The RISK Project

RISK grass-root coach education programme encompasses, and is directly related to, the EU Youth Strategy which aims to support the health and well-being of young people. There are serious short and long-term health-related consequences of sustaining a sport injury in childhood, however, injury prevention programmes have been shown to reduce injury incidence in youth participants. Such programmes are usually coach-led and require coaches to have the knowledge and expertise to effectively deliver them.

 

Currently grass-root coaches across the EU do not have access to appropriate CPD events and materials. Promoting good practice for player health and well-being is best achieved by up-skilling grass-root coaches to deliver injury prevention programmes.

 

RISK will develop and deliver a pilot coach-education workshop, with associated materials, in the UK, Spain and the Czech Republic, to up-skill coaches to effectively adopt, adhere and comply with injury prevention programmes.

 

An evaluation of the effectiveness of the workshop and materials will help adapt and refine the final materials. These will be made accessible to a range of sporting organisations to help coach educators deliver the workshop and grass-root coaches enhance their knowledge to confidently implement injury prevention strategies with youth performers.

 

The desired impact at both a national and European level is an increased awareness of injury prevention programmes for youth sport performers and adoption/use of the workshop and website materials by coach educators and by grass-root coaches themselves. This will contribute to improvements in knowledge and understanding of injury prevention amongst grass-root coaches and provide them with the skills to implement and adhere to such programmes in their work. Adoption of these programmes will increase the welfare and well-being of youth sport performers by reducing injury risk and injury incidence and the associated short and long-term health consequences.

​