Sports coach
How to read the stories

Sports coach

Anyone new to sport or exercise needs coaching to learn the basic skills so they can take part.

Meet the instructor or coach before attending the first time to discuss what they can do to help you or the person you support take part successfully. Often they will need some information about you to include you fully in a sports session. You can help them yourself by telling them what you can do and how they need to communicate with you to help you learn the rules and play the game.

Coaches can be reassured that once they get to know someone, it is likely that communication will become easier. They need to understand the new person and to make sure that they are meeting that person’s needs fully.

Nearly all sport and exercise activities can be adapted and made accessible for a disabled person. Each has a skill sequence, rules and scoring, playing area and equipment that can easily be changed so that everyone can participate successfully.

Adapting the skill sequence means that the coach must look at the sports movements, break them down into smaller parts and find which ones someone cannot do. The coach can then look for different ways to change this step so that the person can learn a skill or the rules of a game and take part successfully. You may need to repeat a set of actions many times before the new skill becomes natural.

Adapting equipment might include using ramps to roll a ball, or a tee stand to hold a ball, so that you can hit the ball off it with your bat.

Adapting the rules might mean lowering the net or allowing a two-handed bounce in basketball.

Adapting an environment might mean making the playing court smaller or having people play in allocated zones.

How to read the stories

There is no right or wrong way to read the stories.

Some people are not used to reading stories. Start at the beginning and read the story in each picture. Encourage the reader to move through the pages at their own pace.
Encourage the person to tell the story in their own words. You will discover what they think is happening, what they already know, and how they feel. If you are using the pictures to help explain a procedure to someone, you may need to describe or clarify the actions being shown in each picture to help them understand. Try not to challenge the reader(s) or suggest their ideas are wrong.
Some pictures may be more difficult to understand. It can help to prompt the people you are supporting, for example:
• Who do you think that is?
• What is happening?
• How is he or she feeling?
• Do you feel like that? Has it happened to you/ your friend/ your family?
Allow people enough time to follow the pictures at their own pace. Allow time for discussion of each picture.
Some people may benefit from reading the larger story from which the extract has been taken. This will allow them to explore their feelings and experiences in more depth. To buy the complete book, follow the link to the bookshop that appears at the end of the story.