Sport "MyWAY", Multisport Coaches for Young Athletes

Sport MyWay was envisaged as an offspring of the Erasmus+ Sport project Sport&Support which promoted the concept of multisport for all.Coaches are key figures within the sport movement. They represent a link between the Sport Clubs and the grassroots sports level. Therefore in the project we aimed to create a new model of identity, emphasising the common features of the different coaches and conveying them into an authentic and unique Multisport Approach - represented in the Multisport Programme. The purpose of the Programme was to define the approach and state the exercises with which the motor and physical development of children age 6-11 could be optimally influenced, especially in terms of skills.The Expert Group that was established within the project had an important role to explore the objective situation, find appropriate models that can be applied in all European countries and schools, define the Multisport Programme and write the Multisport Handbook. The in-depth needs analysis noticed that in most partner countries the physical education in schools was in fact seriously lacking programmed and systematic physical and motor development practising. Due to this, the main project objectives became: •Creating and establishing a new definition and role in the sports panorama: the Multisport instructor - stressing the universality of physical and motor skills for all children. Instructors have been educated– thanks to observation and evaluation – to better understand the sport programme that can best suit children attitudes, behaviour, capacities and passion.•Defining a specific Multisport programme through the creation of the Multisport approach for young athletes - Age 6 – 11 years handbook.•Spreading this knowledge, starting from the specific team of trainers educated through the programme and making them meet other trainers and teachers that would be implementing the Multisport programme.The project implementation included:•Formation of Expert Group, performing analysis and preparing for programme and handbook creation, drafting initial Multisport handbook and finally its completion and distribution.•Training of multisport instructors in Belgrade seminar.•Dissemination seminars to spread the multisport approach to other trainers, young athletes, parents and local communities.•Multisport activities for young children in schools and/or clubs.•Participation in the Multisport Summer Camp in Zagreb.The main visible output result of this project was the Multisport handbook made by the Expert Group. This handbook has become the main legacy of this project and stays available for use and implementation after the project end. The handbook was first implemented in the education seminar of the instructors in Belgrade and after that the Instructors took the handbook to their own countries and spread the knowledge among other trainers. This knowledge was implemented in events organised by the partners and also in schools as a mean of improving physical education.It was interesting to see how one concept became implemented in different ways in different countries. Some of the clubs entered the gym classes but most of them, due to certain legal limitations were not able to enter schools. For instance HAŠK Mladost entered the school classes and organised their activities in collaboration with the teachers, Aalborg made their activities as extracurricular, Crvena Zvezda, Olympiacos and Lazio organised multisport demonstrations during classes, while Sporting and APOEL organised their activities by bringing the children to their sport facilities.The final camp was used as a method of exchanging ideas, good practices as well as problem interpretations regarding the handbook, among the partners in project.