OTTY Method #3 – Best practices for youth sports workers

The OTTY partnership is pleased to present the release of OTTY Method #3: “Best practices for youth sports workers”, the third publication developed within the Erasmus+ Sport project OTTY – Only Thanks To You.

With this new method, the project takes a further step forward: after exploring the roots of doping among adolescents and the educational role of youth sports workers, this publication focuses on what prevention looks like in practice. Its aim is to offer youth workers, coaches, sports educators, and organisations a set of concrete approaches that can help transform anti-doping values into everyday educational action.

From reflection to action

Preventing doping cannot remain only a matter of theory. It is not enough to understand the risks, nor to recognise the importance of positive adult figures in sport. Prevention becomes truly meaningful only when it is translated into daily practices, educational tools, and organisational choices that young people can experience directly in their sporting environments.

This is the core of OTTY Method #3: turning ideas into actions. The publication shows that doping prevention is not built through isolated warnings or abstract rules, but through consistent work on relationships, communication, values, and context. It is about helping young people develop the inner resources they need to resist pressure, build self-awareness, and make healthy choices.

Three areas of good practice

The method presents best practices across three key areas: educational, communicative, and organisational.

On the educational side, the publication highlights the importance of strengthening self-esteem, body awareness, resilience, social skills, and ethical reflection. These are not secondary aspects of youth sport: they are central to prevention. Adolescents who learn to value themselves, cope with frustration, and reflect on fairness are less likely to look for shortcuts to success.

The communication dimension focuses on the way adults talk about doping with young people. OTTY Method #3 stresses the importance of using accessible, non-moralising language, creating real dialogue rather than one-way lessons. It encourages sports workers to simplify complex concepts without trivialising them, to use testimonies and real stories, and to engage young people through visual and digital tools that speak their language.

The third area concerns organisation. Prevention is not the responsibility of one individual alone: it must be supported by a coherent environment. For this reason, the publication underlines the need for clear internal rules, inclusive sports settings, collaboration with local actors, continuous training for adults, and tools to monitor and evaluate the impact of prevention work.

Sport as an educational environment

One of the strongest messages of this publication is that sport should not be seen only as a place of performance. It is also a powerful educational space, where young people learn how to deal with effort, limits, mistakes, expectations, and relationships.

When sport is organised in a healthy and coherent way, it becomes a protective environment. It can teach patience instead of haste, self-respect instead of self-destruction, and commitment instead of shortcuts. In this perspective, youth sports workers are not only instructors or organisers: they are educators, facilitators, and role models who can shape the daily culture of sport.

Concrete tools for youth workers

Alongside reflection, OTTY Method #3 also offers practical inspiration. The publication includes examples of case studies and replicable tools that can be adapted to different sporting contexts. These include educational activity sheets, communication toolkits, participatory workshops, personal training diaries, and materials to involve families in the prevention process.

The idea is simple but important: prevention becomes more effective when it is practical, visible, and shared. By giving youth workers usable tools, the OTTY Method helps move from good intentions to real educational practice.

A shared responsibility

At the heart of this third method lies a clear idea: the fight against doping cannot be won only through bans and punishment. It requires education, trust, coherence, and community. Young people need adults who can guide them, listen to them, and help them build values that go beyond results and appearance.

Through this publication, the OTTY partnership reaffirms its commitment to promoting a culture of sport based on health, integrity, self-awareness, and authentic growth. Preventing doping means helping adolescents believe that their value does not depend only on performance — and that there is always a better path than shortcuts.

Read and share

OTTY Method #3 – Best practices for youth sports workers is now available for free on the official project website:👉 www.oltrenetworklab.com/otty

With this third publication, the OTTY partners continue building a vision of sport where prevention is part of education, and where every young person can grow in an environment shaped by respect, responsibility, and care.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.