CoachUp! Washington

CoachUp! Washington is a strategic initiative between the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association and the UW CLA aimed at providing training to all school-based coaches in Washington State. Within this partnership, the CLA builds curriculum, creates courses, and conducts research on course effectiveness and impact.

The first course in a series of five will be made available online to all school-based Washington coaches in fall 2023. Themes include using sport as a space for skill development, creating emotionally and physically safe environments, coaching for mastery, incorporating student voice, and modeling positive behavior.

CoachUp! is grant-funded by the Susan Crown Exchange (SCE) and is one of ten national projects taking part in the Million Coaches Challenge (MCC). The SCE and its MCC partners envision a world in which all young athlete have access to coaches who are well- versed in youth development and skill-building techniques that help kids succeed on and off the field. The first step: train one million coaches by 2025.

About the Million Coaches Challenge:
The evidence is clear: well-trained coaches are far more likely to promote positive outcomes, while poorly-trained coaches can actually have a negative impact. So why aren’t more coaches trained?

While most youth sports coaches recognize the key role they play in promoting youth development, they often don’t feel supported in doing so. Coaches report that existing trainings are either too costly, too time consuming, too hard to implement, or fail to incorporate youth development practices. The majority of coach training that exists is designed to win games—not necessarily to help kids thrive.

Less than one third of the country’s six million coaches have been trained in youth development practices. This is a missed opportunity. So Susan Crown Exchange (SCE) called on the boldest, most innovative actors to close this gap. Together, we can build a future where our kids know how to work together, celebrate success, manage failure, and are equipped with the skills they need to thrive.