Last night saw Gordon MacLelland of Working With Parents In Sport deliver a webinar to EFL academy player’s parents and carers, as part of LFE’s Online Open Goals programme.
With 500+ parents and carers registered for the workshop, it provided the participants with information and considerations relating to the ‘matchday experience’. There was insight into the experiences of academy players involved in elite competition and how all aspects of the journey can impact on performance, development and well-being.
There is high interest from academies to open up workshops to parents and carers of all age groups in offering an opportunity to learn and reflect on sports parenting for the benefit of all. The immediate feedback has been outstanding with one parent saying, “I will consider more carefully the implications of any comments I make to my son, especially in the car on the way to and home from matches.” With another parent sharing, “I could really relate to the parent journey described. This session helped me to understand from my child’s perspective and the key factors that would fuel his development. It has also helped me to reflect on a lot of processes and behaviours. I have taken away a few key nuggets that should help me to deal with things better, whilst also improving how my son feels and as a result improve his chances in developing into a better player.”
Beyond LFE’s Online Open Goals, the collaboration set up by LFE’s Life Skills Manager Simon Williams enables WWPIS to offer each EFL club access to one online webinar from the following: Great Sports Parenting (U9-U10 Parents), Performance Sports Parenting (U11-U14 Parents), Managing Disappointment & Avoiding Devastation (U9-U16 Parents).
Speaking about the partnership, Simon Williams commented: “There is a strong desire from football to do more for everyone involved in the academy journey, and that includes the parents and carers of players. Without these people, there would be no programme. With such buy-in from clubs, parents and carers, there is an even bigger opportunity for governing bodies to further support parents and carers, and this partnership with Working with Parents in Sport will do exactly that.
“The academy system is unique, and so families being able to navigate it as best as possible is important for everyone making the most of the experience. The recent workshops provided by from WWPIS have been well-received and so this is a welcome offer of support.”
Gordon MacLelland added: “It is really exciting to be announcing this partnership with the LFE following some extremely popular events that we ran last season.
“This new programme gives every club in the football league the opportunity to support parents as part of their parental engagement programme and we are looking forward to further extending our work in football having already worked with a number of Premier League and EFL academies over the last few seasons.”
