Self-regulating Your Life

ongoing

The world is changing at an ever-higher pace. For the youth of today, it is important they learn the competences that will help them to adapt to these changes. Competences such as taking ownership of their own development and autonomous and constructive critical thinking. Self-regulation is a set of skills, that has shown to help youngsters to develop these competences. The sports setting appears to be a very suitable environment for the acquisition of self-regulation skills. However, the way in which youngsters are trained and coached on the sports field, hardly enables them to actually develop these skills. Trainers and coaches in sports are used to give direct feedback on what to improve. Telling them what to do is less effective in the long run, as it does not lead to autonomous thinking and taking ownership by the players. It makes the players dependent of the thoughts, vision, and feedback of their coaches. It also leads to slower development, less enjoyment and self-efficacy, all necessary for life-long sport participation. Teaching self-regulation skills is about asking players what they want to improve, how they reflect upon and evaluate their own performance and what they think are the next steps to reach their own goals. With this project, we want players to learn to think more for themselves. So they learn to take ownership of their own development and become more autonomous and constructive critical thinkers, thereby taking ownership of their own destiny. Not only on the pitch, but also in daily life, as there is evidence that learning self-regulation skills in one area, also leads to the use of these skills in other domains. The more kids become aware of themselves, their ambitions, and their development, the more they will be equipped to face the challenges of this “ever-changing world” including an important post conflict reconciliation which is ahead of us all to move from a divided path to a shared European future.