Josh is an autistic young person who is currently an apprentice with a charity called Inspire Plus, who are dedicated to positively impacting young people’s lives through physical and well-being activities. We spoke to Josh about how sport and physical activity has supported him throughout his life, demonstrating the positive impact of sport beyond increasing his 60 active minutes a day. Josh highlights the enablers and challenges he faced throughout his journey, providing advice to practitioners and inspiration to those at the beginning of their journey.

"I did a lot of sports in primary school, such as rounders and basketball, we had a nice field we were able to play on. At sports day we did things like javelin as well as the egg and spoon race and sack race. I don’t really remember how well I did but I don’t think I did that well, but as I realised and have talked about recently, just because you don’t do well at first it doesn’t mean it should put you off having the resilience and determination to carry on.

When I moved to secondary school, that’s when sport became a massive thing for me, I played football, basketball, tennis, hockey and lots of other sports. Following school, I went on to college to do a sports course and I did pass but my teachers – who were wonderful – advised that higher education might not be for me. While at college, I was part of the football team and actually since the age of 13 I’ve been part of the disability football club in Lincoln, where I used to go training every Monday.

My teachers have always had the belief in me. Not just them but my family have been really supportive as well. My Mum and my Dad have been really good and really supportive, they always just said do the best you can and that’s all that anyone can expect. The teachers and my family are like role models to me in a way, and the guys that I work with at Inspire Plus, they are essentially my role models as well. I support them through their coaching and I’m starting to lead a bit of a warm up and a bit of a session myself, so I’m starting to progress and improve my ability in coaching and also get out of my comfort zone.  I’m just really grateful that everyone has had belief in me really.

In primary school I just wanted to give everything a go. I think in secondary school I got a little bit of bullying because some people just didn’t understand me or where I am - and I won’t repeat the words they said - but, I’ll give you an example. I was going to play football outside in the playground and they said no you can’t play and called me horrible names which knocked my confidence back a little bit. Over time though I became more confident and when I got the chance to represent my school in county matches, that made me think. 'you know what I’m chuffed with myself.'

People not understanding my disability and being a little bit horrible knocked my confidence but I’d say if it wasn’t for Lincoln Disability Football club who I play for, I wouldn’t have been able to find a club to go to, because there aren’t many disability football groups around in my area.

To get the chance to represent Grantham Football College was amazing because I was playing alongside some amazing players and some of them were more advanced. I’ve always just been like ‘can I give it a go?’  I always try to give things a go and see how get on and that’s really helped with my confidence. Even if it’s a sport that I’m not comfortable with, I’ll still give it a go and see how I get on.

What I liked the most about the club was the social element of seeing my friends. I feel like there’s good teamwork with them. Working alongside the coaches has been great for my development. I’ve been doing some goalkeeper training and I’m aspiring to be a coach one day and I can ask these coaches for advice and tips to progress my own future.

I’m one of those people who when I go into a new setting I feel really nervous, but asking people for advice, gaining confidence and believing in myself has helped me to where I am today. Spending the last couple of years with Inspire Plus has really helped to build my confidence, just spending time with a really good group of guys.

As a coach, I make sure the sessions I lead are adaptable for everyone’s needs, not just for people with disabilities but for people coming from a variety of backgrounds. Some people may have really good abilities, so I try to challenge these pupils and for those that are finding it hard, I slow their progression so it’s at a pace that is comfortable for them. If that was me as a child learning to play basketball, I’d rather learn the skills than be thrown straight into it and get it wrong. Throughout my coaching and my apprenticeship, I’ve learnt that the sessions need to be adaptable for age and ability. I want to help children to take part in sports rather than them sitting in a corner on their own feeling upset and not included.

If I had to give one bit of advice to PE teachers, it would be to do your best to try and help everyone. Some children may have difficulties due to a disability – so it can be hard to see what’s going on behind the scenes with the children. That’s why as a coach I don’t like to judge. We as coaches don’t know the young people personally, we don’t know how they’re going to be. One week they could be upset and not want to attend and the next week they come in with positivity and smiles on faces.

My top tip to someone who wasn’t sure about participating in sport would be to just have a go at your own pace and don’t let other people put you down or knock your confidence. Have the belief in yourself. If it doesn’t go right straight away just keep trying until you can do it. Ignore those who are trying to knock your confidence down – prove them wrong. Tell yourself, 'I can do this.' "