Sports practice among young people | Champions… and a lot of dropouts

In Quebec, organized sport among young people is based on competition, elitism and specialization. Voices are being raised to question this system, which would lead to a lot of sport dropouts.

Catherine Handfield
The Press

In high school, Tristan Dubois was part of the basketball team at his private school in Montreal. Tristan was “far from being the best”, in his words, but he liked it. His teammates have become his friends. He even gave up karate to devote himself to basketball.

At the start of his second high school year, Tristan tried out again to keep his place on the team. This time he was not taken.

“It marked me, remembers Tristan. In the locker room, I had tears in my eyes, but the whole team was supporting me. »

Tristan never played basketball again, except at the park, with friends. “In fact, afterwards, I just stopped playing sports,” realizes the 19-year-old, who does not hold it against his old school. It’s the way of doing things, like in many high schools.

“Very focused” on the competition

In Quebec, secondary schools make selections to form their sports teams, while others do not. Be that as it may, Quebec is one of the few provinces where the sports season runs from fall to spring. In Ontario, young people are invited to choose three different sports during the year, which they practice successively, according to the seasons.

“In Quebec, we have a system that is very, very focused on competition: we want to have banners in our gymnasium,” summarizes André Lachance, speaker, professor at the University of Ottawa and world-renowned baseball coach.

School psychologist, Rémi Côté often welcomes young people who need to move so badly, but who feel rejected by this philosophy of “elitism, comparison and the podium”. “I see that there are a lot of children and teenagers who are affected in their self-esteem,” he says. I see young people who develop a very negative view of their body and their physical capacity, even more so since the pandemic. »

According to him, the pandemic is a great opportunity to review the model from top to bottom. Elite sport can be part of it, but in his eyes, it is given too much importance.

Why, for example, not organize spinning lessons in the gym? asks Rémi Côté. Friendly tournaments? Basketball for the little ones?

Co-founder of the Grand Défi Pierre Lavoie, triathlete Pierre Lavoie has been campaigning for many years for a change of approach. He is also asking for the Estates General to find a Quebec model that would allow children to “stay active for life”.

It’s well documented: organized sport participation declines in adolescence. According to a study by the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (2014-2016), in Quebec, it goes from 78% among 5 to 12 year olds to 68% among 13 to 19 year olds. During their secondary studies, only 13% of girls and 22% of boys achieve the level of recreational physical activity recommended during the school year, according to the Quebec Survey on the Health of Secondary School Youth (2016-2017).

“The system is made to develop champions to look good internationally, says Pierre Lavoie, but we lose a lot of children who stop moving because we are in a hurry to measure, evaluate and compare them. . »

“There is a whole culture behind it”

The Student Sports Network in Quebec (RSEQ), whose mission is to contribute to academic success by promoting health, sports and physical activity, offers a “diversified” service offer to schools. The awarding of banners and medals represents only 10% to 20% of their volume, maintains Gustave Roel, President and CEO of the RSEQ.

It is the establishments, then, who choose what they want to offer to the pupils. In elementary school, he says, the programs focus on healthy lifestyle habits. “The demand that comes from secondary school is the management of leagues”, agrees Gustave Roel.

According to Gustave Roel, secondary schools are part of a larger context. “The sports federations in Quebec have recognition based on the athletes positioned on the provincial and national scale,” he recalls. The Jeux du Québec is another example. There’s a whole culture behind it. »

And this “culture” starts early, very early.

At the age of 6 and 7, the son of Jean-Pierre Coulombe was in the development program of a Montreal diving club. His second coach had a “colder, more disciplinary” approach, remembers Jean-Pierre Coulombe. The little one had to follow the instructions… on a sheet. As he “went into his bubble”, he was rarely entitled to the reward at the end of the course: jumping from the big hill.

His parents met with the program manager to see if the approach could be changed with son, who needed a touch on the shoulder to listen.

Jean-Pierre Coulombe will always remember a sentence he heard that day: “You know, we train champions”. Her son stopped diving. He is 15 today. He remains athletic, but “to this day, he has an aversion to competition”.

Early specialization

According to the scientific literature, various factors lead to the abandonment of sport in adolescence, including lack of pleasure, perception of skills, pressure, but also what is called “early specialization”, which consists of specializing young children in a single discipline.

This way of doing things is criticized because it is associated with more sports injuries and burnouts. According to Pierre Lavoie, until the end of secondary two, we should focus on the development of several skills through play and fun, as is the case in Scandinavian countries. In his eyes, specialization in the vast majority of sports could be delayed.

André Lachance has worked with several nations. He will soon return to Denmark, where he is helping to review the competition system to put it “at the service of the athlete”.

According to him, examples such as those of Sweden and Iceland show that we can very well work on both fronts at the same time: having success at the highest level while having an inclusive system allowing all children to stay active for a long time. Norway remains a shining example: the country of 5.4 million people – currently first in the medal standings at the Beijing Olympics – offers a model of fun, a sense of competence and freedom of choice for children. .

“To get there, we have to make changes in the structures, the competition systems and the way of seeing the sport,” says André Lachance. Like English and math, movement and skills should be taught to students early. “Why, in sixth grade, don’t all Quebec children know how to skate even though there are arenas and skating rinks near their schools? asks André Lachance, according to whom there is still a lot of education and awareness to be done.