When asked to talk about young people who play sports, especially up to the age of 14, beyond any theoretical explanation, what I want to highlight is the importance of fun and moving with purpose.
Having fun means deriving pleasure from an activity for the way it is done, for the physical and mental energy expended, without having a specific goal to achieve or a result to obtain.
Moving with purpose, on the other hand, involves learning to play soccer, fence, or tennis while always having an idea in mind that guides the actions of the young person. This can happen in a rudimentary way if they are beginners or in a technically better way as they progress through this experience. In other words, there is no movement without thought, so learning or training means moving by mentally representing the technical execution.
A sports practice that guarantees this type of development positively stimulates the motivation to continue the effort and fosters that conviction so necessary to become experts in some activity, namely that “I improve thanks to my effort”.
Unfortunately, the goals of young people in most cases are not aimed at satisfying these two needs. Many train to learn a sport just as many compete to win. The issue is not to do well in a sport but to feel comfortable doing what you like. The goal is not to make a good move or score a point or a goal but to express one’s abilities to the fullest. In tennis, for example, many young people want to hit hard to score immediately, without the willingness to create the opportunity to end the rally with their play. In this case, they hit but do not think.
This way of doing things is the antithesis of sportsmanship.
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