This thesis can be used as an information and material bank for people working with children’s and teenager’s sports coaching. The objective of this thesis is to research current situation of children’s sports coaching, to encourage versatilization of sports practicing through dance and to make the benefits of dancing more visible. The choice of topic was affected by our own interest to combine dance and sports coaching, to create new opportunities for work cooperation and develop our professional skills. The research was done in collaboration with Kempeleen Kiri ry, Oulun Hiihtoseura ry, Oulun Kärpät 46 ry and Oulun Naisfutis ry.

The research topic was: How to develop children’s and teenager’s sports coaching through dance? In addition, we researched whether dance can be used to offer new perspectives and exercise models to support sports coaching. Nonfiction of sports and dance, various research studies and other written material has been used as a source material for this study. The research has been carried out using qualitative research methods. The research material has been collected as a semi-structured thematic interview and observation of practice situations. The material was examined from the perspectives of mobility, coordination and agility, and balance. Based on the results, a movement material bank, which includes dance exercises to develop these physical performance characteristics, was compiled.

The research revealed that the biggest development targets were the regularity of mobility training and its implementation methods, diversification of coordination and agility training, and targeted practice of balance skills. In addition to these, the interviews brought up the desire to develop body control and rhythm through dancing. The development targets were answered with short information texts in the material bank and by developing exercises to target specific parts of the research results.

Based on the research, we can state that dance training can complement and versatile children’s and teenager’s sports practicing, meeting the needs and wishes revealed in the research. In the future, we will try to expand the content of the material bank and take the benefits of dance training to other sports as well.