This clinic is aimed at training coaches working with athletes with cognitive and physical disabilities.
Green Mountain Adaptive Sports will offer a “Train the Trainer” Zoom clinic on Sunday, April 25th at 4pm EDT. This clinic will focus on educating coaches about the various diagnoses they may come in contact with when working with kids and adults with physical and cognitive disabilities.
If you missed the clinic, a Zoom recording of the clinic can be accessed here. The PPT deck is here. Thank you for using it responsibly.
The training will provide coaches and instructors of various sports with tools and strategies to help them be more effective at understanding and managing the behaviors of various populations, and to be more successful at communicating and coaching disabled athletes of all ages.
“We realize that not every coach has the skills and experience necessary to work with athletes with special needs,” explains Marcy Pelkey, an Occupational Therapist at Lamoille South Supervisory Union (LSSU), and a GMAS Board of Directors member.
“We have therapists and special educators on the Green Mountain Adaptive Sports Board of Directors, and we want to support our coaches and athletes the best that we can,” adds Pelkey.
Meg Denton, Carrie Dessureau and Marcy Pelkey, all Occupational Therapists, enjoy a hike together in the Stowe area.
The main goals of the training are two-folded. On one hand, GMAS’s goal is to educate coaches so they can better understand their students’ educational needs, monitor their progress, and deliver a lesson that will be more effective. Ultimately, the training should result in coaches developing more personalized lesson plans to better meet individual needs, and lead to more enjoyable and rewarding experiences for the students.
The initiative stems from a training clinic that Pelkey offered last winter to the Stowe Mountain Resort Adaptive instructors. “Based on this experience, it became clear that while coaches and instructors are very knowledgeable at teaching their sport, sometimes they need a little extra help to better understand the needs, and the various ways to work with people with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy, and athletes with varied learning styles,” shares Pelkey.
“After I offered this training, I got some great feedback about how helpful it was, and how the coaches wished they had the training previously. This spurred us to hold this training for all of our coaches,” concludes Pelkey.
If you wish to attend the training, please register on the form below. Once registered, you will receive the ZOOM link in the confirmation page. If you cannot attend, we recommend that you register anyways, and we will send you the link to the recording which will be available for future viewing.
Contact Pascale Savard at pascale@greenmtnadaptive.org with any questions.
A Zoom recording of the clinic can be accessed here. The PPT deck is here. Thank you for using it responsibly.