Forget the fear, take a step and find your MOVE

Posted December 7, 2016

By Eva Ribridova

For more than 10 years I have been working as a volunteer for ISCA member the Czech Sokol Organisation, in a small unit called Sokol Branik I in Prague. I am a sport for all trainer and I work with children aged between 5 and 14 years. My aim is to find different ways to show them how to be active and enjoy moving. This was the main reason why I followed my friend Martin’s advice and applied to become a participant in the Youth on the MOVE training course.

Being part of Youth on the MOVE was an unforgettable experience. The whole six months of the ISCA project took up my free time and energy, but it brought me more than I expected at the beginning. You can read books, articles, guidelines, but if you don’t go through it on your own it wouldn’t be so useful. I learnt lot of different skills, met wonderful people around Europe, and gained many memories. For me the most important thing I learnt was not to fear making mistakes and to take steps forward. The feeling when I got over this fear was brilliant. Behind this step into the unknown was my project.

The name of my project is Leave a Footprint. I chose this name because it has lot of expression. You can imagine different ways of leaving footprints: to make a step – to MOVE. To support or motivate someone to be active. To discover something new. To meet someone new and be inspired by him/her. My project is based on open classes for children. These children are from my Sokol unit or they are from our local community and live in the surrounding neighbourhoods. The project will hold one lesson per month over half a year. Each lesson has different physical activity theme with activities that we aren’t used to doing in regular classes.

On 31 October it was the first class. I chose yoga and invited an external lecturer. It was the perfect choice because the children were really enthusiastic. They enjoyed the whole lesson of smooth motion. At the end, each of them coloured in one figure on a project banner and signed it. They moved and left their footprints on my project. And I hope that yoga left an impression in their mind and body too. Now I’m finalising the preparations for the second open class. The theme is a surprise!

From the beginning I can see that I have made huge progress and that Youth on the MOVE has helped a lot in that. It is impossible to mention everything that has enriched me during the realisation of my project, and I’m still learning. It is a never-ending process. I’m happy to have stopped the feelings of fear and dared to take the first step. I found out that being proactive is an important part of my life and I would like to end with a quote from Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Visit the photo gallery of Eva’s project and find inspiration for your own work in moving people.