The project aims to create a best practice model, issued from activities carried on real sport activities to provide clear technical guidelines for trainers, coaches and sport association.

Measures based on The Students Resilience Scale – SRS wich measures the ability of students to face life challenges in the differents contests.

Within the project, with regard to the issue of resilience, specific recommendations have been developed for families and coaches:

Proposed measures directed to parents

  • Show interest in what the child does at school every day. With your questions, unobtrusively encourage the child to talk about the material they have learned, about events outside of teaching activities and about the relationship with friends. Ask your child to show you a notebook, a test, a skill they learned that day at school, or to tell you about an activity they participated in with friends.

  • Participate in doing homework and learning new material. Actively and dedicatedly listen to what your child is telling you and, based on the presented content, ask additional questions so that the child has the impression of your sincere interest and involvement.

  • Try not to miss parents meetings or other school events in which parents are actively involved or are expected to attend.

  • Praise the child when he/she does something well and on that occasion tell him/her about specific activities or behaviors that you consider well done. Encourage the child to continue with such behaviors in the future.

  • Praise the child even when he/she does not do something in the best way but has invested effort. Explain to the child the difference between a situation when an effort is made in something and when nothing is done. Explain that the end result does not have to be a measure of someone’s quality it is important providing maximum effort and knowledge.

  • Encourage your child by telling him/her that you believe he/she can achieve his/her goal if he/she does not give up, constantly makes an effort and tries to give his/her maximum every time. Be realistic about the child’s potential in order to avoid a situation of additional frustrations of the child.

  • Remind the child to earlier successes that are an indicator of his potential and encourage him/her to work even harder.

  • Remind the child of previous failures as integral aspects of playing sports. Talk about memories of situations that the child experienced as unsuccessful in the past, how he/she felt and behaved then, and how he/she looks at all that from the current perspective.

  • Do not criticize a child when he/she makes a mistake, when he/she does not do the best he/she can. Point out mistakes or failures in a calm and child-friendly way. State that it is expected that everyone sometimes has less successful days, that it is okay to make mistakes, but also that you believe that the days will come when they will show what they know best. Remind the child of similar situations from the past that he/she has overcome.

  • Encourage the child to learn, train and show their various potentials. Show that you support him/her and that you care that he/she shows his maximum.

  • Praise the child every time he/she gives his/her maximum. Show that you see and appreciate his/her every effort. Reward him/her with some little thing that is important to him/her.

  • Show the child that you are open to conversation, that you are there to listen to him/her when he/she has something to tell you. Avoid evaluating the content that the child presents, try to listen to what the child is telling you and together with him/her come to the solution of burdensome thoughts if the child shows the need for it.

  • Each day, or every other day, take 20 to 30 minutes to spend time with your child, which you will use to engage in activities that your child chooses. Fully dedicate yourself only to the child and let that be the only thing you will do at that moment.

  • In order to check your child’s understanding of the content, ask him or her additional questions and let him or her know that you are listening by repeating and summarizing what your child is saying.

  • Do not minimize or exaggerate the content that the child presents as burdensome. Keep in mind that at that moment, even the smallest care for a child can be the greatest that exists.

  • Remember to show by your non-verbal reactions that you really want to hear what the child wants to tell you. Turn to the child, look him in the eyes, lower yourself into his plane, hold his hand and harmonize his facial expression and tone of voice with the content of the conversation.

Proposed measures directed to sport coaches

  • Set aside time to talk to athletes about events that go beyond sports activities, such as family and school contexts. Unobtrusively, choosing the “right” moment, ask athletes how they see and experience the involvement of adults from the family in their school life, how they assess accessibility, availability, faith in their potential and support, what they are satisfied with and what they would like to be different.

  • Keep in touch with parents, but primarily protect the privacy of athletes. If you get approval from the athletes, you can talk to the parents about your observations about the athlete’s behavior and feelings about the events in the family context, which can be burdensome for the athletes.

  • Strive to establish a cooperative and allied relationship with your parents. You communicate with them, not only for the purpose of better sports achievement of athletes, but also for the purpose of strengthening the connection of athlete with adult family members through sports activities.

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