Opportunities Lost
Several years ago I decided to change career. I exchanged City life in London for the classroom. My views on the world, children and parenting have shifted immeasurably. The latter two I had never really contemplated other than as a nebulous concept on the later in life to-do list. I am not a parent yet, nevertheless I am thankful that I have become a teacher first. There are times when I miss elements of my old life. How comparatively stress free a desk job is. There are no more beers at 10 o'clock on a school night. That is only for the young and is a recipe for a long drawn out day of suffering at the hands of merciless ten-year olds. Fudging a presentation or looking busy behind a monitor was a lot easier when feeling under the weather. In a classroom you can’t. It’s like the sage advice of never turn your back on the ocean...and a classroom of children. But aside from the odd school night pint, my days are far more rewarding than before. But I digress from my point.
The opportunities lost are not those that you as an adult look back on your life and wonder what might have been. It is something I see everyday and these are opportunities that are being lost for children, and they will never know it. Perhaps it is because I grew up in South Africa where sport is a religion. There is no secularism in this particular union - sport equals national identity. Like all older people the past is filled with memories of being an active child, running wild and free and stealing apples from the neighbour's trees. Now that I am a teacher and a coach, I am always thankful for the opportunities that I had at school. Most afternoons after school were filled with sports, there were strong rivalries with other schools. It was just a part of my school life. Now that I am at a point where I am looking at the future of the children I teach, I am always looking into the past at myself too. It is sometimes a strange sensation. What I am most thankful for now is the variety of sports I was exposed to. I was always encouraged to take part in everything and not just select one sport to the exclusion of all others. What grew is a confidence in what I could do. I was not the most gifted athlete but I knew I could take part in whatever I wanted to. Accidentally I came across cross-country running when it was never something I ever wanted to do. It was something I was encouraged to do and given the opportunity. Cricket was always my boyhood sport. I have not held a cricket bat in years, however, two decades later I rediscovered running and each day I enjoy the freedom it affords me. An opportunity recovered.
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Childhood obesity is the elephant in the room that casts a long shadow over the future of young children. Childhood inactivity too, aside from obesity is a worrying trend. Something I have only realised since I became a teacher is how polarising sports can be for children. Very quickly they are aware of what their abilities are and where they fit in accordingly with their peers. Small decisions at the time, yet they alter their future in a big way. “I shouldn't play boy’s games”, “only girls play those games”, “girls can’t play football”, “I am not good at sport”, “I am much too slow - I should stop this”. I hear these all the time. All kids should be active, the trick is finding what fits and what can be fun. I want to look at providing children with opportunities in sport now, to encourage them to be active and try everything. This means exposure to different sports when they are young and influencing how children look at sport and being active. It empowers decision making later in life.
Avoiding the pitfalls of when children bracket themselves as either being able to ‘do’ sports or not at all is the most important thing for coaches. Football from my experience is one of the most exclusive games for young children. Children are incredibly competitive and know exactly who they would want on their teams - friendships and inclusion follow only distantly to skills and the ability to score a goal. You don’t get passed to if your team mates feel that you can’t keep the ball or pass it well. Children that are keen become discouraged. Most often it is a variety of games that provide an outlet for everyone. It is games that are sometimes not seemingly linked that can help children get into sports. For example, through simple evasion games a pupil of mine now has the idea that he is fast, nimble and can run for ever. This is a fantastic realisation for this child. He will always have this thought, this germ inside him that he can run and move. Over two years he has progressed and is thrilled to run cross-country and because of this confidence he runs with the older kids.
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Sport for children can also be about overcoming and building a confidence in themselves. The most important part of a teacher or coach is to instil a belief that they can do things. Children’s sport needs to be fun. Especially for younger children the social aspect of sport if most valued. Most sports are team games, even running and tennis, have the social aspect of being organised into clubs - something that is important as an adult.
It is the personal achievement that matters and not always the result. Most importantly all children deserve time and attention. It is the seed that is planted when they are young. It can lead to a lifetime of activity, or can make the rediscovery of sport later in life that much easier. It is the children that fall through the cracks that are the biggest failing of a coach.
Several years ago I decided to change career. I exchanged City life in London for the classroom. My views on the world, children and parenting have shifted immeasurably. The latter two I had never really contemplated other than as a nebulous concept on the later in life to-do list. I am not a parent yet, nevertheless I am thankful that I have become a teacher first. There are times when I miss elements of my old life. How comparatively stress free a desk job is. There are no more beers at 10 o'clock on a school night. That is only for the young and is a recipe for a long drawn out day of suffering at the hands of merciless ten-year olds. Fudging a presentation or looking busy behind a monitor was a lot easier when feeling under the weather. In a classroom you can’t. It’s like the sage advice of never turn your back on the ocean...and a classroom of children. But aside from the odd school night pint, my days are far more rewarding than before. But I digress from my point.
The opportunities lost are not those that you as an adult look back on your life and wonder what might have been. It is something I see everyday and these are opportunities that are being lost for children, and they will never know it. Perhaps it is because I grew up in South Africa where sport is a religion. There is no secularism in this particular union - sport equals national identity. Like all older people the past is filled with memories of being an active child, running wild and free and stealing apples from the neighbour's trees. Now that I am a teacher and a coach, I am always thankful for the opportunities that I had at school. Most afternoons after school were filled with sports, there were strong rivalries with other schools. It was just a part of my school life. Now that I am at a point where I am looking at the future of the children I teach, I am always looking into the past at myself too. It is sometimes a strange sensation. What I am most thankful for now is the variety of sports I was exposed to. I was always encouraged to take part in everything and not just select one sport to the exclusion of all others. What grew is a confidence in what I could do. I was not the most gifted athlete but I knew I could take part in whatever I wanted to. Accidentally I came across cross-country running when it was never something I ever wanted to do. It was something I was encouraged to do and given the opportunity. Cricket was always my boyhood sport. I have not held a cricket bat in years, however, two decades later I rediscovered running and each day I enjoy the freedom it affords me. An opportunity recovered.
Childhood obesity is the elephant in the room that casts a long shadow over the future of young children. Childhood inactivity too, aside from obesity is a worrying trend. Something I have only realised since I became a teacher is how polarising sports can be for children. Very quickly they are aware of what their abilities are and where they fit in accordingly with their peers. Small decisions at the time, yet they alter their future in a big way. “I shouldn't play boy’s games”, “only girls play those games”, “girls can’t play football”, “I am not good at sport”, “I am much too slow - I should stop this”. I hear these all the time. All kids should be active, the trick is finding what fits and what can be fun. I want to look at providing children with opportunities in sport now, to encourage them to be active and try everything. This means exposure to different sports when they are young and influencing how children look at sport and being active. It empowers decision making later in life.
Avoiding the pitfalls of when children bracket themselves as either being able to ‘do’ sports or not at all is the most important thing for coaches. Football from my experience is one of the most exclusive games for young children. Children are incredibly competitive and know exactly who they would want on their teams - friendships and inclusion follow only distantly to skills and the ability to score a goal. You don’t get passed to if your team mates feel that you can’t keep the ball or pass it well. Children that are keen become discouraged. Most often it is a variety of games that provide an outlet for everyone. It is games that are sometimes not seemingly linked that can help children get into sports. For example, through simple evasion games a pupil of mine now has the idea that he is fast, nimble and can run for ever. This is a fantastic realisation for this child. He will always have this thought, this germ inside him that he can run and move. Over two years he has progressed and is thrilled to run cross-country and because of this confidence he runs with the older kids.
Sport for children can also be about overcoming and building a confidence in themselves. The most important part of a teacher or coach is to instil a belief that they can do things. Children’s sport needs to be fun. Especially for younger children the social aspect of sport if most valued. Most sports are team games, even running and tennis, have the social aspect of being organised into clubs - something that is important as an adult.
It is the personal achievement that matters and not always the result. Most importantly all children deserve time and attention. It is the seed that is planted when they are young. It can lead to a lifetime of activity, or can make the rediscovery of sport later in life that much easier. It is the children that fall through the cracks that are the biggest failing of a coach.
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