The National Sport School has been awarded European Union funds for a three-year Erasmus+ project entitled Preparing Student-Athletes for Transitions. This project is based on studies carried out by the school sport psychologist Adele Muscat who found that Maltese athletes face a number of challenges when they migrate to play professional sport overseas due to the tight knit community they grow up in. A number of students from the National Sports School (NSS) have already migrated to play sport overseas and there are other prospective students who wish to do the same.
Thus, the NSS has felt the need to set up a project to prepare student-athletes for transitions and, in particular, migratory transitions. Surely there will be several cultural, linguistic and climatic challenges that young athletes will encounter when they migrate to play professional sport overseas, however, with the right mental and physical preparation these difficulties can be overcome. This project also aims to help staff members in understanding better the challenges faced by these student-athletes and support them in the best possible way to ease transitions.
Ms Muscat has been working in cooperation with a Sport school in Turku, Finland and another in Cyprus. In April of this year, a group of 13 students and three staff members from the NSS took part in an exchange in the Vasaramaen Koulu School in Turku, Finland. Throughout the visit, the Maltese students, together with the Cypriot and Finnish students participated in workshops, discussions, sport practices, games and a conference. The main theme of this first phase of the project was How to be a healthy athlete. In groups, the students discussed and compared their different views on various aspects such as sports and exercise, rest and recovery, nutrition, mental preparation and drugs in sport, among others. Students stayed with host families to experience better the Finnish way of life and culture. Despite the initial challenges with regards language barrier, local customs and traditions, the students managed to gradually overcome these obstacles and started to adapt to the Finnish way of life. They started to acquire the necessary tools that would be needed to face such transitions and there was a very good exchange of intercultural learning.
Before the visit took place, a number of talks were conducted with National Sport School students and their parents to educate on the challenges of transitions. Throughout the next scholastic year, a delegation of teachers and students from Finland and Cyprus will visit the National Sport School for the second phase of the project. Workshops, sport practices, discussions and a national conference are on the agenda. The third and final stage of this programme will take place in Cyprus in 2019.
Despite the fact that this programme is still in its initial phase, the feedback from all the students involved in this exchange has been very positive. They have affirmed that they have truly enjoyed this experience overseas and after overcoming several adaptation challenges they have managed to gain more self-confidence and feel better prepared which will be beneficial for their sport discipline and also for the development of their character.
The National Sport School would greatly like to thank the European Union Programmes Agency as well as the Programme Implementation Directorate and the Ministry for Education and Employment for their help in the running of this project.