Every year, thousands of Latvian youth start sports, hoping for high achievements and healthy development. Today, talent and dedication alone are not enough to achieve these goals, because the key to success is also found in the systematic monitoring of health and physical abilities, which allows increasing the effectiveness of training and reducing risks. The state research program “Sports” has been designed to address the need, but its ambitious mission collides with a painful reality – insufficient interest of coaches.
IN BRIEF:
The state research program “Sports” is historically the first such ambitious initiative in Latvia, to which the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM) has allocated approximately 4.2 million euros. The purpose of the program is to promote research in health and sports science, strengthen the connection between research and the sports industry, develop a data-based scientific base, as well as create new knowledge and approaches to ensure the sustainability and efficiency of sports.
It is as a result of this idea that the most important sports project of recent years – “Innovations, methodologies and recommendations for the development and management of the sports industry in Latvia” (IMRSportsLV) has been taking place since 2024. Scientists from five universities are involved in the research, and it will continue until the end of 2026.
Awaiting the involvement of coaches
One of the directions of the IMRSportsLV project is to develop knowledge and research methods about athletes’ health, functional abilities, training methodologies and approaches to improving the effectiveness of results, focusing on three target groups: representatives of adapted sports and folk sports, as well as children and young people involved in sports.
Riga Stradins University (RSU) associate professor and researcher Dace Reihmane admitted in a conversation with LSM.lv that the project is currently stagnating. Low involvement of coaches complicates the study, which offers young athletes various analyses, including blood biochemistry, measurement of physical performance, as well as identification of muscle imbalances and mental health risks.
“The Ministry of the Interior has clearly defined the tasks of the project and the state order – to obtain data on young athletes and provide recommendations for improving their health, however, the coaches are not responsive enough for us to check these young people,” said Reichmane.
Faced with the need for alternative data collection methods, parents were invited on social media in August to register their children for health checks.
The number of participants increased, thus confirming the concern of parents for the health of their children, but the question remained relevant – why coaches still avoid cooperation.
In order to find out the reasons for reticence, the researchers developed a survey questionnaire that encourages sports school coaches to evaluate the implementation of a scientifically based methodology in the training process. The questions highlighted potential obstacles such as lack of time, poor knowledge of foreign languages, and an insufficient range of scientific research in the respective sport.
Reichmane emphasized that the content of the questionnaire is not based on the researchers’ assumptions. On the contrary, it includes factors identified by experts in the sports industry. Ten experienced Latvian coaches with higher education and at least ten years of experience were interviewed for the development of the survey, including women’s volleyball team coach Inguna Minus.
“In principle, it is a survey created by the coaches themselves, from which we have taken the essence to make the work easier and for the rest to only put the most appropriate tick,” she explained.
Although approximately 3,500 coaches are registered in Latvia, the survey has so far attracted only 190 respondents.
In search of solutions, the researchers approached the Ministry of Education and Sports and the directors of sports schools, as well as held a seminar “How data on a child’s health and functioning can help to organize a coach’s work”, but the efforts have not yielded tangible results.
Normunds Vārpa, the leading researcher of Riga Technical University’s (RTU) Liepāja Academy, discovered that motivating coaches to participate in research is not as easy as it might seem. “Coaches are given the chance to shake their hearts out, but there’s no return, so researchers also get a sense of doom,” he admitted.
Without data, there are no solutions
Vārpa points to a fundamental problem – there is a lack of information about the preparation of young athletes in Latvia, which significantly hinders the implementation of meaningful solutions. Development of effective recommendations and minimum guidelines is possible only after comprehensive research and analysis of the situation.
“First of all, we need to determine what the average Latvian child is like. Not only how far he can jump, but also what his functional, physical and mental indicators are,” Vārpa added.
The information obtained in the research will be used to develop guidelines with the aim of reducing the negative impact of early specialization.
Current data show that a significant number of young people burn out and leave sports at the age of 16. “Our goal is to get young people to move and play sports throughout their lives. If they are burnt out, they will most likely not play sports at all for another ten years,” said Vārpa.
In order to improve the functional indicators, the athlete’s general working abilities must first be strengthened and a stable physical base must be created, so that both the circulatory system and the musculature can be safely developed later. Otherwise, there is a risk of creating U-12 champions who are unable to fully develop and achieve high results in the long term. Varpa emphasized that
the aim of the researchers is not to criticize the trainers, but to encourage motivation to obtain feedback on barriers to integrating science and technology.
According to him, the investment of coaches in sports is truly a blessing, therefore the work of researchers is focused on how to create better opportunities for professional development.
The notion of older coaches as opponents of data use is misleading, Vārpa explained. The root of the problem is not age, but whether coaches in general are provided with quality education and a clear understanding of the importance of data analysis in the training process.
“The fact that young coaches are using artificial intelligence tools and getting very in-depth information has been observed in the last six months. But currently there is too much dispersion to determine unambiguous correlations with age. If the survey data increases, we will be able to try to create an average coach profile and see trends,” Vārpa concluded.
Knowledge forges success
As a vivid example of the practical impact of the use of data, Reichmane mentioned the monitoring tool developed by physical fitness trainer Jēkabs Grīnbergs. Beach volleyball player Tīna Graudiņa uses it in her daily training process.
The importance of data in daily work is also emphasized by experienced beach volleyball player and coach Mārtiņš Pļaviņš.
“The health of a child or young person is a priority, so we must use all possible data to take care of their health,” Pļaviņš explained. “Based on this data and the recommendations of other specialists, we can draw up a training plan for a certain period of time.”
Pļaviņš emphasized that the data is essential not only for evaluating the athlete’s health, but also for determining the effectiveness of training and individual progress.
Regular monitoring of indicators makes it possible to conclude whether the used methods give the desired result in both physical training and technical development.
One of the examples of how the use of data has changed the training approach is regular blood tests, Pļaviņš pointed out. If the athlete’s performance is not optimal, the training plan is adjusted in time to reduce the risk of injury and ensure stable, consistent performance throughout the season.
This approach in sports is also supported by fitness trainer Vita Visocka, who participated in the survey with the aim of helping to collect objective information about the work of trainers. “I hope that such initiatives will promote greater understanding and reasoned decisions at the national level, so that the sports industry moves towards a higher quality, more modern and professionally organized future,” Visocka admitted.
On the other hand, Inguna Minusa believes that the coaching profession requires continuous development. The task of specialists is to look for ways to improve the performance of each student – regardless of whether he wants to become a professional athlete. “The more tools we have in coaching, the smarter we can be,” she added.
The deadline for completing the survey, which was originally set until the end of November, will be extended. The researchers remind that
the questionnaire is not just a formality – the collected information will serve as a direct basis for the recommendations and further changes in the national sports policy.
“If coaches don’t tell us what’s bothering them, we can’t help them. We have a wealth of knowledge about what might help in the training process, but we don’t know how to pass that information on,” Reichman said.
