Elite investment in children's sports - yes or no?
We are losing sports children aged 7-12. At the same time, we have young world stars in almost all major sports. Should we challenge the Norwegian sports model that everyone should participate? The trend is clear.
Academies are popping up on every street corner, and many want to train the next world star! Both clubs, coaches and not least parents. Understandably... We are a sports community, where the sports stars are celebrated!
Recently, 10%(!), in a survey of 6,000 handball players between the ages of 8-12 in Denmark, answered that they are considering giving up handball. When they elaborate on why, too much elite focus is a clear tendency towards the bottom.
Big upside
The upside of sports activity is great. Sport helps prepare children for life's many challenges:
- How to deal with ups and downs?
- How to relate to other people?
- How to develop the ability to learn? Both motorically and mentally.
I hardly think anyone will enter into a discussion about whether sport has a health-promoting effect or not.
Superstars become superstars anyway?!
My experience as a children's trainer is that many of those with the highest skill level are so eager to learn more, that their ears almost flutter when they are challenged with new exercises and challenges. At the same time, individual children, on the same team, rejoice that the weekend's match has been cancelled.
The difference in interests could not be greater.
I see that those who reach the pinnacle of sports often have an inner drive to put in the thousands of hours of training required to become the best. I myself did not practice handball more than 1-2 times a week, on half a court in Stovnerhallen, in my youth. But I played football, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, bandy etc. on the loop. This will take thousands of hours.
The Norwegian school model
The school has the same challenges. The level differences are huge. How are we going to manage to keep everyone, and at the same time challenge those with the highest skill level?
"No one has dared to shake the Norwegian school model of investing in talent for 100 years", I read in an article in Aftenposten. Now several people believe that it is time to invest in talented children. The skeptics fear for the equal Norwegian society.
It is clear that this debate does not only include sports.
The cabal and the 100-million question therefore becomes: How to satisfy everyone?
Sports researchers point to three motivational factors:
- Competence development and a sense of mastery
- Affiliation
- Possibility of self-determination
My question therefore becomes. By professionalizing the sport. Do we strengthen or weaken these three points? Start the debate!
References
- Everything you should know about talent development in sport - Kristoffer Henriksen, Carsten Hvid Larsen and Louise Kamuk Storm
