Special needs coaching must be carried out by coaches who have been trained to do so and not by someone just sent along with no training in dealing with players particular needs and disabilities.

To this aim all First Contact coaches are fully trained in coaching players with special needs. We work with them coaching not only safe practices in Rugby and Multi-skills delivery, but by using a wide variety of fun, tactile and multi-coloured equipment he gets all coaches delivering fun and exciting sessions which both educate and stimulate the participants.

We believe in individual goal setting for all individuals so that the smallest improvements get noticed and praised. What may suit one child may not suit another, sessions are tailored to maximise the potential of all and are not concentrated on the more able.

First Contact is striving forward to deliver top quality coaching with safe and dynamic practices. We are always happy with any input from teachers and carers to help us towards this goal and of course the participants themselves.

We are also asking coaches to learn new disability sports and practices and to continue to upgrade their knowledge and personal development in this area. This will mean that all our coaches will not only have the skills but a large repertoire of games to coach your children with.

Watch this space for New Age Curling and Disability Golf!!

Who will we work with?

At First Contact we are happy to work with any disability you believe will be able to work within our sessions. We are happy to work with both boys and girls of all ages and with or without carers. I don’t like to categorise people but it may be easier to do this rather than try to cover all the individual disabilities:-

SLD
PLD
MLD
ALD
EBD

NB. Please note we have staff who are trained to deal with holding medication and ensuring children are aware they have to take it. (We can not administer it)

Please see our Activity camp pages for some more fun ideas!

Disability Awareness in Sport Courses

To help other organisations First Contact in conjunction with Special Needs will come and deliver a Disability awareness course to you children, the course is only one hour and best suited to primary school children. The course is delivered by a fully trained instructor and has the following components:-

• Introduction and interactive talk on disability sport
• Interactive talk on barriers for participation
• Practical on Visual Impairment issues
• Practical on helping someone with a visual impairment (using blackout goggles)
• Sign language, spelling your own name, place names etc
• Aiding a hearing impaired person

These sessions are not only fun but are very good at raising awareness of barriers, stigma and social disadvantages are disabled athletes face.