Let’s keep Aussie kids in community sports with Embrace Sport Playbook released in time for pre-season planning
The Embrace Collective today released the Embrace Sport Playbook (The Playbook) as part of the new Embrace Sports initiative which aims to improve player wellbeing and participation by making sports environments more welcoming and inclusive for all bodies.
The Playbook is a free and practical guide designed to promote better body image within community sports across Australia. It specifically aims to support parents, coaches and administrators to create sporting club cultures to prevent young people dropping out of sports and other physical activity because they feel judgement, shame and embarrassment about their bodies within their sport.
This national initiative from The Embrace Collective, the health promotion charity run by 2023 Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt and international body image expert Dr Zali Yager, is a practical resource, drawn from the latest research and evidence, that empowers clubs and coaches to create safe, supportive and inclusive environments for all participants, especially young people.
Ms Brumfitt said that sport is synonymous with Australian culture, but with more than 60% of girls saying that feeling judged is a barrier to engagement in sport and physical activity, it was time to shine the spotlight on sport and body image.
“The statistics have told us that sport presents a number of challenges for young people. There is an urgent need for a cultural shift to create an inclusive environment that encourages players to stay in their sport for longer.
“The Playbook directly addresses these issues, providing actionable steps for clubs and coaches to negate some of the challenges that are creating a barrier to people participating in sport,” Ms Brumfitt said.
Kieren Perkins, CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, who wrote the foreword in The Playbook, agreed.
“The Embrace Sport Playbook is a timely and important reminder that sport should never focus on what we look like while we play - sport should always be about having fun. This Playbook unlocks simple ways to ensure everyone has a rewarding sporting experience from day one,” he said.
Recent statistics state:
61% of girls reported ‘feeling judged’ as a significant barrier to engaging in sport and physical activity (1).
65% of girls and 44% of boys agreed that they don’t like others watching them when they are playing sport (1).
The Embrace Sport Playbook is based on research in the area of body image, sport and physical activity, drawn together by Dr Angela Hinz, Lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and Dr Zali Yager, Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University.
Dr Yager said that The Playbook is the coming together of research and lived experience in this area.
“We went right back to the research that has been done in this space, to look at what the science suggests could support young people to feel like they want to engage in sport and physical activity.
“We hear so many stories, from young people in our Youth Crew, and from people across all sports around Australia, about that one comment that has stuck with them for life, or made them drop out of the sport that they loved, or the fact that the uniform turned them off trying something to begin with. So many of these things could have been avoided by an awareness among coaches, parents and administrators.
“The Playbook takes these learnings and shows clubs how to apply them in a really simple, accessible way - to make small, practical changes that can have a really big impact,” said Dr Yager.
To support sports clubs in implementing positive changes, The Embrace Collective is excited to offer a 'pre-season release' of the Embrace Sport Playbook available for free from theembracehub.com ahead of the 2024 season. Stage two of the program will be announced early next year and build on The Playbook launched today.
Embrace Sport is part of the Embrace Kids Australia initiative, which has received grant funding from the Australian Government. Embrace Kids Australia aims to prevent body image issues and eating disorders by improving protective factors and reducing risk factors in all the environments where young people live, learn and play.
Other resources available for educators include:
Body Blocks by Embrace Kids - A free professional learning program specifically designed to support early childhood educators to empower young children to develop positive relationships with their bodies, food and movement, right from the very beginning of their lives.
Embrace Kids Classroom Program - The Embrace Kids Classroom Program brings the best of the EMBRACE KIDS film to every school in Australia for free. This curriculum-aligned program is for students in Years 5 & 6 and Years 7 & 8, and includes five lesson plans, clips from the EMBRACE KIDS film, associated evidence-based classroom activities, slides, worksheets and a teacher guidebook.
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