Trauma Informed Sports Coaching

One of our core principles is working in a trauma informed way, both as an organisation and integral in the way we coach. But what does Trauma Informed Sports Coaching mean?

Basketball is one of the best sports for brain health – not many other sports have so much going on, at such a fast pace, with so many people in a small space, and that’s before you factor in the need for accuracy and co-ordination, but it can also offer a great way to help people recover from trauma.

Over 50% of the UK population are experiencing, or have experienced, childhood trauma and we are learning more and more about how that affects a child’s brain and the best ways to help them recover. We can use this knowledge to adapt how we coach so that it enables every child to reach their potential; sadly traditional methods that do not understand how trauma affects a child’s ability to learn can end up losing a lot of players who are already struggling. We don’t want to risk that.

There are many aspects to Trauma Informed Sports Coaching but what makes basketball particularly effective is that it naturally incorporates activities that calm the brain, like dribbling, so we can help children learn how to manage increasing levels of stress and pull themselves out of it quickly while they play.

The high level skills training is still the same, and the extra we add in will benefit everyone as these principles are also what we know help all players perform better, including increasing players ability to stay calm under pressure (and when getting poor ref decisions) and still think clearly. When approached in the right way teaching how to manage stress on the court also provides skills that can help manage stress off the court too.

LDM coaches already do a lot to support our players development and we will continue to learn how we can do more by using these latest discoveries, and as part of this we are committed to training all our coaches in trauma informed sports coaching, as well as sharing this training with other professionals too.

If you want to know more about this (including the evidence base) please speak to our Youth Wellbeing Officer Kathryn (kathryn.hodgson@letsdomore.org.uk)