Art education as part of psychological training for young athletes

Read and learn about how the Finnish art education laboratory incorporated art into the training of upper secondary school athletes in Mind The Gap project!

In Finland, Mind The Gap project’s art education laboratories were implemented in collaboration with sports institutes. During the school year, young athletes in upper secondary school participate in sports camps coordinated by the Finnish Olympic Committee, which included art workshops. Shooters had the opportunity to work with visual arts, while basketball players worked with literary arts and rap.

The workshops were held during the fall semester of 2024 and the spring semester of 2025 as part of camps for young athletes. Each week-long camp included one art workshop, which art educators Simo Nieminen and Camilla Pulkki had designed specifically to meet the needs of the group. The workshops drew inspiration from the young people’s sports and included team-building, self-awareness-enhancing, and relaxing activities.

Peek at the content and atmosphere of the laboratories

Method guides to support implementation coming soon

Mind The Gap will produce method guides to support implementation of the methods created for the laboratories. The guides are published in English on the project website and can be downloaded free of charge. The step-by-step description of the contents makes the guides easy to use.