Colman Noctor: Why not have a summer camp culture all year?

We need to reconsider the offerings we have for children’s sport and develop models that are driven by children’s attitude to sport and competitiveness

Are we at risk of losing children from sport if the culture of competitiveness continues? Picture: iStock

Summer camps this year have brought into sharp focus the vital role sport plays in promoting children’s emotional and social development.

I have long spoken about children’s sport becoming too competitive too early.  My fear is that the spirit of participation will be sacrificed by the objective of winning.  I have treated hundreds of children who have either lost their love for or retired from or indeed been traumatised by a hyper-competitive sporting culture.  The drivers are often over-zealous coaches and/or parents who get over-involved in their child’s sporting achievements. 

Children have spoken to me about being ‘roared at’ by coaches for making an error, being overly pressured to perform at a level they were physically not able for, or being intimidated by parents on the sidelines or in the galleries. For many, this has led to a poor relationship with sport, some giving up altogether. 

I was greatly supportive of the idea of a ‘silent sideline’ that was raised by sporting bodies some years ago. This campaign promoted the idea that parents and coaches should stay quiet during sports, allowing children to play freely, especially given that play and fun are at the core of the activity.

In recent weeks,  I have heard children talk about their positive experience of various sports summer camps, where the focus has been on fun and not competition.  One 10-year-old child said he loved the games and the atmosphere of the camp they were attending because they didn’t have to do ‘laps’. Even my own daughter, who has been quite reluctant to play sport post-lockdown, seems to be really enjoying the camp culture. Was the competitive culture of her previous sporting experiences a deterrent?

Equal access for all

Many of us have witnessed a dynamic where a team has one or two very strong players who dominate the game at the cost of the other children’s involvement. I believe this needs to be avoided as lack of involvement can quickly lead to a child giving up the sport.

Also, I believe the existing method of dividing children into teams by the year they were born is fundamentally flawed as the gulf between a seven year old who is born in January and a seven year old who has a birthday in December, can be significant. The New Zealand model where children play rugby according to their weight as opposed to their age seems to be a better and fairer model.

Getting children started in sport is not a problem, there are more than 50 players in the under-sevens group my son plays with, an amazing achievement for a small rural club.  But how do we ensure that as many of these children as possible will still be playing in the older age groups? How can we promote their long-term participation?

Instead of measuring the success of an amateur sports club by the amount of silverware in their trophy cabinet, why not measure it by how many juvenile players continue to play into adulthood?

Five-a-side games

In my 25 years of working with teenagers I have met many who enjoy sport, but just don’t enjoy how serious it gets so quickly.  Many lament the fact that there are no opportunities for teenagers to play sport non-competitively.  They describe a dynamic whereby as soon as you turn 10 or 11 years of age, when skill development usually concludes, the focus is on league tables, twice-weekly training, specialisation, competitive matches, and performance. 

One solution could be to introduce five-a-side games for young people.  Similar to the summer camp culture, it would involve children turning up when they want to, being split into different teams, and being free to play at their own level. No training, no set teams every week, no championships, no medals, just a game. 

For the most part, sporting activities have become highly organised.  While there is a lot to recommend in this approach, it means the casual ‘kick-around in the park is no longer an option for many. But has this pandemic pause offered us a unique opportunity to address the gap between formal and casual sport and do something?  Perhaps now is the time to develop more streamlined models that are driven by what children want in terms of their attitude to sport. I am not against elite-level academies, but I think they should be one of many options as opposed to the prevailing one. 

 The Olympic Games is a perfect example of how we need to establish a pathway for young people who show promise, desire, and an internal drive to perform at the highest level.  But we must also preserve a route for those who are task or fun driven and want to engage in a sport not to be an Olympian but merely to enjoy the activity of playing sport socially with their peers. 

As I watched the interviews with the Irish Olympians in recent weeks, I was struck by the passion and commitment of, among others,  Rhys McClenaghan, Paul O’Donovan, Kellie Harrington, Natalya Coyle, Thomas Barr. And although our medals tally did not rank at the top of the international table, we have created some wonderfully impressive human beings. 

In the future, I’d like to think we will be equally proud of the children who play sport just for the fun of it.