What is the position of sports in the life of a twelve-year-old child today?

Introduction

In a world dominated by the tendency to compare and the pursuit of perfection in EVERYTHING, what is the position of sports in the life of a twelve-year-old child today?

As Sir Ken Robinson rightly points out in his book “Find Your Element”, analyzing the modern educational system: “At the top of the hierarchy are math, science, and language skills. In the middle are the humanities. Last are the arts…even elementary school children have little time even to simply draw.”

In this sense, more and more families are trapped in the futile logic of “properly” prioritizing their children’s priorities. This logic places school subjects at the top, immediately followed by remedial teaching – private lessons in specific areas (in which the child does not come close to excellence), foreign languages, …., and somewhere towards the end, a sport. It is easy to understand that placing sports at the end of available time (in a “whatever time is left over” logic) automatically classifies this specific sector as of low value and importance for the children’s lives.

If we add to all the above the family’s need for relationship-building activities among its members, it becomes easy to see that it is an achievement for a child to “PLAY” a sport once or twice a week at most.

And yet I find it difficult to find any other habit besides sports that simultaneously offers so many positive benefits in so many areas of a child’s life: development of physical fitness and improvement of health levels, well-being, socialization and interaction with peers, management of emotions, avoidance of bad habits.

The UK’s General Practitioners recommend that children get an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) every day. Yet, recent studies reveal a dramatic drop in children’s physical activity levels by the time they finish primary school.

“At the top of the hierarchy are math, science, and language skills. In the middle are the humanities. Last are the arts…even elementary school children have little time even to simply draw”.

Sir Ken Robinson

“The UK’s General Practitioners recommend that children get an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) every day. Yet, recent studies reveal a dramatic drop in children’s physical activity levels by the time they finish primary school.“.

However, why have we ended up giving low priority to sports?

School is more important than sports…

Personally, I do not see the need to compare these two extremely important factors in children’s development. Everything is important and significant as concepts and as a means of development and character formation. I am convinced that children can be active, develop and excel in both, if there is moderation and balance. More specifically, I consider it just as excessive for an elementary school child to train for more than two hours a day as it is for him to study for school for more than two hours a day. I consider it just as unnatural for a child to be absent from school due to fatigue from his athletic obligations as for him to be absent from training due to an upcoming school exam the next day. Therefore, I consider black-and-white logic and exclusive devotion to only one of the two above to be equally problematic for a child’s development.

” I consider it just as excessive for an elementary school child to train for more than two hours a day as it is for him to study for school for more than two hours a day.”.

Systematic involvement in sports is championship…

It should be a social norm that children are required to systematically engage in sports in teams, clubs, etc., regardless of their future decision to engage in sports professionally or exclusively. In a recent conversation I had with the team manager of the German National Youth Team, he informed me that the success of the Icelandic National Handball Team (an extremely small country in terms of population) at a global level, is largely because most children visit indoor gyms every afternoon to engage in team sports of their choice. They don’t study endless hours in elementary school (if they study at all at home and don’t finish their studies at school), they don’t take private lessons, they don’t exclude sports activities because the next day they have a test at school and they must excel… Let’s not forget, after all, that sportsmanship requires many other things beyond daily engagement, such as talent, mental toughness, dedication, sacrifices, luck, etc.

Teams, clubs and sports distract children from their studies…

The above statement is incorrect. In order to become disoriented, you must have a clear goal and orientation in the opposite direction. But sports will not disorient the child, on the contrary, it will offer him all the resources that will help him mature, develop spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, so that he can acquire critical thinking and decide for himself what is best for his future. Children who participate in sports teams consistently have proven to be more likely to develop good habits that will help them in a broad spectrum in their later adult lives, such as higher levels of concentration, hard work, a sense of responsibility, better management of frustration, etc. This evolves from the fact that sports have the distinct advantage of being an environment of direct acquaintance and familiarity with all these emotions and experiences, through which children understand themselves better as well as those around them.

” Children who participate in sports teams consistently have proven to be more likely to develop good habits that will help them more broadly in their later adult lives, such as higher levels of concentration, hard work, a sense of responsibility, better management of frustration, etc.”.

We don’t have enough time…

It is the most common excuse that parents use to limit their children’s participation in organized and systematic sports activities. Obviously, the pace of everyday life has accelerated, and parents are trying to respond to many levels at the same time, professional obligations, social obligations, children’s activities, etc. However, time management is mainly based on two axes: setting a specific weekly schedule and prioritizing obligations and activities. As we mentioned in the introduction, when sports are low on the list of priorities, there is inevitably no “extra” time. However, if we realize that we can replace priorities or shape existing ones, then there is much more time than we imagine. Reducing screen time (tablets, mobile phones, television) and setting a specific study duration at home are moving towards this direction.

In recent years (especially after the coronavirus period when children became familiar with digital technology) the amount of time they spend on screens every day has increased significantly. I am not referring to the creative use of technology, to do a school assignment or to glean some encyclopedic knowledge from the internet. I am referring to the meaningless, “wasted” time that children spend on mobile phones, tablets and television during the day, which certainly deprives them of valuable hours of sports play. In many cases, it is also an easy solution to “keep them busy” so that parents can carry out other commitments.

Depending on the peculiarities of each child and each family, it is necessary to have specific study time at home. These peculiarities can be possible learning difficulties of the child, parallel activities, divorced families, etc. So, for example, the family could set a daily study time of two hours and under no circumstances should this time limit be exceeded.

It is worth noting here that in recent years, the zero-study-at-home model has been piloted in certain schools. Children complete their studies at school, resulting in no study at home.
The results are particularly encouraging, as most families claim that those are the only days of the week to spend as as a real family, having time for extracurricular activities and family activities.

Unfortunately, what often happens is that the study time is adjusted according to its daily volume. The teacher “set a lot” for homework – we read a lot … “Set a little” – then we can go to practice … So, we “give” the teacher the absolute authority to define how he thinks we will use our time at home in the afternoon. And unfortunately, this path is illogical and therefore has no limit. If there is a teacher who insists on “burdening” children with study, children will be deprived of sports games and activities, and as long as there are families who are pressured to follow this destructive tactic in an imitative and stressful manner, children’s sports will shrink as a concept. If the above statement seems excessive to some, note the following recurring pattern: Every time I suggest to parents of my young athletes or students that they follow the logic of predetermined study time, the following dialogue almost always repeats itself:

-And what if we have a lot for the next day?

-Then, if you don’t have time, you won’t study everything…

-But is this possible?

Yes, of course it is possible, if you decide what you want to sacrifice. A grade or two lower in the exam or even in the trimester or your child’s active and unhindered participation in the sports team, followed by all the benefits we have already mentioned above.

I am sure that each of you parents feels significantly more responsible for your child’s broader education than their teacher.

If you read and finish all the lessons, I will take you for training…

It is the logic of using sports play as a reward for something that is considered more important. It is easy to see that this specific process automatically degrades the concept of sports and goes against the fundamental need of children of this age for movement, play and exercise. But a basic need cannot be distorted into a reward. A vital process cannot be transformed into a simple reward.

Conclusion

So, what have we “achieved”?

We “managed” to lock our children in schools, in tutorial centers and study rooms and “allow” them to go out for SPORTS GAMES once or twice a week.

We “managed” to subconsciously convey to them the belief that sports are of secondary importance to their lives compared to their academic progress.

We “managed” to blindly lead them down the one-way path of studies and academic success instead of opening the range of possibilities that our era offers.

We “managed” to gradually create sports-uneducated fans, since as children they did not experience firsthand the process of organized and systematic team sports.

We “managed” to move contrary to what is simply called Sports Culture!