In collaboration with Aktive, today Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) launched Good Sports®, an online course for adults who coach sport for young people.
The e-learning course teaches coaches how to meet the needs of young players while enabling them to keep their love of the game. It addresses common issues that adults can bring to sport which result in a negative experience for kids, and it gives tools and principles that create positive and fun sporting experiences. BBNZ is the first sport to take the Good Sports theory and turn it into a nationwide online resource.
The course has been launched as an addition to BBNZ’s Kiwi Hoops and Community Course programmes, which covers the fundamentals of basketball for junior players and development for community coaches and referees.
BBNZ National Director of Coach Development, Natu Taufale, says the lessons are ideal for any adults who want to coach young people.
“Good Sports results in positive sporting experiences for Kiwi kids by educating the adults who influence children’s sport including parents, caregivers, coaches, teachers and sport administrators.
“You should do the course if you are completely new to basketball, but we also encourage experienced coaches to undertake the course to review what they already know and reflect on anything new they might find.
“If you coach children, you should know the information shared in this Good Sports course. It is free, easy, digestible and doesn’t take long to complete.” says Taufale.
The course is available on Basketball New Zealand’s new Sport Tutor Learning Management System and includes three modules:
- An Introduction to Good Sports
- Coaching with Good Sports: Planning and Delivery
- Good Sports and your Community.
Good Sports has been created by expert practitioners and researchers from Auckland University of Technology and Aktive who have developed the research-based resource to address major issues in youth sport such as poor side-line behaviour, early onset of overuse injury, early specialisation, burnout and disaffection with sport.
“Research proves that these problems all stem from the lack of knowledge that coaches have in the development climate,” says Taufale.
One of the people who helped develop Good Sports was Vincent Minjares. He is a Basketball New Zealand Coach Developer and the Coach and Player Development Manager at Harbour Basketball. Minjares says this is a fantastic resource that should be widely used by anyone who is coaching or hopes to coach kids.
“During the formation of Good Sports, our aim was to develop a culture-change initiative for youth sports that linked highly regarded academic-research with practical coaching methods. The result is a course that is both easy to understand and highly effective, no matter one’s age, experience or gender. I look forward to seeing Good Sports become a more regular part of our coaching conversations. It will improve the quality of everything we do!”
On completion of the Good Sports Modules coaches can attend a practical workshop that reinforces the Good Sports philosophy. The practical option provides coaches with an opportunity to discuss and apply some of the key principles. Basketball New Zealand will advise when those workshops will resume after Lockdown.
To access the Good Sports course, click www.sporttutor.nz/bbnz. Then create a user account. You can then view the BBNZ catalogue by clicking on ‘Search Learning Basketball New Zealand’.
The course takes about one hour to complete. All online courses are free to complete online.
Other recommended Level 1 community coaching courses can be found on BBNZ’s website here.
