What is Good Sports? 

Good Sports is a culture change initiative aiming to create positive sporting experiences for children by educating and supporting the key adult influencers in youth sport – in particular, parents. 

Well aligned to Balance is Better, it recognises that supporting and educating adults is crucial to ensure Kiwi kids have the best chance of having positive sporting experiences and ultimately growing a lifelong love of sport.

Good Sports is a well-established and highly regarded initiative, that was initially designed by Aktive as a Sport NZ funded Active Communities Project and then further developed over the last three years.   

Good Sports National Parent Project 

In partnership with Aktive, Good Sports has been incorporated into Sport NZ's national approach to parents and is being expanded across national and regional bodies.

In May 2022, a further 15 organisations joined the Good Sports project (Badminton NZ, Basketball NZ, Gymnastics NZ, Hockey NZ, Netball NZ, NZ Cricket, NZ Football, Snow Sports NZ, Surf Lifesaving NZ, Active Southland, Sport Bay of Plenty, Sport Manawatu, Sport Northland, Sport Waikato and Sport Whanganui). These organisations join Golf NZ, Nuku Ora, NZ Rugby, Sport Gisborne-Tairawhiti, Sport Hawkes Bay, Sport Otago, Sport Taranaki and Swimming NZ who signed up in August 2021.

More national and regional bodies have committed to adopting Good Sports over the next year.

Good Sports is just one part of our overall approach to parents. Where partners wish to develop their own approach to providing information and development opportunities to parents that meet the needs of their communities there is no requirement to use Good Sports.

For organisations that choose not to use Good Sports, resources and tools will be available to download over the coming months.