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AI for coaches

As Play Their Way launches an AI-enhanced app to give quick-to-access child-first coaching advice to trainers, UK Coaching's social media campaigns manager tells us all about it.

14th July 2026

Headshot of Rowen Ball, social media campaigns manager, UK Coaching
by Rowen Ball
Social media campaigns manager, UK Coaching

Coaching children and young people often takes place on the move in parks, halls, pitches or sports halls.

Those involved know these sessions can happen after work, before school, during busy evenings or as part of already-packed weekends. But regardless of when or where, they often happen with very little time to stop, reflect and ask, “what part of this process could we adapt so it feels more child-first?”

The only certain thing is that coaches need practical, quick-to-access and trusted support.

A mobile phone displaying the Play Their Way app is shown poking out of a pocket on a coach's tracksuit pants. Overlaid text reads 'Official launch - child-first coach in your pocket'.

The question Play Their Way often gets asked is: "how can child-first coaching reach coaches in ways that work in the real world?"

Now, thanks to our growing community, ideas are being shared between peers but we wanted to make this more accessible for all coaches. This is one of the reasons we developed the new Play Their Way app.

The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.

In any case, the aim of the Play Their Way resources is to ensure that child-first coaching can be applied in a practical context, and the app is a step towards delivering this objective directly into the pockets of coaches.

What can you expect from the app?

Every coach needs support and at the centre of the app is Joy – our new AI coaching assistant.

Coaches can ask Joy questions about child-first coaching and get quick answers based exclusively on trusted Play Their Way and Children’s Coaching Collaborative partner content.

This ensures that when coaches get support from the app it is always rooted in the Play Their Way philosophy, rather than generic advice.

The app gives trainers a simple place to go when they need support, whether they need a quick idea before a session or afterwards, while reflecting on what went well and what they want to do differently next time.

The app is there for you whether you need ideas specific to a particular age group, an activity or the time you have for any given session. Just tap in a few details and Joy will share child-first ideas you can use straight away.

Joy can also answer different questions, such as:

  • how can I make my session more playful?
  • what can I say if a parent doesn’t understand my approach?
  • how do I adapt a game for different confidence levels?
  • what would make this session feel more inclusive?

Alongside Joy, the app brings together practical articles, coach stories, learning content and updates from across Play Their Way.

Coaches can also track their progress and unlock badges as they go with the new gamification element.

We think this is a great tool that will help coaches and will benefit kids too, so if you work with trainers we encourage you to take a look, download it and try it.

And if you think it could help the people you support, share it with them because in doing so you can help make child-first coaching more available without having to start from scratch.

Find out more and get the app

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