01 November 2021

Grassroots and volunteer coaches play a vital role in keeping kids engaged and passionate about sport. Good coaching goes beyond physical skills training; it involves the development of life skills, confidence, resilience, and social participation, all of which are critical skills on and off the court.

Team Girls was established in response to an alarming statistic - almost 50% of teenage girls stop playing sport by the time they leave high school (2019 Suncorp Australian Youth and Confidence Report). Suncorp are committed to promoting the benefits associated with ongoing sports participation.  By remaining engaged in sport, girls are able to equip themselves with skills, knowledge and confidence that transfer beyond the sporting environment and into better performance in the classroom, the boardroom and wellbeing in their general life.

Ultimately, we all have a role to play in building our future generations of confident girls, regardless of our level of experience as a coach, and that’s why Team Girls Ambassador and Assistant Queensland Firebirds Coach, Clare Ferguson in association with Sport Australia has developed ‘In Their Corner: A Guide for parents coaching young athletes’.  This free resource is designed as an introduction to Sport Australia’s Physical Literacy Framework and to help get the ball rolling with ideas around how it could be used when coaching. Put simply, physical literacy is holistic lifelong learning through movement and physical activity with current evidence suggesting that if we develop our physical literacy at an early age, then we are more likely to remain active for life.

Clare understands that taking on a coaching role for children can be daunting and her objective is to make life easy for coaches, giving them the skills and techniques to develop the team both as athletes and as people.

Suncorp Team Girls Ambassador Clare Ferguson shares her coaching secrets