Inese Dubulte, deputy director of the Limbazi Region Sports School, ensured training work for more than 600 pupils in 7 sports during the restricted period: “Sporting during the pandemic was a real challenge for all those involved in sport – young sportsmen and their families, trainers, sports organisations and others in and through sport – which means, firstly, taking up the situation and, secondly, adapting to it. Getting out of the regular football or volleyball area, basketball grass, hallway runways and outdoor training, in nature in a variety of weather conditions, demanded creative athletic solutions from trainers, determination, patience and motivation from young athletes, running the driver’s duties several times a week and caring for cold, tired athletes with warm tea and a steaming soup plate on the parental side, ensuring a training environment that meets epidemiological requirements, planning group flows from the management of sport organisations.

Given that, initially during the pandemic, any organized workouts and athletic activities were banned in Latvia, the courtyards of young athletes’ houses and nearby grasslands were turned into basketball, football and volleyball squares, stadiums and gyms. Everything that was not considered fit for sport until then now was appropriate as sports equipment: worn-out tractor tires, wooden sticks and branches, even stones. There was no sneaking about the sparring partners, either a neighbouring dog capable of bringing the discarded tree or the garage walls from which the ball bounces. On the other hand, moms and dads, sisters and brothers, grandparents polished their video operator skills to capture these strange outdoor workouts in photo or video format and deducted them from the coach in a remote training.

The actual topic was issue of the quality of sport training and the maintenance and development of athletic physical characteristics training outside of the infrastructure needed for the specific type of sport. Pandemics showed that in virtually all sports outdoor training was possible to maintain physical form and possibly even develop at least some of the physical characteristics, capabilities and skills needed in the particular type of sport. During the winter period of the pandemics, training groups of various sports – basketball, football, light athletics, sprint canoe and sailing, replaced their sports footwear, balls, spears and boats by skis, skates and sticks, becoming great skiers, skaters and hockey players training on snowy forest trails and skating rinks. For several athletes it was the first time on skis or skates, so much fun and satisfaction at acquiring skills in winter sports. In the spring, the beach volleyball’s sand fields became a training site for classical volleyball athletes. The basketball players used outdoor basketball and exercise squares. Athletes returned to the runways of the stadium, to the shot put and spear-throwing sectors and to the long jump pits. The kayakers, canoeists and sailors could again board the boats and split the waves in the lake, river and sea.

Weather-suited clothing was an important factor in training outside. Training in heat or frost, wind and rain was a fundamental challenge for an adult athlete, even more for a young man and a child. For young athletes, accustomed to indoor training, it is a valuable experience and an opportunity to feel and understand their body, its reactions to heat or cold, to recognize the signals of the body, preventing it from overheating or freezing to maintain health. Also a serious challenge for athletes was changing of the workout environment. For example, basketball, volleyball players or athletes accustomed to running on a flat gym floor or hallway runways had to change and adjust their running techniques and be very careful not to get ankle, knee or other injuries while running rough forest trails.

During the pandemic in the sports field digital technologies experienced a convincing victory. Of course, technology has been widely and purposefully used in sport until then, but during the pandemic, almost every sport’s training, using mobile applications or “gadgets”, counted the number of kilometres, time, measured the heart rate, respiration rate and other parameters.

Motivation is one of the key words for sporting in pandemic conditions. This time showed that children and young people in different sports are tired of the regular conditions – sporting outside their usual sporting environment and spaces – understanding that it is not for a short time but will continue for a long time enough. In order to maintain motivation, popular athletes in a particular sport can be invited to help them encourage children and young people to continue training and to overcome these difficult moments together. Learning other sports or including their elements in the training process also helps to maintain motivation. For example, volleyball player becomes a hockey player, a football player becomes a kayaker, a basketball player as a jumper and many other combinations that can make it interesting and exciting for children and young people during the pandemics.

It is important to give young athletes the feeling, understanding and motivation that sports and movement should be continued regardless of external conditions. You have to learn to overcome the “I don’t want” and “I can’t” states. Every sport is an opportunity to get to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses. Sports and exercise have always been, are and will be the key to preserving a person’s physical and mental health and overcoming any pandemic and restriction periods.”

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