Sense Sports
Sense Rugby — Sense Sports

So you’re thinking of joining Sense Sports?

We may be biased, but we think it’s your best idea yet. A sports-based occupational therapy program designed for kids who find typical team sports tough.

  • 👥Paediatric OTs alongside trained rugby coaches
  • 🌱Neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, strengths-based
  • 🏉Real teams, real friends, a community for life
Join HereFind your local program
49
Locations
41
Participants
10+
Years running
A Sense Rugby session in progress

When therapy meets sport.

Find your local team

Pop in your postcode

We’ll show you the closest Sense Sports providers and link you straight to their signup form.

Sport skills are life skills.

Kids who play organised sport are more active, more connected, and grow up healthier. In Australia, only 1 in 4 children meet daily activity guidelines — we want to change that, especially for the kids who find it hardest.

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Some kids just need more time, space, practice, or compassion to find their team. That’s where we start.

— The Sense Rugby ethos
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Find your local program
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Sign up online
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Show up & play
  • Develop motor skills
    Coordination, balance, strength
  • Process sensory information
    Manage what their body and brain are taking in, integrate it and make it work for them
  • Regulate emotions
    Notice, name and regulate the emotions of teamwork
  • Work in a team
    Take turns, share goals, be a friend
  • Focus & attend
    Stay with a task long enough to enjoy it
Build confidence
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Build confidence

Sense Sports helps kids develop confidence and self-esteem, learn to follow instructions, wait their turn and be part of a group through team sports.

Be active
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Be active

A regular activity that's their own, learning new skills, with a community to belong to for life.

Have fun
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Have fun

A safe and fun environment with a community that ‘gets it’. Practice making friends, managing emotions and improving regulation with the guidance of experienced therapists on hand.

But it doesn’t always come easy.

We’ve seen the barriers firsthand. For the past 10 years our team has supported 1000s of children to be part of teams. We’re not about diagnoses — but yes, many of our participants are neurodivergent, disabled, or have developmental delays.

We get that some kids need more time, space, practice, compassion, or understanding. Or maybe they need:

Less language and instructions

Pictures, gestures and short cues instead of long sentences. We demonstrate rather than explain.

More movement

Built-in movement breaks, sensory tools, and active warm-ups. Less sitting and waiting, more moving and regulating.

A coach who'll connect

Need to info-dump about your latest special interest? We’ve got you. Need some time to warm-up without forced interaction — no need to explain. All brains and bodies are welcome here.

Jesse Parahi, Olympian and co-founder of Sense Sports
When therapy meets rugby

Our coaches aren’t your average coach.

Founded by Occupational Therapist Carlien Parahi and Australian Rugby Sevens Olympian Jesse Parahi, Sense Sports pairs experienced paediatric OTs with trained coaches to help kids achieve success in a safe, neuroaffirming, trauma-informed, strengths- and play-based environment.

  • Occupational Therapists
  • Speech Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Exercise Physiologists
  • Physiotherapists
  • Trained coaches

Our promise

Sport can be therapy.

So we take it to the field at your local club — connecting you and your family to a lifelong community. Because you deserve to belong and feel safe too.

Let’s kick it offSee our locations