Play by the Rules articles - Play by the Rules - Making Sport inclusive, safe and fair

Do coaches need knowledge of impairment to coach people with disability?

July 2017

How much knowledge of impairment, if any, does a coach need to coach a person with a disability? In this article we discuss the issue to help shed some light on a question that's been debated for years.

Community sport guidelines to combat the spread of COVID-19

March 2020

The Australian Government has announced new community sport guidelines to combat the spread of COVID-19, as of 18 March 2020.

Safe Celebrations

July 2017

Everybody loves a club function. They’re a great chance to celebrate the club, get together with teammates and build comradery and team morale. The best celebrations are events where everyone feels safe and involved.

So what’s the issue with blackface?

April 2016

A recent incident involving Australian women’s national basketball team player Alice Kunek posting a photo of herself with her face painted black for an end-of-season dress up party invoked public outrage and condemnation from many, including her team-mate Liz Cambage, whose father is Nigerian. Kunek apologised for her choice of a blackface costume at the Melbourne Boomers party, saying she didn't intend to offend anyone.

When tragedy strikes

July 2017

We all experience personal tragedy from time to time: the loss of a parent, the death of someone else close to us, perhaps a house fire or an accident that results in disability. At times like these, those around us – our communities – play an important supportive role. For many of us, our local sporting club IS our community.

Supporting mental wellness

August 2016

There is a new phrase you are likely to hear more of around sports clubs in coming years — mental health literacy. It is the concept of increasing the ability of players, parents and coaches to recognise the signs of mental illness among people in their club, and to be able to initiate a conversation and point to resources that might help.

Governance is just a word for doing business better

June 2017

Governance is just a fancy word for doing the business of your sport’s board or committee better. But good governance is essential to keeping your club or organisation safe, fair and inclusive. These 10 tips are written to help you and your board/committee do the job you were elected to do as well as you possibly can.

PaRANTING from the sidelines

June 2017

If you have a child who plays sport then aim to train yourself, from the very first blow of the very first whistle, to offer encouragement and encouragement only from the sideline. Learn early how to bite your tongue when you feel you would like to add anything more than this to the game.

7 ways how yelling at officials is hurting children

March 2017

In March the community website from the USA, Switching the Field, published an interesting article that resonated with over 17,000 people on the Play by the Rules Facebook page. Switching the Field describes themselves as “humble members of the greater soccer community doing our part to help the game.”

Coaching kids - making it mixed, fun and fair

February 2016

Junior sport should be all about fun, but it also offers a host of other opportunities for children to gain social skills, build self esteem, learn about fair play, meet people from different social and cultural backgrounds, and develop physical skills.

A male feminist view on women's sport

March 2017

Today is International Women’s Day. I thought it important that Play by the Rules runs a feature on the day to highlight the great progress made in recent times in women’s sport. After all, Play by the Rules is all about inclusion and there’s a lot to celebrate.

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Do coaches need knowledge of impairment to coach people with disability?

July 2017