SCORE IN THE SPIRIT OF SPORT
Belgrade – On the occasion of International Youth Day, an association of citizens Child Rights Centre wishes to remind the public that the youth is potential of our society and to highlight the problems that youth face today, especially in the field of sports. With that regard the Child Rights Centre launched the project “Prevention and protection of children from violence in sport” – Score in the spirit of sport, which is financed by Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Serbia through the program European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. The project should contribute to the improvement of systems for preventing and protecting young athletes from violence in a sports environment.
Violence in sport is not just hooliganism, which is seen in the stands, but any physical or emotional damage and injures of other participants, which are outside the rules of the sport. Again, playing sports is desirable because it represents a good basis for the proper mental and physical development of children and creation of good habits. Child Rights Centre believes that the sport is no place for violence and that sport is a good environment for learning non-violent conflict resolution and tolerance that can be transmitted in other spheres of life.
Child Rights Centre was motivated to initiate this project by results of the research “Violent behavior towards and among children and youth in sport” that during 2011 was conducted in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH – project “Strengthening of structures for the empowerment and participation of youth in Serbia” and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Serbia. According to this research, most of the surveyed athletes aged 13-17 years said that in the previous season have experienced some form of violence by their teammates, and the 63% that had experienced at least one form of violence by the coaches. Most often it was punishment of an additional exercise (50.5%) and some form of verbal violence – shouting, swearing and intimidation (27%). It has been shown that athletes who were victims of violence more often, saw it around themselves in more cases and often they themselves were violent.
Nenad Manojlovic, a coach, member of the Council of Sport of Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Serbia and the former coach of Serbia water polo national team points out that the role of the coach in the development of children and youth is extremely high: “Organised, continuous sporting activity is educational-training process, and therefore the role of the coach is primarily educational, and acquiring sports skills and knowledge is in the second plan. Those two processes are mutually intertwined and inseparable and must be mutually supportive and encouraging. Daily contact, mutual challenges, tensions, joint checking of achievements, constant communication, etc. are an exam primarily for trainers and their commitment to the child. On the quality and ways of engaging of trainer depends which seal will be left on the formation of child personality.”
