One reason for non-participation in and drop-out from sports and physical activity participation is sports related injuries where especially knee and ankle injuries contribute to this problem. Therefore, the project MOVE HEALTHY: Improving Health and Sustaining Participation of Youngsters in Sports around Europe seeks to develop free-of-charge education material to effectively support sport coaches and physical educators around Europe to prevent primary lower extremity injuries of the youngsters participating in their sport trainings and physical education (PE) classes.
Therefore, MOVE HEALTHY seeks to develop exercise based routines to prevent
sports and physical activity related injuries. The routines will be web-based including instruction videos. The routines will be based on the OPTIMAL motor learning theory and Self Determination Theory. It is intended that the consortium develops – by the process of co-creation with sport coaches and PE teachers – functional sports exercises that can be integrated in real world sport training and PE classes. With it, the project directly contributes to an improved sharing of good practices and develops innovative instruments in order to lower the risks of injuries and enhance sports participation in youngsters.
The objective is to improve the motor competence of the youngsters, as well as to
attitudinal and behavioral changes of the sport coaches and PE teachers during their practice. The ultimate goal of the MOVE HEALTHY project is that the youngsters can enjoy a lifelong, healthy sport participation
Sport injuries are a major reason for reduced participation and drop-out from sports and PE. Refraining from sport participation has negative bearing effects on mental and physical wellbeing, which tracks into adulthood. It is therefore important for youth to be facilitated into lifelong active participation in physical activity and sport, as the importance of physical activity for the health of youth is undisputed. Participation in physical education (PE) classes and membership of sports clubs and are essential for health enhancing physical activity. Despite the importance of sports injury prevention in youth, no broad scale approaches that work in real-life situations with significant positive effects exist. Main reasons for this are very poor uptake and maintenance of current sports injury prevention exercises. Sportscoaches and physical educators experience these exercises as not context specific, time consuming and not contributing to their training goals. Whereas youth perceives these exercises as not attractive, no fun and without any play or game component. These aspects cause lack of maintenance and thus no significant reduction of injuries. Recent scientific and practical insights promote more emphasis on motivation through autonomy and attractive exercise routines based on principles of motor learning which can be integrated in regular training sessions or physical education classes. Purpose: Therefore, the Move Healthy project develops ICT based support video material of routines for and with physical educators and sport coaches, which supports them to prevent sports injuries in youth. This material should be easy to integrate in regular training sessions or physical education classes.
