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Girls Positive and Safe Coaching
"Girls playing sports is not about winning gold medals. It's about self-esteem."
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Track and Field Champion
(Spanish version can be found here)
Promoting Positive Coaching for Girls in Sport
At Ultimate Sevilla, sport is seen as a powerful tool for growth, connection, and empowerment. This is especially true when it comes to encouraging girls and women to take part in physical activity and team sports like ultimate frisbee. Supporting female matching players goes beyond simply inviting them to play—it’s about fostering confidence, creating safe spaces, and ensuring equal opportunities to thrive on and off the field.
TAFISA, JUF, and WFDF members delivered a two-day training course on 9 and 23 August named Girls Positive and Safe Coaching. The course was designed for coaches and leaders from the Spanish-speaking Ultimate Frisbee community, providing practical strategies to promote positive and safe coaching for girls and women. Our coach Edwin had the opportunity to attend this eye-opening course!
WFDF Participates in Girls Positive and Safe Coaching Pathway of TAFISA
Why Promoting Sport for Girls and Women Matters
Why Promoting Sport for Girls and Women Matters
Participation in sport can play a vital role in the development of young girls and women. It builds self-esteem, encourages teamwork, and develops leadership skills. However, many girls face social or cultural barriers that discourage them from continuing in sport. By actively promoting and supporting female participation we, the sport community, can break down these barriers. This is what we aim at Ultimate Sevilla: making the playing field truly open to everyone.
The Importance of Coaching Tools and Knowledge
The Importance of Coaching Tools and Knowledge
Coaches and leaders play a key role in shaping the experience of their athletes. It’s not enough to focus only on physical performance—they also need to proactively create and foster an environment where every player feels welcome, respected, and safe. This is why learning new tools and approaches is so important.
Edwin found the course to be an invaluable learning journey that will directly benefit the Ultimate Sevilla community. From communication skills to safeguarding practices, the training provides practical strategies for coaches and leaders to ensure that sport remains a positive and inclusive space for girls and women.
What We’ve Seen During the Course
Throughout the program, we had the opportunity to explore four key pillars that shape a healthier and more inclusive sporting environment:
Safeguarding in Sport – We looked at how to assess risks and mitigate them as well as promoting safe spaces for all participants, ensuring that every athlete, regardless of age or background, can train and compete without risk of harm or abuse.
Body Confidence – Sessions highlighted the importance of celebrating diverse body types and shifting the focus from appearance to performance, health, and enjoyment of sport.
Mental Health – We discussed the role of sport in promoting well-being, as well as the need to recognize and support athletes facing stress, pressure, or mental health challenges.
Involving Girls in Sport – Finally, we examined strategies to break down barriers that prevent girls from participating, encouraging greater access, visibility, and leadership opportunities for women in sport.
This journey allowed us not only to reflect on best practices but also to see how these principles can be applied locally to make sport more welcoming, supportive, and impactful.
Pragmatic Strategies to Promote Girls in Sport
Pragmatic Strategies to Promote Girls in Sport
At Ultimate Sevilla, promoting the participation and development of girls and women goes beyond encouragement—it requires concrete strategies to ensure they thrive in sport. These are some of the key approaches we discussed during this course:
Prioritise Safety and Comfort: Ensure both physical and emotional safety with well-lit, supervised spaces, accessible restrooms, and clear anti-bullying protocols. Create a blame-free culture where mistakes are treated as learning opportunities. We have also explored frameworks to assess risks and mitigate them effectively.
Cultivate Inclusive Communication: Use gender-neutral language, highlight female role models, and normalize discussions around menstruation to support young athletes’ understanding of their bodies.
Focus on Development and Bravery: Encourage girls to take risks, celebrate effort over outcomes, and provide constructive, actionable feedback to support continuous growth. Shift focus from appearance to functionality, educating athletes to concentrate on what their bodies can do and experience in sport, rather than how they look.
Build Strong Connections and Community: Empower peer leaders, promote team bonding, include families in the process, and ensure all players are actively involved during training and play.
Address Mental Health Proactively: Recognize the role of coaches as support figures, identify warning signs of mental distress, and promote self-care and coping strategies, connecting athletes with professional help when needed.
These strategies help create an environment where girls not only participate in ultimate frisbee but also grow, gain confidence, and enjoy the sport fully.
Source: Coaching Girl Guide (Nike)
Building a Global Community of Coaches
Building a Global Community of Coaches
One of the most inspiring parts of the course has been the opportunity to connect with a community of coaches and leaders from around the world who share the same mission: promoting women in sport. Sharing experiences, challenges, and solutions with this group has been a source of motivation and growth. It is clear that the movement toward inclusivity in sport grows stronger when coaches work together and learn from each other.
A Word of Gratitude
A Word of Gratitude
We are deeply grateful for the high-quality education provided in this course, and for the chance to meet so many passionate and dedicated people. A heartfelt thank you goes to WFDF and TAFISA for making this initiative possible and for continuing to support the development of positive, safe, and inclusive coaching practices.
At Ultimate Sevilla, we are excited to bring these insights back to our players and community. We are aware that we still have much to learn, and this training represents just one more step in our journey. We look forward to continuing to grow, to implement the tools and strategies discussed during the course, and to build a space where girls and women can thrive, compete, and fully enjoy the joy of ultimate frisbee.
The Women National Team of Spain Celerating their third place at the World Beach Ultimate Championship 2023
🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 🖤
From our Ultimate Sevilla community:
Vanessa Rincones, Maria Vargas, Felipe Herrera, Ricardo Diaz, and Juan Roberto Leyva, we wish to express our deepest gratitude for guiding us through this incredible course. May the knowledge, inspiration, and passion you shared continue to fuel our growth, strengthen our teamwork, and fill our journey with learning, friendships, and memories that go far beyond the field. Thanks to you, we are more excited than ever to keep improving and discovering together.
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