How ridiculous is it that standings and rankings are no longer kept in youth sports – I read this kind of grumbling more and more often, especially on LinkedIn. From the gut it is said that it is no wonder that we are growing a generation of pampered wimps if we no longer allow children to experience what victory and loss are, because we brush away all setbacks before they arise.
Even this newspaper occasionally publishes an opinion piece in which, based on personal experiences, it is argued that it is idiotic that children under the age of ten no longer receive medals at swimming championships, for example, and that this would be ‘overprotective’.
I am always irritated by these kinds of positions that are devoid of knowledge. How wonderful I thought it was that the NOS finally wrote about it the Norwegian sports modelprompted by the good performance of the Norwegian football team in the run-up to the World Cup. In Norway, sports have been practiced for decades with a completely different philosophy than in our country. Norwegian children up to the age of twelve are not selected for talent, fun is paramount and no rankings or scores are kept.
Why? Because the vast majority of children are not at all interested in winning and losing, if you ask them yourself. Which research If you look at it, it always turns out to be the same. Children play sports to have fun, do something with their friends and learn something. We adults have figured out that everything in life is about winning and being better than someone else. That’s when you’re most successful, we think, ahem.
Now I was such an annoying child who wanted to be the best at many things at a time when scores and rankings were still kept. So I can quote from the studies what such children learn if you don’t keep rankings and scores, or I can illustrate it with myself as an example. I promise you: N=1 corresponds to scientific reality here, and the idea behind the Norwegian sports model.
I was a volleyball player as a child, the sport meant the world to me. I wanted to learn everything, I was a fanatic and I wouldn’t stop even if I dropped. Why? Not about winning. I liked that too, but what I especially wanted was to improve myself. I got so much satisfaction from that.
I found it annoying when I had to play volleyball with children who were not as good at it as I was. You also hear that when it comes to the Norwegian model: not fun for talented people. Beats. But there are also other values in life. I remember that as a volleyball player, but also at school. I could read well and quickly, and always had to practice with the slowest reading classmate. I could bite his book in half with frustration, but what I learned from it: being patient, working together, and discovering that not everyone is the same as you.
It is nonsense that children do not learn to deal with winning or losing if no scores or rankings are kept. A competition remains a competition – but children are much less likely to drop out if there is no emphasis on the outcome, as they have known in Norway since the 1980s.
Will you also become world champion with it? Oh well. If the Norwegians are out, at least they have had fun.
Marijn de Vries is a former professional cyclist and journalist.