The joy of exercise through good instruction

The joy of exercise through good instruction

Last autumn, the City of Espoo started offering training for children’s and young people’s sports instructors to encourage all children and young people to exercise.

The sports instructor training has a social aim – to provide guidance for instructors and develop the model for recreational exercise, so that children and young people can experience the joy of exercise without any greater goals. Recreational exercise can easily become competitive, and for many, that is where their enthusiasm dies.

The instructor training, which lasts one semester, is led by physical education teacher Sanni Castrén from Kolmen Kampuksen Urheiluopisto. The training pays particular attention to instruction skills that help to make exercise fun and motivating.

“When instructors learn to plan their lessons so that they are diverse and move smoothly from one exercise to another, it keeps children and young people interested. Then, exercise can become a life-long habit,” Castrén says.

One of the instructor training participants is avid footballer Bajram Peci, who is the coach for the boys’ hobby group at Leppävaaran Pallo and also the soon-to-be head coach at Helsingin Ponnistus.

“The instructor training is very important and good. I learned that, during practice, not everything needs to be related to the sport itself, but rather, practice can include games and exercises. Children should always want to come to practice again,” Peci says.

His aim is to focus on his career as a coach and, in this way, help children move forward in their lives.

“Family is my number one, and football is like my second family. My own coach in Kosovo was a life mentor for me, and that is what I would also like to be.”

Text: Jaana Kalliokoski 

This article has originally been published in the Espoo Magazine 1/2024.
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