sport as an environment for children’s development and joy, the results do not count / Article

IN SHORT:

• In Norway, praising an individual child is not acceptable even on the part of the parents
• Parents are advised to discuss the child’s efforts to be the best – winning is not the point
• Not counting results until the teenage years is a strict rule in Norway
• In team sports, all participants are guaranteed equal playing time
• The main goal of children’s sports policy – involve as many participants as possible
• The number of training sessions per week is not large, so that the child can participate in several sports
• You can turn to a sport more professionally from the age of 13

Parents, of course, sometimes want their offspring to progress professionally, but winning will be important at a later age.

Sandis and Ilze, parents of nine-year-old Adriana Poikanes, have been living in Norway for more than 10 years. Their daughter has been playing tennis for four years, and Adriana has participated in tournaments both in Norway and Latvia. The young tennis player does not think that the prize received for the loss would be valuable.

“You lose, is it a good thing if you lose? Well, yes, maybe you know how your opponent will play next time if you play against them, but to get a cup for it? Well, no, I don’t think it’s right that you get cup when you lose,” said Adriana Poikane.

Sandis Poikāns, dad of tennis player Adriana, told that in tennis the result still counts, and

tournaments in Norway are not much different from tournaments in Latvia.

“The losers cry. It is a very common practice for ten and eleven-year-olds when the game is lost. The experiences, the children cry on the sidelines. It is the same in Latvia,” said Sandis Poikāns. “We were in tournaments in Latvia, it was clear. Mentally, children are not so strong that they don’t survive it.”

In competitions in Norway, parents also have to keep themselves in check.

“Adriana played the final game with a girl, it is normal that there is a beautiful episode and there is applause,” Sandis Poikāns told his experience. “Yes, applause, and then at one point the father of the other girl comes over and says, ‘Please don’t clap when my daughter loses a point.’ But applause is part of tennis. ‘Yes, but she’s only 10, please don’t clap.’ Such are also the quirks of the parents.”

In the Ulerna sports complex, a very large ice area is designed for playing bandy, and underneath it there is an artificial refrigeration unit that simultaneously heats the football field, which is therefore available all year round. Two years ago, a brand new sports hall was opened, where Inga Priedniece plays sports with her husband Egmont Beikmans and sons Kevin and Emīla.

Father and sons play basketball, and mother – volleyball. They also had to get used to not counting the score.

“It was difficult who won in the end – you can’t understand, you almost have to count by yourself. But that wasn’t the most important thing while they were still small,” said Egmonts Beikmanis, the father of two basketball players.

On the other hand, the mother of two basketball players, Inga Priedniece, added that the players receive prizes for successful participation in the tournament at the end. Mom also heard suggestions to talk to her son about the fact that he always wants to be first.

“When the little boy Kevin was in the fourth grade at school, I got a call from the school – you need to talk to him somehow, something is wrong, because he wants to be the first everywhere and he is the first,” said Inga Priedniece. “I was quite surprised by such a call – is something wrong? I should talk to him, try to explain to him, or teach him at home that it shouldn’t be like that? He was very happy, first of all, that he was the first, in this way making it a little bad to feel for the others, who are perhaps not so capable, perhaps weak in physical gifts. Then we sat at the table at home, tried. I had to try to tell my eight-year-old, seven-year-old child that trying may not always win, because that is not the main thing.”

Egmonts Beikmanis sees that there is some truth, because you don’t need to bring others down with your behavior, and Norway also looks at it.

“You better take the weak one with you, maybe, and I’ll teach you, run away, I’ll show you how to do it,” explained Inga Priedniece. “Jump over, jump over, higher, further. It’s a message that goes through everything further in all sports and training.”

In Norway, not counting the result until the age of 13 is a strict rule.

This Scandinavian country has one body that oversees sports, the Norwegian Sports Confederation, and its management emphasizes that there is no public debate as to whether this is correct, because everyone accepts it as fact.

Nils Einar Ass, Secretary General of the Norwegian Sports Confederation, emphasized that the basic principle is the desire to gain reach.

“Sports should bring joy! Children do not belong to any club or sport. They are free to choose, try different sports,” said Ass. “At a young age, the focus needs to be on the social environment, on inclusion, on the inherent value of sport and less on competition, results, rankings and specialization. Those are the fundamentals, and I think that’s a very important part of not only our relative success in reaching a lot of kids , but also a very important factor to achieve quite good results in elite sports.”

Junior basketball players also all have equal playing time, regardless of how skilled each team member is.

“You know that you are going to the game and everyone will play for the same amount of time. The thought is somewhere right at the end,” believes Inga Priedniece. “I think that many people in Latvia manage to put in the basket that nothing will come of you if someone is more helpless. Here they try to drag him along for longer, as if to cheer him up – you succeed, you can! And in the end, something opens up for him, and he really can! He ends up being better than someone who maybe just had physical talent. I like that too!”

“Ullern” club leader Stäle Frejs explained that they try to involve everyone in the lessons.

“Our motto is – as much as possible, as long as possible and as well as possible. These three things,” emphasized Frey.

Inga Priedniece does not hide that her family’s initial views have also changed.

“They want the child to like coming to practice, to feel good there, to have a good time. At first we sometimes thought – well, what are we going to play there? Let those who go to play, play, and those who trained to training. But no, everything in general that we have observed over the years is working very well.”

The basketball coach of the “Ullern” club, Mortens Mirvang, admits that there is a dark side to the current practice, however, the most important thing is to attract as many children as possible.

“The bad thing is the mentality it brings. You know, anybody can come and just have fun,” Mirwang said. “The good things is we can get a lot of kids who want to come here and play basketball and also play with their friends.”

An important point is that training is not frequent. This is to be able to do other sports.

In Norway, children play at least two sports, often three or four.

Adrian is in 1st grade and is in his first year of football training which is held once a week.

Edgars Fedotovs, the father of footballer Adrian, likes not to share places and in the end there is no one sadder.

“Perhaps someone will give up the idea of ​​continuing to play football at all at the very beginning. So I think it’s good,” Edgars Fedotov praised refraining from determining the winners.

Melania Fedotova, the football player Adrian’s mother, also sees that

children gain more self-confidence in an environment without winners and losers.

“It gives each child a kind of push forward that I can, that it doesn’t matter how well I play. I can still achieve something! This, I believe, is very good in Norway,” said Melania Fedotova.

Not counting results in Norway is just one of the cornerstones of children’s sports. Children under the age of 13 also do not travel to competitions in order not to make sports expensive. Also, specialization in only one sport is not supported. In youth sports, which start at the age of 13-14, it is already different. Then the emphasis is already on the result, and sports federations create special groups in sports schools, where those who want to follow the professional path can train.