MOVE Congress Copenhagen – October 2025

The Danish physical literacy team have been on a long journey embracing physical literacy, sharing it within Denmark and joining practitioners and academics worldwide to engage in research.

The MOVE Congress organised by ISCA https://www.isca.org/ in Copenhagen, provided an opportunity for PL-Net Denmark to reflect on their physical literacy journey so far. With academics and practitioners, from across the world, the Danish team provided an honest reflection of how they initially engaged with the concept and what they had done over a number of years to promote physical literacy and engage in research. IPLA members from many countries joined the PL-Net Denmark team in not only celebrating their progress and impact but also sharing what their organisations or they themselves are engaging in currently. IPLA , Change the Game Sweden https://change-the-game.se/en/about-the-project/ , Sport England https://www.positiveexperiencescollective.org/ , Sport for Life Canada https://sportforlife.ca/ , along with many academics from around the world, called for more research and positive action, sharing best practices related to physical literacy and physical education, sport, environment and health.

In a separate session at the conference, Amit Malik (IPLA) and Charlie Crane (Sport England) also shared the stories of how India and England have made progress in embracing physical literacy. Amit explained how after initially engaging with the IPLA, Pullela Gopichand, a celebrated international badminton player and coach of Olympic champions, embraced the concept and adopted if for his elite training academy. Amit explained how he has worked in schools, universities and with policy makers, sharing physical literacy and encouraging others to adopt the concept as a central goal of their provision. Charlie explained how Sport England coordinated a consensus statement and then positive experience collectives where different organisations join together in small projects to incorporate a physical literacy focus to their work.

The key message was that physical literacy is the golden thread that brings organisations and individuals from education, health, sport, environment and community together and provides a focus for a more healthy, active world.