We are grateful, happy, and excited to announce that our project has been selected and approved by European Union's Erasmus+ programme which is a funding scheme to support activities in the fields of Education, Training, Youth and Sport. Baltic Football School together with Latvian Academy of Sport Education (LASE), Siauliai Football Federation (Lithuania), FC Elva (Estonia) and Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) we will be working together to further develop the youth sports sector.
The main objective of our “Somatoscopic and anthropometric indicator impact on performance” (MOTION) project fully conforms with the general objective of the programme, namely protect athletes, especially the youngest, from health and safety hazards by improving training and competition conditions.
The project aims to focus on these specific innovative aspects:
Although the project was initially scheduled to start in January 2021, it has been delayed for a few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will begin shortly.
The first item of the project agenda is Erasmus+ Sport Project Coordinators' meeting which will take place on 9th February and will kick-off the whole process.
You will be able to follow all the news across our and our project partner websites and social platforms.
After a few months of limited opportunities to kickstart the project due to Covid-19 restrictions, we are excited to inform that “Somatoscopic and anthropometric indicator impact on performance” (MOTION) project is now in full speed and significant progress has been made throughout the months of May and June.
To remind, MOTION project is part of European Union`s Erasmus+ programme and aims to develop a scientifically based training methodology to improve physical condition of youth athletes in a safe manner. The project is led by Baltic Football School and together with Latvian Academy of Sport Education, Siauliai Football Federation, FC Elva and Dynamo Kyiv looks to foster cross-sectoral cooperation between various institutions, sectors and methods.
The inaugural meeting took place in Siauliai, Lithuania at the end of May where all the partners met in person and were informed about administrative and financial matters. Furthermore, project timeline, roles and responsibilities were discussed to build the common understanding and ensure the project can be implemented in the most effective manner possible. Naturally, by having representatives from various different sectors and countries in attendance, healthy discussions broke out about best practices and previous experiences thus laying ground for open communication going forwards.
On the first week of June a meeting took place in LASE laboratory in Riga where partners presented methods how to best assess athlete performance in the most objective way. This was followed by identifying potential technical difficulties and obstacles that may be encountered further ahead in the project and best ways to minimise their likelihood. Importantly, partners agreed on the parameters that will be measured to determine the correct posture based on the material that was prepared and discussed between all those in attendance.
Later in the month two meetings took place in Kyiv, Ukraine which were devoted to selection of physical condition tests, muscle strength and length tests and tests of football specific skills to determine young athletes functional, technical condition and body composure with regards to requirements of particular type of sport, age and the level. Dynamo Kyiv provided facilities and the selected tests were performed on their academy players aged between 9-12 to obtain data on standard soMatoscopic (posture, somatotype, leg form, foot position), anthropometric (body weight, longitudinal size, diameters, circumference), functional abilities (muscle strength, length, range of motion) and physical characteristics (speed, explosivity, flexibility) to obtain role model for each age group.
The next action in MOTION project includes a meeting in Liepaja, Latvia where a workshop will be hosted where participants will learn on the how the assessment and tests should be carried out and data collected.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union for being so understanding and flexible around the implementation of this project. In times like these when circumstances are changing so often it`s important to find solutions that work for all involved parties, and we are thankful that we have managed to do exactly that.
