Coaching approach and player pathway

Coaching approach and player pathway at Aisti Sport

Introduction

Aisti Sport's coaching approach and player pathway were originally created in spring 2020. They were updated in 2023 and most recently in May 2026. The coaching approach and player pathway are approved by the board and are always gone through with new coaches.

The coaching approach at Aisti

Coaching at Aisti Sport aims to follow the club's core values, which are:

equality
encouragement
positivity
honesty
an open and cheerful attitude

Our coaches guide participants and athletes to develop as complete athletes and to grow into people who respect one another. We want participants to be able to develop broad, versatile movement skills and to pursue their personal dreams in sport, right up to international level.

Participants in the club differ widely in age and skill level, even within a single training group, so a coach is required to have the skill to instruct individually and to differentiate. Team games and positive shared effort are central to our coaching, but everyone is instructed and coached with the individual's needs in mind. The club aims to develop every participant into a team player who encourages others, takes account of others' needs, and is committed to their own development. Activities are delivered in a positive atmosphere, so that all participants feel safe to train and to encourage one another onward.

We want open discussion between the board, the coaches and the participants, so that the threshold for getting in touch is as low as possible, so that we can respond to needs for improvement, and so that participants feel their opinions and wellbeing matter to the club. The club operates in accordance with the ethical principles of sport. Of the club's values, honesty in physical activity and sport shows in a respect for clean and fair sport. The club steps in readily where speech is racist or discriminatory. A participant can always turn in confidence to a coach or to a harassment contact person if they are being bullied or discriminated against.

At the start of the training season the coach creates a season plan based on the facilities and the people available. The coach plans the content of individual sessions and adapts the drills to the skill level of the participants present, working on a task-oriented basis. Participants are not required to attend every session, but are encouraged through positive language to attend the supervised sessions and to do other physical activity in their own time. Every participant receives constructive feedback from the coach, along with the key areas for development they can focus on in their own training.

The coach leads, or at minimum gives instructions for, the warm-up and the cool-down, so as to reduce the risk of injury. The coach must also remember to give regular drinks breaks, so that players can look after their hydration and get a mental reset between intensive drills. At the end of the season the club collects written feedback from participants, and the coach can also ask for verbal feedback. At an organised meeting the sport coordinators and coaches go through the feedback and consider areas for development for the following season.

Physical activity as a child and young person

At Aisti Sport, children get to discover and begin physical activity — visually impaired or not — through play and games. The club's Aisti Play sports club has a group or groups for children of different ages. In addition, the club has its own Aisti Games ball sports club for roughly lower-secondary-school age, where balls and side games are used to explore a wide range of sports. The aim is for children to develop into versatile movers during childhood. Physical activity is used to advance children's physical-motor and psycho-social skills, in order to promote health and growth as a person. Versatile movement skills develop a child and young person for independent life and for the sports they will take up in future.

Physical activity as an adult

All adults are welcome to join what we do, in every life situation. Every adult is welcome in our club's activities, whatever their age, sight or background in physical activity. Some of our participants may have become disabled earlier in life, in which case discovering sport as a visually impaired person only begins at a later age, once they have adjusted to a new situation. Starting as an adult carries the same right to begin and to develop as a mover or an athlete. In our activities we increase inclusion between visually impaired and non-disabled people, and we give someone who has become disabled significant peer support in an active, open and safe environment.

Goalball as a participant

At the club you can come and try or take up goalball, whatever your age, sight or skill level. In goalball you can progress from occasional participant right up to the international elite. Young people can try goalball in the Aisti Games ball sports club, at the weekly goalball sessions, and try out competition at various possible tournaments.

Adults can start out in the same way at the weekly sessions. As they develop, a participant can play goalball in national competition in an open Championship League team and, as they progress, move up to being a men's Championship League player or play in the women's Championship tournament. From national level a player can be invited to international tournaments to represent Aisti Sport — in the men's or women's club Champions League (ECL), for example. These are high-level European club championship leagues. A visually impaired player can also rise to national team level as they develop, at which point the national team coach invites them into the programme. In the national team, a visually impaired player has the chance to rise to representing Finland all the way to the Paralympics.

Taking up blind hockey is also possible at Aisti Sport, whatever your sight, age or skill level. At the club you can come and try, and take up, skating and blind hockey at the weekly sessions under skilled instruction. Aisti Sport runs one blind hockey camp each year, where you can try the sport and train intensively for a weekend.

In the 2025–2026 season Suomen näkövammaisjääkiekko ry launched open Championship League activity, in which sighted and visually impaired players can play a tournament-format league in Finland. Aisti Sport has also organised, and helped organise, playing trips to a blind hockey tournament in Canada, where players took part as individuals. The club works with other organisations in the sport to develop it, and helps support international development ambitions.

In blind football, sessions open to all are held during the summer season. In blind football too the coach instructs participants individually, whatever their age, sight or previous experience. The club has also helped organise camps at which people have been able to train their football skills.

Showdown as a participant

Aisti Sport runs showdown sessions in the club's own rented premises in Myyrmäki. You can come to the sessions to try showdown, or develop as an athlete, whatever your sight or age, and no previous experience is needed. As you develop you can take part in low-threshold tournaments run by the club, or in the national Finnish Cup and Championship tournaments. Showdown also offers plenty of international tournaments, in which Aisti's athletes have taken part. Those invited into the national team have competed all the way up to World Championship level.

In blind tennis, anyone can take part in the club's weekly sessions, where you can try the sport and develop in it under expert instruction. Aisti Sport works with other tennis clubs to develop players, both in training and at events. Once they have developed enough, an athlete can go on to represent Finland at international blind tennis tournaments or championships, of which there are also plenty in blind tennis.

Becoming a coach at the club

We do not require a coach to have coaching qualifications or previous experience of our sports. Goalball and showdown are highly distinctive sports compared with more common ball games. The rules in blind hockey, blind football and blind tennis, on the other hand, are very close to their traditional counterparts. That is why we also train and advise anyone who wants to get to grips with these sports. Experience of traditional ball sports and of coaching generally is, however, always regarded as an advantage.

We do require a coach to bring an enthusiastic, open-minded approach and an open mind to meeting all kinds of participants. When working with visually impaired people, verbal communication and taking individual needs into account play a very important part, so a good coach knows how to put their instructions and feedback into words and how to differentiate according to the group's needs.

A coach can contact the sport coordinator and come to get to know the club's activities and practise instructing in the sports clubs or at the weekly sport sessions as an assistant instructor. By decision of the sport coordinator and the board, and where resources allow, a coach can begin instructing at the weekly sport sessions or acting as a team's kit manager. As their coaching skills develop, it is possible to be chosen as a team's principal coach.

Coaches are developed by training them first within the club through personal mentoring. First aid or emergency first aid training is also recommended for coaches, and the club has indeed made first aid training available to its instructors. It is also possible for a coach to take part in coach and instructor training run by the Finnish Paralympic Committee or the Southern Finland sports organisation, for example. In addition, it is possible to apply for the AHOS grant awarded by the Finnish Red Cross and the Finnish Paralympic Committee towards training. Where the skill and the motivation to develop are there, the club can also recommend a coach for national team work.

The player pathway

Level 1: Awareness of the club and the opportunities to take part

"I saw it on social media!", "I heard from a friend…"

You can learn about the opportunities to take part from the club's own announcements and those of our partners, and from social media posts
You can learn about the sports at the events, camps and goalball tournaments the club organises

Level 2: Trying it out

"I'd like to come and have a look…"

Children and young people:

A child of roughly primary school age can come and try out and take up all-round physical activity at the Aisti Play sports club
A young person of roughly lower secondary school age can come and try out and take up all-round physical activity and various ball sports at the Aisti Games ball sports club.
A child's family can join the Aisti Games Camp multi-sport camp, where the whole family gets to try out several different sports together.

Adults (and young people)

Anyone can come and try our sports during the training season at the weekly sessions in goalball, blind hockey, blind football, blind tennis and showdown. The first trial sessions are free for the participant.
Taster events and training camps are organised for participants in the different sports, where you can try both the sports played at the club and many new ones, some of them with our partners.

Level 3: Taking part

"I like the sport and I'd like to train more…"

Children and young people:

The child develops physically, mentally, cognitively and socially under professional instruction at the Aisti Play and Aisti Games clubs
The child trains at regular sport-specific sessions, taking into account a skill-level emphasis or other specific guidance from the coach where needed
The child takes part in the club's sport-specific training camp, where over a weekend they get to train in the sport with other children in a group at their own level
The child is active independently with family or friends, using their own equipment or borrowed equipment. They can get ideas for independent activity from their coach

Adults:

The participant commits to weekly training in goalball, blind hockey, blind football, blind tennis and/or showdown
The participant commits to training independently according to the coach's guidance

Level 4: Competition

"I'm already good enough to compete…"

Children and young people:

The child competes in a low-threshold goalball tournament, where one is held
The child plays in a tournament of the open goalball Championship League as a trial player
The child takes part in the open blind hockey Championship League on the “first line” intended for children
The child competes in low-threshold showdown tournaments or in the B or C series of the Finnish Cup
The child competes in a low-threshold blind tennis tournament, where one is held

Adults:

The participant takes part in a tournament of the open goalball Championship League as a trial player
The participant is selected as a full player in an open goalball Championship League team
The participant takes part in a tournament of the men's goalball Championship League as a trial player
The participant is selected as a full player in a men's goalball Championship League team
The participant is selected as a player in a women's Championship tournament team
The participant joins a team in the open blind hockey Championship League
The participant competes in a low-threshold showdown tournament, in the Finnish Cup or in the Championship tournament, in the series matching their skill level
The participant is invited to competitive blind tennis coaching or takes part in a tournament

Level 5: International competition

"I've trained and developed to a higher level already…"

Young people and adults:

The participant is selected to represent the club in the goalball club championship league for men or women (ECL) or in a U23 title tournament
The participant goes to play in the Canadian blind hockey tournament or is invited to the international blind hockey league BHL (visually impaired players only)
The participant takes part in international showdown tournaments
The participant takes part in international blind tennis tournaments (visually impaired players only)

Level 6: Elite sport and national team level

"My development has been noticed by the national team…"

Young people and adults:

The participant is invited into national team activity in goalball and commits to the training programme created by the national team coach (visually impaired players only)
As blind hockey activity grows, the participant is selected into national team activity and commits to training according to the national team coach's guidance (visually impaired players only)
The participant is invited into national team activity in showdown and commits to the training programme created by the national team coach (visually impaired players only)

Coaching approach and player pathway