📘 Part 3: Children and sports

This episode's vocabulary

To promote (verb) - to encourage people to like, buy, use, do, or support something.

To handle (verb) - to deal with, have responsibility for, or be in charge of.

To put someone off (phrasal verb) - to tell someone that you cannot see them or do something for them, or to stop someone from doing something, until a later time.

Prematurely (adj.) - in a way that happens or is done too soon, especially before the natural or suitable time.

Advantageous (adj.) - giving advantages or helping to make you more successful.

Gross motor skills (plural noun) - the abilities required to control the muscles of the body for large movements such as crawling, walking, jumping, running, and more.

Self-managed (adj.) - making your own decisions about how to organize your work, rather than being led or controlled by a manager.

Resilience (noun) - the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened.

Perseverance (noun) - continued effort to do or achieve something, even when this is difficult or takes a long time.

To be on the move (idiom) - to be physically active.

Underdeveloped (adj.) - not as advanced or powerful as possible or expected.

Cognitive (adj.) - connected with thinking or conscious mental processes.

By default - happening or done because no formal choice or decision has been made.

Novelty (noun) - the quality of being new and unusual.

To sidetrack (verb) - to direct a person's attention away from an activity or subject towards another one that is less important.

Either-or (adj.) - used to refer to a situation in which there is a choice between two different plans of action, but both together are not possible.

Influx (noun) - the fact of a large number of people or things arriving at the same time.

To overburden (verb) - to make someone or something work too hard or carry, contain, or deal with too much.

Adequate (adj.) - enough or satisfactory for a particular purpose.

Up-and-coming (adj.) - likely to achieve success soon or in the near future.

Venue (noun) - the place where a public event or meeting happens.

Specialist (adj.) - having or involving detailed knowledge of a subject.

Arena (noun) - a large, flat area surrounded by seats used for sports or entertainment.

To exceed (verb) - to be greater than a number or amount, or to go past an allowed limit.

Readily (adverb) - quickly, immediately, willingly, or without any problem.

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Questions and Answers

M: What are the benefits of sports for children?

R: Well, aside from promoting general health and fitness, I suppose they're also elements of learning how to handle feedback and competition. And using that for progression. In addition, you can also learn valuable skills like tracking progress, or how to handle your body in different situations. But for example, you'd have to learn how you're getting better at running by timing yourself.

M: And what are the disadvantages of doing sports for children?

R: I suppose if you were doing something too complicated, you might risk putting them off prematurely. And there's the potential they could be injured. For example, I know that one child, the school I used to work in, broke their arm by accident. So that's pretty serious. But I think these risks are pretty minimal. On the whole, it's quite advantageous to do sport.

M: Do children need exercise?

R: Well, doesn't everyone need exercise to live? In this case of children specifically, it's important for developing their fine and gross motor control. For example, the small actions that people use to maintain their balance and positioning your legs appropriately to do the same thing. It's also useful for building up your self-management skills like resilience or perseverance since you have to compete and keep up with others. And all of those things will be useful in later life.

M: Do young people like to do sports?

R: Well, I imagine most of them do, since they're constantly on the move and making up games involving movement, you'd be surprised what they'd come up with if you just throw a ball of any description and some cones at them and then see what they do and how they communicate to create a game. If everything is laid out for them, like an organized sport, or sorry, like in an organized sport, then they can focus solely on that and achieve a great deal.

M: How often do you think young people should do sports?

R: Well, as often as possible. I mean, if it were me, I would be getting them to do some every day. But I don't make those sorts of decisions. I think the norm in schools is two hours a week, at least in this country.

M: Why do some young people do less sport than adults?

R: It's difficult to appreciate what you have as a child sometimes, because, well, you're relatively underdeveloped cognitively and physically, that means that you don't always take advantage of the opportunities offered to participate in sports when they present themselves. Children are also usually more easily distracted by other things, since everything is new to them, and they almost always want to engage with them just by default. You can see this in the response to novelty offered by digital media. So in that environment, it's easy to understand how they can get sidetracked.

M: Some people think that facilities for doing sports should be built by the government. Would you agree? Or should people pay for the facilities and build their own facilities?

R: I don't see why it has to be an either-or thing. I mean, the government could provide the money alongside that provided by the local community. I mean, if the local community wants it, then they should help pay for it as well, shouldn't they? And in the same way, the government wants people to be healthy in the country, or at least they should do. So they should contribute towards this as well. So I think it can be a combined thing.

M: And should the gyms be free to people?

R: Once which are built by the government or in general?

M: Just like in general, like all the gyms.

R: Like, well, it depends, because right now, if all gyms were made free to people, and there was this huge influx, then they might be overburdened because I think they don't have the capacity to hold the number of people that want to go to them. So it's probably better that they're run as a business. On the other hand, if we had more gyms and adequate capacity, then they could be made free because then there would be enough for everybody.

M: And what about the future? What facilities for sports, like places for doing sports, will be built in the future?

R: Well, let's assume the population keeps increasing, and the majority of people like big sports like football, and rugby, and tennis, so I guess more football stadiums or more sports stadiums will be being built in general. And then there are up-and-coming sports like eSports. So having venues for those as well... Sometimes stadiums are used for these sorts of events, but other times there are specialist arenas I suppose that are created for those. And then there's things like... There are competitions for drone flying too, and I wonder if they might need specialist venues as well. So all of these are venues which could be built in the future, whether they're for traditional sports or for ones that are new on the scene.

M: And do you think cybersports will become even more popular?

R: Oh, absolutely. I keep talking about this, but novelty offered by digital technology far exceeds what's available, or at least readily available in the real world. So as long as that stays the same, and as long as people remain hungry for new stuff or new experiences, then it's likely that these things will keep increasing in popularity, or these kinds of sports will increase in popularity.

M: Thank you for your answers!

R: Thank you for your questions!

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