Outdoor sports education

ABOUT PROJECT

Outdoor Sports Education

Common project of Naturefriends and Charles University in Prague on promotion of outdoor sports as a method of education

Year 2004 was officially proclaimed as the European Year of Education through Sport (EYES 2004). European Union, which stands behind this initiative, wants to promote sports not only as a popular entertainment with a competitive spirit, but also as a strong educational tool, which promotes fair-play, tolerance and respect to each other. International Young Naturefriends together with its member organisations, International Friends of Nature and Charles University in Prague prepared a project within the initiative EYES 2004, which promotes outdoor sports as highly effective means of education.

Outdoor sports

What do we mean by the term outdoor sports? We are not going to give a list of them, but provide criteria that we use. Under the category of outdoor sports we include only those that:

Are not competitive from its nature. It doesn't mean that they, under some conditions, cannot be used as competitive. It means that they stay equally interesting if they are not practiced as competitive and are often practiced as not competitive.
Use only human or natural power for moving - we cannot include automobile or motorbike rallies into outdoor sports, even though they are practiced in nature.
Are practiced in "unprepared" natural environment and minimise its impact on nature - thus we do not include downhill skiing on prepared slopes into outdoor sports

Education through outdoor sports

Outdoor sports offer unusual and sometimes even adventurous experience. That is why they have become recently very popular and are often offered by commercial agencies to wide public. People in nowadays society increasingly tend to spend their leisure time in nature and often choose outdoor sports as a tool of active rest and recreation. Outdoor sports are, without any doubt, an attractive and healthy way of spending leisure time for many young and adult people. Having only these qualities they would already be worth of promoting within EYES 2004.
However, we believe that besides the above mentioned, outdoor sports have a great educational potential. By their nature they allow for building team spirit, development of social competences, development of self-esteem and self-confidence, gaining positive and respectful approach towards nature…
Even though outdoor sports provide the named opportunities, we are convinced that they don't work just automatically.Outdoor sports, if used for educational purposes and not just for either entertainment or competition, have to follow at least the following principles:

- be programmed into a consciously designed activity
- be led by a person, who is trained in both hard and soft skills
- have to follow set educational aims and objectives
- have to use proper methodology

Hard skills and soft skills

Many of outdoor sports are potentially risk activities - their practicing is inherently connected with an objective danger. For minimising the risk for each of them a large variety of various pieces of equipment has been developed. Skills that allow using the equipment safely and practicing the sport effectively are called hard skills. Every instructor of outdoor sports, who wants to lead a group, must be trained in hard skills on a very high level. These skills are trained in trainings of national sport federations and sport councils.
Project Outdoor Sports Education is focused on soft skills. Under soft skills we understand:

- leadership competencies
- empathy
- communication skills
- programming and educational competencies

We are convinced that a good outdoor sports leader or instructor needs to be trained in both types of skills. A leader needs good hard skills to guide participants through the sporting activity safely and be prepared for any situation that may appear. Soft skills are needed then to make participants enjoy the activity and learn from it something more then just how to do it.

Project Outdoor Sports Education

Outdoor Sports Education is a six-month project developed within the framework of European Year of Education through Sports (EYES 2004). It is a common project of national and international organisations of Friends of Nature and Department of Outdoor Sports of Charles University in Prague.

Aims of the project

Promote outdoor sports as a mean of education, which develops both physical and social capabilities such as teamwork, solidarity and respect
Support the exchange of good practice concerning outdoor sports
Create stable cooperation and partnership among educational institutions and youth organisations which work in the field of the outdoor sports education
Promote effective as well as ecologically gentle methodology of using outdoor sports as a method of education

Project actions

The project consists of four encounters that involve more than 200 people and a production of a handbook for youth leaders on using outdoor sports and outdoor activities for education.

I. Camps

Three international sporting camps take place during the project. Each of them is focused on different outdoor sports, on different target groups and each use different methods of work. A common characteristic of all three camps is that they involve three different groups: participants, trainees and trainers. The group we focus the most on are trainees, who can in such an arrangement develop their skills in real conditions under the supervision of certified and experienced trainers. All the three camps strongly (if not exclusively) use vertical sports as a method of education. This part of the programme is supported by Singing Rock, which provides all the necessary climbing equipment

1. Camp Mont Blanc, 4-11/7, Chamonix, France
Camp Mont Blanc concerned alpinism and methodology of introducing very young children to it. There were 20 young participants from age of 10 till 18, seven trainees and two trainers certified by Flemish Sport Council Bloso. The aim of the camp was (besides providing great educational experience for both participants and trainees) to reflect on methods used during the camp and learn from experience of each other. A comprehensive report from the camp, which will include detailed daily reports, parts of participants' diaries, conclusions and reflections done during evaluation meetings will be ready by October 2004 and published on the project website.

2. Camp Rocks Teplice, 22-29/8, Adrspach, Czech Republic
There will be 60 participants from 11 countries including 10 trainees and 4 trainers. Programme of the camp will consist of several outdoor sports - rock climbing, mountain bike (MTB), hiking and caving. The camp takes place at the same time as the well-known International Mountaineering Film Festival in Teplice nad Metuji, which will be a great opportunity for participants to get to know outdoor sports and especially mountaineering from a very informal point of view.

3. Camp Rock and Roll, 31/10-8/11, Arco, Italy
Programme of Camp Rock and Roll will be rock climbing (Rock) and MTB (Roll). It will be an encounter of experienced climbers and bikers, trainers, students of Charles University and youth members of Friends of Nature. The aim of the camp is to exchange experience and methods of outdoor sports education and reflect on the experience gained during previous two camps.

II. Symposium Outdoor Sports Education, 18-21/11, Hruba Skala, Czech Republic

The most important part of the whole project is the symposium Outdoor Sports Education. It is a meeting of academic experts from European universities, trainers and leaders from member organisation of International Young Naturefriends and VIPs from European Union and national ministries of education and sport. Total number of participants is almost 70 Symposium aims are:
- To collect examples of good practice in the field of methodology of outdoor sports education
- To contribute to the debate about European unified system of quality standards for outdoor sports
- To bring up new inputs for training of instructors and leaders
- To propose the European unified system of certification of instructors and organisations dealing with outdoor sports education
There are three important topics of the symposium:
- methodology of outdoor sports education
- training of leaders and instructors
- quality standards for educational outdoor sport activities
For more information please refer to the official invitation.

III. Handbook Outdoor activities and outdoor education

The handbook will provide a useful description of outdoor games, activities and outdoor sports for youth leaders and sport instructors that want to practice outdoor sports education with their group. The handbook will also contain theoretical part on methodology of outdoor sports education. The hand book will be produced by the end of the year 2004.

Funders and supporters

The project was supported by:
- European Commission, DG EAC under EYES 2004 initiative,
- Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport,
- Singing Rock, climbing equipment producer,
- Centre of outdoor activities in Prague,
- Centre for Outdoor Environmental Education