pan-European girls football programme, we will encourage more and more girls across the region to get active, build their confidence and participate in playing football, all in an environment that has been specifically designed for them.”

Parents interested in Playmakers can visit http://www.uefa.com/playmakers

This is an FAW Trust article (View here)

5 Ways To Show Your Kid’s Coach You Appreciate Them

Appreciation goes a long way, especially for a coach who dedicates many hours to the well-being and development of your child. Most coaches feel fulfilled by their work helping young players, but a little appreciation from parents can go a long way. Whether the season is just started, or you are at the tail end of it, here are 5 ways you can show your child’s coach you appreciate them.

  1. A Thank You Letter. Take the time to handwrite a letter to the coach thanking them for their time and commitment to your child. If you can get some of the other parents to also write letters you could present a big binder of letters form the group. There is nothing quite like a handwritten note.
  2. Highlight Video or Thank You Video. If you or one of the other parents on the team have taken videos throughout the season, piece them all together for an end-of-the-season or thank you coach appreciation video. Don’t worry about making it perfect, the thought will go a long way. Pro tip: Utilize TeamSnap’s video feature to see what some of the best highlights are.
  3. Think of something out-of-the-box. Chances are you and your child know what the coach likes and doesn’t at this point. If there’s something you know that the coach likes, see if you can do something or set something up to show your appreciation and gratitude for them. If your coach has a sweet tooth, end the season with some cookies and make it a team affair!

4. Something sporty. You may have seen the coach exhaust their whistle or ball bag, and rightfully so! Getting the coach something sport-related but also helpful in their role as a coach is a thoughtful way to show appreciation.

5. Get the players involved. While a thank you from the parents goes a long way, so does an effort from the players. An even better solution something that incorporates the players and their families! Put together a collection of letters from players or maybe drawings and gift it to the coach.

There are many ways to show your child’s coach appreciation, and if you have some ideas not listed here be sure to share. Coaches make such an impact in youth athletes’ lives, so it’s only right to show them love this month and beyond.

Article posted in TeamSnap in celebration of our grassroots volunteer coaches (View here)

What To Do And Say When Your Youth Athlete Has A Bad Day

We’ve all had a bad day. Probably for us adults, plenty of them! That doesn’t necessarily make it any easier when your child comes home from school or practice and is feeling down. Now, before jumping to any conclusions or trying to solve your child’s mysterious reason for frowning, here are some tips and advice for how to handle the situation.

Tip # 1: Check in

Good day or bad day, it’s important to check-in with your child. If your child is smiling ear-to-ear or runs right past you to avoid any contact after a day at school or sports, find a way to start a conversation that is more so a reminder that you are there. Your child may spill to you about an instance that happened or may not share anything at all. Take the information as it comes, but show up and show support either way.

Tip # 2: Make sure it isn’t confrontational

Even though you may want to know right away why your child is feeling down, it’s important to let the information come out naturally. Your child may freeze up if you immediately ask what happened and what’s wrong. Focus on keeping things normal and don’t pry. Once your child settles in, it may come out or the bad day may just become a thing of the past.

Tip # 3: If they share, offer a solution

If your child opens up and shares an instance during practice or school that upset them, do your best to listen and figure out a solution. If it is something serious and involves anything like bullying and harassing, these are some ways to handle the situation. If your child is upset about not playing a lot

during practice, ask your child questions like “why do you think your coach isn’t playing you?” “Have you asked your coach what you can do to get a starting place?” Guide, but don’t tell them how to fix everything. Eventually, your child will have to figure out how to get that starting role all by themself.

Tip #4: Focus on something that brings your child joy

Nothing quite like ending a bad day with a big bowl of ice cream, right? One thing you can do if your child is feeling down is to do something that will make your child smile. Maybe it’s making their favourite dinner, maybe a family movie or a trip to the ice cream shop! This isn’t necessarily a reward or validation for coming home down in the dumps, but it is just a reminder to your child that they should be happy. You can even ask your kid what might make them feel better?

Tip #5: See if there’s a lesson to learn

One way to grow from difficult moments is to recognise what happened and see if there’s a lesson you can learn from it. If your child shares with you about why the day was bad, see if there’s something you can talk about with your child that shifts their mindset to a stagnant “this is a bad day” thought to a “yes today was a hard day, but tomorrow’s a new day.”

Tip # 6: Validate your child’s feelings

One way of showing unconditional love to your child is expressing that you hear them, you understand them, and are here for them. This can come across in a number of ways: a hug, pat on the back, hand on shoulder, or words of validation like “I understand today was hard for you. If you want to talk about it I’m here.”

This was written by Celia Balf (for TeamSnap Blog). View article here