REACT Progress Update - October

Photo taken during BFS presentation, Dzintars Kazaks /Photo: Marek Naaris

“Regional Coach Training” (REACT) is a project that is led by Baltic Football School and implemented together with its partners FC Elva (Estonia), Siauliai FA (Lithuania) and Valmiera Glass VIA/Valmiera FC (Latvia).

In late July 2020, project partners met in Liepaja, Latvia where discussions were held around functionality of potential coaching network platform with the key idea being to ensure effective remote communication and education opportunities. Since then, the work has taken place to develop a platform which not only covers the needs of its potential users but also satisfies its developers by being financially self-sustainable and valuable to all involved parties.

A meeting was organised in the first week of September by FC Elva in Estonia where lead partner Baltic Football School presented the initial version of electronic platform that facilitates educational and training opportunities for Baltic Region coaches. Each of the regional partners contributed by providing their opinion on how this tool could be integrated in their respective countries considering the needs and peculiarities relevant to their coach segment.

From these discussions an idea emerged to update the e-platform to encourage communication, exchange of knowledge and best practice examples between coaches to ensure intra-regional networking opportunities.

The received feedback and ideas were integrated into the platform and updated version of coaching network was presented a week later in a meeting organised by FC Valmiera in Latvia. There the last minor tweaks to ensure the best possible integration into each country were discussed with the aim being to capture the attention of maximum number of individuals through e-platform`s easy of use and practicality in the day-to-day development of coaches.

Meeting in Valmiera 

The aforementioned changes were considered and, in the weeks, leading up to the scheduled meeting organised by Siauliai FA on the fourth week of September, were integrated into the e-platform. However, due to the circumstances in Baltic Region regarding COVID-19, this project meeting could not take place and therefore had to be cancelled.

As it stands, an official request has been made to European Union to pause the implementation of the project due to the inability to safely host and attend the scheduled meetings given the restrictions set by each of the project partner countries. In the meantime, an active work continues on the backend of the coaching platform and further updates will follow soon.