"Kick for the Seagulls - Community Coaching" was developed with Sir Graham Lowe and is a comprehensive library of 12 online courses aimed at inspiring and developing the next generation of community coaches.

The course series crafted by Sir Graham, affectionately known as Lowie, focuses on fostering essential skills, promoting teamwork and empowering volunteer community coaches to create a positive impact.

Lowie emphasises the crucial role these coaches play in the lives of young athletes.

“Many young kids fall through the cracks of education and struggle at school. Yet, when they attend sports training, a volunteer coach can have them in the palm of their hand for an hour.
Here, these coaches have the opportunity to instil good behaviour in the kids. That’s why I am so passionate about community coaching.”

“This program will not tell you how to coach - it offers support for questions that you will get as a coach and offers my view on it based on my experience. These principles will help arm coaches with the confidence they need and help them put their own thoughts into practice,” says Lowie.

‍The Kick for the Seagulls program comprises 12 short courses, each exploring a different coaching principle: 

• Principle 1: Plan for a Great Year 
• Principle 2: What Is a Winning Team 
• Principle 3: Let the Dog See the Rabbit 
• Principle 4: There Is No Such Thing as Can’t 
• Principle 5: Practice Until the Lights Go Off 
• Principle 6: Look for the Person in the Dinner Suit 
• Principle 7: Never Die Wondering 
• Principle 8: Kick for the Seagulls 
• Principle 9: Be Ready and Well-Prepared 
• Principle 10: Keep Shifting the Attack 
• Principle 11: Put Up with the Pain 
• Principle 12: Discover the Power of Your Team Early
  
  

Through these courses, coaches will learn to harness the power of their team and work together to set and achieve goals successfully.

“Kick for the Seagulls means to seize opportunities. Seagulls don’t land where there’s activity or defence on the field; they find open space. It’s about teaching your team to look for opportunities and think outside the box,” says Lowie.

“A big part of a community coach's success and their team's success is about being creative.”

The Kick for the Seagulls program is set to roll out later this year through Auckland Rugby League, providing accessible training resources for coaches.
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"We’re proud to bring Sir Graham Lowe’s vision to life and support Auckland Rugby League in empowering young athletes," said Cameron O'Riordan, VP of Sales at etrainu. 

"This collaboration represents our commitment to delivering innovative learning solutions that strengthen communities and support personal growth through sport."

“What I love about this program is that Lowie has developed it with his own rich experience and knowledge,” shares Rebecca Russell, CEO of Auckland Rugby League.

“The fact that it is online is really important for volunteer coaches who don’t have a whole lot of time. The digital aspect means they can access the content they need to learn at their own pace; that, combined with some practical on-the-field coaching skills, will be really powerful.”

Viggo Rasmussen, General Manager at Auckland Rugby League, also shared his enthusiasm for the initiative. 

“We are working with etrainu to build our coaching capability, which will benefit the game as a whole by educating coaches on the right way to do things and helping them understand the bigger picture of sport. Having Lowie’s leadership and mentorship has been invaluable.”

Community coaching is close to home for Viggo, who recently coached his son’s under-6 team.

“It was quite an interesting experience this year,” laughs Viggo.

“It is all about having fun at that age and including them as much as possible. The principles within Lowie’s program actually speak to that quite a lot and are based around a really good framework for how to build skill development from any age.”
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To explore Kick for the Seagulls for your organisation, click here to contact our team.