Andrew Green
Published in Winnipeg Parent – Sept / Oct 2003
It seems everywhere we look there is an article on overweight and out of shape kids. Stats Canada reports that
37% of children aged 2 – 11 where overweight in 1998/1999, and that number is on the rise. Kids today spend
less time playing physical games and sports and more time watching TV, playing video games and on the Internet.
There are efforts to increase the amount of physical education students receive in school, but will it be
enough? Children need to remain active, not only in school, but outside of school. Unfortunately our society
has become one that we can no longer let the children go out and play unsupervised.
“Play” it seems has almost become a thing of the past. Children can no longer grab a ball and head off to the
park on their own to find their friends. So instead they spend more time at home, in doors, in front of a screen.
Parents need to counteract this tendency for the health and physical well being of their children.
Responsibility for this cannot be placed completely on the schools, which are limited in what they
can do. Not only in facilities and staff, but in content.
The schools can provide an introduction to many sports, and keep them active for a short period of the
school day. But they cannot give children the chance to really develop and explore a sport in depth
through Phys Ed classes. Phys Ed classes also have the problem of ending, once students get to high
school Phys Ed is all but gone, after graduation, it is gone.
Children need to be encouraged to take up activities which they can do for life. The popular team sports
too often become competitive and through cuts, elite teams and high levels of stress placed on young athletes
most will drop out or be dropped.
Instead children should be placed into activities which do not emphasis winning and loosing. This more
often depends on the structure of the group rather then the specific activity being done. I coach martial arts
and I can see the benefits that it can have for children if approached with the right attitude. That attitude
being one of play, having fun, and learning skills.
We run a Mixed Martial Arts program, which is very different from most people’s idea of what martial arts
are. We don’t follow a strict hierarchy, we don’t teach children to move like robots and fight each other
aggressively, we don’t have them line up and stand like boards and we don’t bark orders at them in a foreign
language.
Instead we approach it through play, letting the kids do what they do naturally, but guiding them and coaching
them as they develop. As a result the benefits of martial arts, and sports in general, can be realised much
more fully. They are having fun and because of that the other benefits can come through. They are staying
active which helps their health. they are interested, eager to improve and problem solving for themselves so
there performance skyrockets.
Imagine if children put the same effort into sports that they do into video games. Ask “What about video
games motivates kids?” and you can find a way to achieve this. Video games are stress free, they are fun and
they are designed for the kids. No one cares if they win or loose, but that doesn’t mean they don’t give it
there best effort. There is no pressure to win, no fear of getting cut, no fear of disappointing
family/coaches, just them having fun and developing for themselves.
If you want to turn your child away from videogames start teaching them how to play, making them feel they
need to win, organizing tournaments with trophies and standings. Take the game away from them and they won’t
want to play it. Sadly this is what has happened to many for sports.
Any sport, be it mixed martial arts, hockey, soccer, dance, skate boarding, shooting, baseball or anything
else can be a great experience for children. Providing it is approached as organized play, designed for the
kids, not for the adults. It needs to emphasis fun more then anything else, it needs to emphasis skill
development not win / loss records. It needs to be informal and not like military drill.
Another point is that it should be “coached” not “taught”. While this may seem like semantics it is not.
A teacher teaches a subject, follows a syllabus and tries to meet a standard. A teacher places himself
above the students and is always right. A coach is there to improve skills, not to meet a standard, not
to teach a syllabus, but to improve each person at an individual level at a pace set by them, not to meet
a standard set by someone else. The only standard is improving the individual.
A coach will let them experiment, let them problem solve and encourage them to find their own way by pointing
them to things which might be helpful to them. Something which is taught is set, there is a right answer and
it is spoon fed to the student. A coach does not spoon feed, but he will show them where to find food and
where to find spoons. We do tend to interchange the terms at times, but the methods are very different.
If parents want there kids to be active for life they need to help them get involved in a activity that
they can do for life, in a way that they can do it for life. Competitive sports end very early for the
vast majority of kids, many of which it may end before they get the opportunity to peak. A child who is
a poor player at 10 could turn out to be a University star at 18. But if they quit or get cut before then
they will never reach that level.
Kid’s need to “play”, sports need to be fun and without stress. How can the benefits of sports be realised
if they are always in a environment of parents yelling at refs, coaches and other parents, coaches yelling
at refs and fights breaking out amongst the “adults”? This not only eliminates many of the benefits of sport,
causes young athletes to quit or get cut, it also prevents skill from developing.
When looking for a program for your child you need to look more at the attitude of the program then anything
else. If the attitude is right your child will develop faster then he could have otherwise. Do not be impressed
by win/loss records and program which uses that as a selling point probably doesn’t have the best needs of
your child in mind, but there own win / loss record. Look for a friendly atmosphere, lots of smiling, lots
of laughing, and a loose, but productive, structure.