'Sports Day' 2019

Sports days at many schools in 2019 are very different to what I remember, and I feel like this topic has become an annual rant of mine. The day in the school calendar when our sport kids should have their chance to shine but alas, we are not allowed to be competitive! It's all about having a good time and everyone is a winner.  What will happen to these kids in the real world where competition is everyday life?  It may not be a competition at school, but I am happy to say that competition is alive and well in our house - whether it be a game of cards, Guess Who, backyard cricket, the first to finish dinner, you name it, we compete !!

I know that kids deal with different types of pressures these days and included in that is some horrible instances of bullying and very high rates of low self esteem. But is having no competitive sports really helping reduce these issues ? The reverse of this is having kids who love to participate unable to ‘compete’ and push themselves to do the best they can - what are they to do with that 'passion and drive'.  The attitudes of ‘why bother’ were very obvious at our sports day last week.  Our school does have competitive team sports throughout the year, but I think that the individual sports bring additional strengths out in our kids and the personal reward with individual sports is fantastic.

Not a stopwatch or tape measure was in sight, no record keeping, no acknowledgement of excellent performance, and instead of spending the time participating in the standard athletics day events, we had hoopla hoops, gutter ball rolling, soccer skills, shooting basketball hoops and this was in middle school - not primary !!!  They did do a couple of sprints and one distance race but no pressure our drive to achieve the best you can or to push yourself. (apart from some encouraging mums and funnily enough, the other kids supporting and driving the other kids )  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel that my boys are the only ones out there and would blitz the field if they did have the chance, but how would we know if they aren’t pushed to do their best ?

I saw kids who weren’t super keen on the whole sports day concept but they still got out there and had a go - didn’t seem traumatised by being there and wouldn't have been any less interested if there was competition. Instead of having a five minute window for the kids to run as many 100m as they can, why not just run heats and a final. It takes the same amount of time...... and are the kids who don’t win really that traumatised? If they really wanted to win, doesn’t that push them to train and try harder next time - isn’t that what we want from our kids and people in general? Rather than making things ‘fair’ - life isn’t ‘fair!

I believe competition is healthy, builds resilience, and demonstrates and teachers the skills needed to handle success and disappointment, and my boys think so too. It now seems that most primary and international schools are going down the path of ‘it’s a fun day where we all participate and don’t compete’. 

I tried to find some research on this topic and most of it seems to point more towards it helping build strength of character and resilience rather than having a negative impact.  My memories of sports days are very vivid and I know that healthy competition definitely made me work harder each year.

What do my boys think?  they were disappointed in not being able to know who was the fastest, strongest, etc

Anyway, rant over for 2019 !

Here are a couple of snaps of my very competitive boys trying to ensure everyone had a fun day.  Not sure they succeeded but they definitely had fun 😊