Effective training and psychological approach to young cross-country skiers

The international project " Effective training and psychological approach to young cross-country skiers " was realized in 2018 and co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme. The initiator and later on the lead coordinator of the whole project was the sport club SK SKOL from the Czech Republic (Brno). Three other cross-country skiing partner clubs from Germany,Austria and Slovakia, participated on the activities of the project as well. The project was carried out in close cooperation with the Czech Ski Association, their representatives supported the activities of the project and attended most of the workshops. The overall goals of the project were to promote cross country skiing among young people, increase the attractiveness of this sport and create more opportunities to perform cross-country skiing in urban and sub-urban areas. This was achieved through the cross-border mobility of volunteer coaches and young athletes, as well as through sharing of best practice and knowledge exchange in the field of cross-country skiing among the participating clubs.There were four workshops organized within the lifespan of the project, one in each country (Czech Republic / Nové Město na Moravě, Germany - Dresden, Slovakia – Kremnica and Austria - Murzzuschlag). With regard to the content, each workshop covered three main topics, namely training methodology, psychological work with young skiers and management of the club. The theoretical part of the workshop (presentations, lectures, etc.) was always completed with the practical session/exercises with kids (skiing, mental coaching, etc.). All stakeholders "trainers - young skiers - parents" had the opportunity to further discuss various topics with the counterparts from other participating clubs. The last fifth meeting took place in the Czech Republic and was used to summarize the whole project and to prepare the final outputs.The project resulted in the final activity, namely in a set of guidelines which contain good practice examples from each participating club and cover all three main aspects, such as training methodology, sport psychology and management of the club. The guidelines serve as a didactic material to all potential stakeholders (trainers, skiers and parents) and will be further provided to national/regional ski sport associations who could use it also for the policy development at national level.