Family, a key factor in the development of athletes with intellectual disabilities

The Cantoblanco campus of Comillas Pontifical University was witness to the training session "Resources for coaches and family members of athletes with intellectual disabilities", which had the support of Comillas Bienestar and which served to present the Erasmus+ project "SFED: Building Capacities of Special Athletes Federations on Family Support", an initiative in which lecturers and students of the Dual Degree Program in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and Primary Education of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Comillas CIHS) have collaborated.

The director of the Federación Española de Deportes para Personas con Discapacidad Intelectual (FEDDI), Celia Garrote, was in charge of welcoming and presenting the European project in which, in addition to FEDDI, the Turkish Sports Federation for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TOSSFED), the Czech Sports Federation for People with Intellectual Disabilities (ČSMPS), the University of Van Yüzüncü Yil (Turkey), the Eu&Pro (Czech Republic), Hiljadu zelja Foundation (Serbia) and Italian Sports Federation for People with Intellectual Disabilities (FISDIR) (Italy), all of them present at the session. FEDDI's vice-president, Marcos Herrero Piedra, also attended the event.

The project "SFED: Building Capacities of Special Athletes Federations on Family Support" addresses the emotional management of athletes with disabilities, seeking to improve the competencies of their coaches in managing their families as a necessary part of improving their professional skills and attitudes in order to improve their performance as professionals linked to inclusive sport.

After two years of work, the project, to which the attendees had access, gathers initiatives to improve the competences of coaches in the management with the families of athletes with intellectual disabilities, provides information to families on how to better support their athletes and offers tools to develop relationships between the different federations of intellectual disabilities in order to exchange needs and ways of working.

The session was completed with a conference given by a psychologist specialised in sport and disability, Almudena Martínez, entitled "Emotional management of athletes with intellectual disabilities".