Index – Sport – “In my time, out of ten children who entered the pool, eight wanted to win, now one”

The role of moderator of the dialogue this time Károly Köpfthe general secretary of the Hungarian Coaches Association, the dreamer of the Academy of Sports Parents, undertook it.

Dora Redli began the series of lectures, in which he gave parents extensive information about the proper nutrition of adolescents.

“The most important thing for children is that they are still developing and growing, so training and meeting their daily nutritional needs is not enough, we also have to think about development here. If any deficiency occurs in them, it can immediately have long-term health consequences.”

The dietitian highlighted: not only diseases and injuries, but also body image and eating disorders can come to the fore if the athlete does not eat properly, and in the case of children, this can pose an increased risk.

“Criticizing a young child’s body composition or inappropriately insisting that something should be changed can lead to the development of many eating disorders. Whatever changes arise, you always have to start changing things in time with the help of a professional.”

As for things beyond nutrition, individual dietary supplements are getting more and more emphasis. Not to mention when the child is already at the limit of competitive sports, because then most people will start it. In this regard, the specialist said: this is one “really swampy area”.

If someone switches to competitive sports, there are already very strict rules. Everyone consumes things at their own risk, and you can ruin a very promising sports career – already at a young age – because you reach for such a dietary supplement, even through no fault of your own. Coaches, peers, and the Internet often make the situation worse. You have to find the golden mean.

After the dietician Dr. Márta Fülöp a psychologist followed, who discussed the topic of whether children experience competition as a threat or a challenge.

“There is now evidence that someone who perceives the same situation as a threat has different brain processes than someone who perceives it as a challenge.”

But what can this mean in practice?

“If we think about not spoiling something or losing, then the negative thing will be in front of our eyes. If we approach from a different point of view, i.e. we approach it as if we want to win, then the positive attitude comes into focus. Because if we have a negative attitude towards a given situation even in sports, the ability to make quick and effective decisions slows down” – noted the doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

He emphasized: it is important to educate both about victory and defeat, and in the case of parents, this is done in different ways. In all cases, there is a great deal of agreement that sport is healthy and important, but when it comes to racing, the vast majority don’t even want to hear about it. According to him, this fits into the fact that Hungarian society in general has a much more negative view of competition.

At the round table discussion, the psychologist immediately Dr. Zoltán Verrasztó asked the question, “as a former elite athlete, how did you experience what he said and do you agree with them?”

“In the last performance, I heard things that I live every day. Everyone thinks that individual sports are individual. But no, it’s always an individual question of coaches and partners. So when we talk about someone using another person to win and defeat them for their own sake, that’s the best possible thing. If it comes together with training partners, it’s a miracle. You can’t achieve anything alone. If you don’t think so, you don’t get it right.”

Regarding the judgment of Hungarian parents regarding the competition, he said: this also arises daily in the course of his work.

In my time, eight out of ten kids who went into the pool wanted to win, now one wants to win. It’s a horrible feeling to experience the fact that the majority of children come without really wanting anything. Even though he has the talent, he gets lost in the lukewarm water.

According to Verrasztó, the huge problem is that the majority of parents don’t even notice that they make their children compete from time to time, not in the pool or on the field, but for example to get into the best school.

Moni Lisa Tibenszkythe head of the School of Responsible Parents raised the issue of internal motivation and parental anxiety, Dr. Márta Fülöp and in his answer he emphasized that there are very different parental attitudes in all areas.

A monotonous effort is very bad pedagogy. If you have to go beyond the comfort zone, it burdens the child. So there is this type of view system, and that’s why if the parent sees that the child doesn’t want to, he thinks that it’s okay anyway. If someone wants to achieve a serious achievement, it cannot be achieved only on a pleasurable basis.

Philip Bea a senior teacher specializing in Hungarian literature and grammar also confirmed the thoughts of the previous speakers, according to him, the worthy parental attitude is absolutely visible in the school as well.

“We don’t come to the theme closing, because it will be a theme closing, and most of the parents are partners in this. He verifies, guesses how the child swims. What do we expect when we send them for admission? He will collapse because he is in a real competitive situation for the first time. I think that playing sports and elite sports will be fantastic for the child’s personality beyond one point, because it will teach him to fight fairly and take on tasks. Sometimes you have to play the bad cop and not just in sports.”

At the previous performance, among others, the European champion, Olympic silver and bronze medalist, world championship second place handball player, Little Beatrixas well as the world and European champion, Olympic silver and bronze medalist fencer husband, Géza Imreas well as the three-time Olympic champion water polo player, Dr. Gergely Kiss also participated.

The entire presentation can be viewed by clicking here.

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