The Lithuanian Sport University has been implementing the Nordplus Horizontal project

Nordic and Baltic sports researchers and practitioners have set themselves the ambitious task of making the job of young coaches easier and helping them to cope with the challenges of early career through digitalization processes.

Three years the Lithuanian Sport University has been implementing the Nordplus Horizontal project “Digitization in the Coaching Process Across Nordic-Baltic Countries”.

The project is unique that connects both higher education institutions and non-academic institutions: sports clubs, schools and associations. This gives the opportunity not only to learn about research and innovative methodologies, but also to hear from practitioners who also have the opportunity to develop, participate in research and gain professional knowledge.

“There is now a wide range of digital tools available to help monitor, plan and evaluate the training process. However, their implementation is time-consuming, costly and requires specific expertise. As a result, the practical application of these solutions is still fragmented. At the beginning of the project, we carried out an in-depth study using questionnaires to find out where coaches need the most help. The surveys showed that the greatest need is among young coaches facing similar challenges in all participating countries. Meanwhile, professionals are often assisted by sports scientists who use advanced, but expensive and not universally available, tools to monitor sports performance,” says Inga Lukonaitienė, a researcher at the Lithuanian Sport University.

During the first phase of the project, sports scientists from Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania aimed to provide coaches with the latest research-based information. Theoretical and practical knowledge was provided, and discussions were held on how to apply it effectively in coaching.

The project started by bringing together higher education researchers, academics and young and experienced Nordic and Baltic coaches to find out what competences they lack in their daily work with modern technologies.

Through a questionnaire survey, the researchers found out what digital technologies coaches already use in their work, what knowledge is still missing and how important it is to introduce innovative methodological technologies in the testing of athletes during training.

Representatives from the participating countries had the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge, and during visits to each partner country, participants learned about their coach education systems and took part in various practical sessions. All the experience, knowledge and research has been compiled into an e-module for trainers:

“We have put together the necessary information on how and which digital tools to use to design and evaluate training and exercise. The aim was not to introduce more apps to trainers, but to give them the knowledge to choose the right one, to develop their own strategy. I am pleased that our efforts have not gone unnoticed. We have won the competition and we will continue this project. In the second phase, we will develop a platform that will allow each individual to create his or her own training strategy”, says Daniele Conte, Project Coordinator and Researcher at the Lithuanian Sport University.

All the experience and knowledge presented on the application of digitalization is based on research and science. This information is available to all partner countries in each participating institution.

The project also brings together top Nordic and Baltic researchers, professors and lecturers such as Daniele Conte, Thomas Bredahl, Nicklas Stott Venzel, Marco Pernigoni, Inga Lukonaitienė, Francesco Coletta, Jūratė Stanislovaitienė, Kristjan Halldórsson, Ingi Þór Einarsson, and other researchers.

The Nordplus Horizontal project “Digitalization in the Coaching Process Across Nordic and Baltic Countries” has been running for more than three years.

The Nordic-Baltic Coach Training Network has been in operation since 2009 and all the three-yearly phases of the project was coordinated by the Lithuanian Sport University. The Coach Training Network has been expanded and strengthened over the years, inviting new Nordic and Baltic institutions to join new Nordic-Baltic countries.