During last days, we’ve met in Vitoria-Gasteiz of Spain with a group of experts representing four countries: Poland, Slovenia, Finland and Spain. This means that we’re entering an exciting, new phase of the Silver Coaches project.
The goal of our meeting was simple, yet important: we were working together on the best ways to use the experience and potential of senior coaches within sports organisations.
During this stage, we explored three key questions:
- Why do experienced coaches leave sport?
- How can their knowledge and expertise be retained within sports organisations?
- How can we build more intergenerational sporting environments?
The answers came from experience of the Iron Man Sports Club (Poland), Medobčinska nogometna zveza Maribor (Slovenia), Svenska Finlands Idrottsförbund SFI r.f. (Finland) and Universidad del Pais Vasco EHU (Spain).
In light of the reached conclusions, we’ll soon launch the recruitment of senior coaches, who would like to support the next generation of athletes.
The Silver Coaches project builds on the AFTERMATCH methodology and the dual-career model. We aim to create new opportunities for experienced coaches and to share their knowledge through education and mentoring the next generations.
We believe that experience should not leave the sporting environment: it should be shared, transferred and put to work for the benefit of the future.
The project is co-funded by the European Union under Erasmus Sport+.