New year, new sporting codes at the school
Mituxa Lopes from Mitchell House gives advice on how to support your child while they participate in multiple sporting codes at school.
POLOKWANE – The new year is an opportunity for new adventures and many learners will use this opportunity to make changes in their sport activities.
Review spoke to Mituxa Lopes, director of physical education at Mitchell House College, about how to give your child the best sporting opportunities without going bankrupt.
Mituxa says it is beneficial for children to participate in sports programmes, particularly those offered by the school.
Schools are placed in certain financial brackets, and with that comes programmes a client (parents) can sustain.
“The most cost-effective sports are athletics, netball, soccer and rugby. These sporting codes require less to no equipment to participate, and is offered per term, covering the entire year. A learner would commonly need a pair of takkies or soccer or rugby boots to participate.”
Since brand type is usually associated with quality, the question to parents would then be ‘am I only enabling my child to participate, or am I investing in my child’s potential?’.
“Athlete endorsements are usually for elite athletes and not many corporates invest in the growth of athletes at grass roots level. Maybe that is an intervention we need from corporates to nurture the growth of learner athletes.”
Some learners want to take part in all the sporting codes the school has to offer.
School sports is part of the school’s extra-curricular activities and needs to exist in conjunction with the academic programme.
“Extra-curricular activities take place after school, and this is done to introduce a balance in your child’s life. When the exam period resumes, the extra-curricular activity need to be rearranged to accommodate the most important period of their academic term. However, physical activity whether through continuous sports participation at clubs or running at home still needs to be engaged in, even during the exam period.”
Mituxa says the moment your child does not reflect academic growth because they are always away for sports, you should consider it as a sign of too much sports participation.
“My advice to approach that situation is to engage with the academic staff and coaches through the correct protocol and come up with solutions to get the child to succeed in the classroom and on the sports field because a child that always needs to travel for sports means their sport skill is in high demand by a lot of people, and its usually never a good idea to stop them from doing what they are already excelling in.”
