by adminWhy sports are a smart way to build soft skills
From the Pitch to Real Life: Soft Skills You Can Learn through Sport
Soft skills are often talked about like they are abstract. In sports, they are not abstract at all. Every match, training session, or team challenge creates situations where communication, focus, collaboration, and emotional control are tested, practiced, and improved.
SISY uses this reality as a foundation. The project supports youth workers who want to use sports in informal and non-formal learning with young people with learning differences, including ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), and Executive Functioning Disorders.
Here are a few examples of what sports can teach in a structured, motivating way:
- Communication: calling for the ball, giving feedback, listening, clarifying, adapting messages
- Teamwork: understanding roles, cooperating under pressure, resolving disagreements
- Leadership: taking initiative, supporting others, staying accountable
- Resilience: trying again after mistakes, handling setbacks, building confidence
- Emotional intelligence: noticing emotions, regulating reactions, showing empathy
SISY focuses on turning those “sport moments” into intentional learning moments, so youth workers can help young people name the skill, practice it, and transfer it into daily life.
Inclusion is not just about access to a game. It is about making sure young people can participate meaningfully, feel safe to try, and have supports that fit how they learn. SISY promotes approaches that respect different learning needs, while keeping the experience social, active, and enjoyable. Soft skills are learned by doing. SISY is building spaces where doing feels possible, supported, and genuinely fun.
Project No: 2024-2-ES02-KA220-YOU-000293221