Basketball Ireland offering 'autism in sport' training to coaches

Basketball Ireland is also planning to roll out disability inclusion training courses as part of the programme. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

A new course has been launched by Basketball Ireland aimed at ensuring coaches are able to give the best possible experience to players with autism.

The Autism in Sport course, which is being run alongside Active Disability Ireland, will provide credits towards coaching qualifications for participants.

Paul Carr, grants and participation manager at Basketball Ireland, told the Irish Examiner that this motivation was key to stressing the importance of such training for coaches.

“We see inclusion as extremely important and, in my head, it shouldn’t really be an option. For us, it’s the same as having public liability insurance or your coaches having licences. It’s not just a box ticking exercise,” Carr said.

“We want to change the culture and bring it to the heart of basketball. Within our club standards, our minimum standard for the bronze mark means they must have a disability inclusion officer, a disability inclusion policy, and have signed up to the Active Disability Ireland charter.” 

The free online course is part of the Basketball for All programme, which is run by the national governing body to improve diversity and inclusion across the sport.

“We started the Basketball for All programme just after covid. As part of that, we run courses to educate basketball coaches. We’re conscious that we want to be able to cater for everyone,” Carr said.

“We’ve a lot of kids in basketball with autism and we want to make sure our coaches are equipped to give them the best experience possible.” 

Basketball Ireland is also planning to roll out disability inclusion training courses as part of the programme. Carr said that this type of training can help coaches become better at working with all players.

“There’s a lot to learn from a coaching point of view as well. One of the key things of working with people with disabilities in the sporting world is learning how to tailor lesson plans to individual needs,” he said.

“That’s something we need to bring in and learn as coaches ourselves. Not everyone learns the same way. We have to be able to coach the individual so they have the experience and support required to get the best out of them.” 

Basketball Ireland was the first national governing body to receive the silver and bronze awards from Active Disability Ireland. Carr said that this is only the beginning of the organisation’s work on inclusion.

“We have a lot more work to do but we have started positively. It’s something that is front and centre of the entire organisation.”