[Sport] Coaches push school-aged athletes to leave formal schooling as a 'necessary sacrifice'

[_Happy boy]

 

New Zealand has 100 child athletes – some as young as 10 – who are choosing their future sporting careers over in-school education.

Sometimes that choice is being prompted by coaches who schedule training during in-school hours, so that school-aged athletes must choose between a school education and sport.

Nine now-former senior gymnasts from one of the country’s major clubs took that route.

Several felt they were given no option to stay at school, after their head coach set a rule all athletes wanting to be in the top squad must do correspondence school, so they could focus on the sport.

 

One former gymnast said her education was deemed to be a “necessary sacrifice” by her coach. During that time her grades dropped, and she along with the other gymnasts in the squad quit the sport to go back into mainstream education.

Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, the state-funded correspondence school, receives about 100 applications every year through its “exceptional arts or sports performance gateway”, which supports young students identified as likely to either represent New Zealand, or develop to the top of their age group.

Not all applications are successful, Te Kura chief executive Mike Hollings said, on average 14 applications have been declined each year since 2015.

Child athletes must obtain support from their sporting governing bodies when applying for correspondence school.

On the roll, the youngest “exceptional sports ākonga” is 10 years old, with the average age of correspondence school athletes 15.8 years. A third of this year’s roll are students new to correspondence school.

In 2020, dance/ballet makes up the “lion’s share”, followed by snow sports. Tennis, figure skating and equestrian round out the top five sports.

Sport New Zealand’s (SNZ) national sport development consultant Alex Chiet was unable to comment on specific cases, but said the organisation “encourage the development of well-rounded athletes”.

“That includes playing multiple sports, but also thinking about life after sport, so maintaining a focus on education is important,” he said.

“Sport NZ’s ‘Value of Sport’ research shows that being active in sport improves school attendance, academic achievement and life-skills such as team-work, so working against that does not appear in the interests of young people.”

Sports sociologist Dr Simon Walters from Auckland University of Technology

supported of SNZ’s “balance is better” ethos, which puts the needs of the participant first.

Prompting children to leave their schools didn’t seem to be putting education first, he said.

Nor did it seem to be putting welfare and wellbeing first. In the gymnastics case “what it does seem to be doing is putting gymnastics first and foremost, which would be a cause of concern for us.”

New Zealanders love winners in sport, but there needs to be a balance between performance outcomes and welfare, particularly of young athletes

“What we’re concerned about is sport is quite often constructed solely as a way to identify and develop talented ones at the expense of others, and not developing those more holistic skills we see as potentially being of value to sport, but focusing on performance outcomes, winning at all costs,” he said.

The solution, he said, was for SNZ to “take an active leadership role” in helping sports organisations develop pathways which enable participation, “underpinned by research”.

“The sports organisations have a moral duty and responsibility to look after their athletes and to take a critical look at their structures,” he said.

“The way forward, let’s offer a more balanced experience for these young people. From a moral perspective, is it in the best interest of this kid as a human being? As opposed to just being an (athlete).”

They isolated us from our other commitments, responsibilities, school lives”
The fresh claims in gymnastics are part of Stuff’s ongoing investigation into the sport, that has uncovered allegations of psychological and verbal abuse, fat shaming and athletes being forced to train long hours and compete on serious injuries.

The coach who “encouraged” the in-school training hours is no longer with the club and declined to comment when approached by Stuff.

The former gymnast said the coach told her to be successful – like the gymnasts in the United States – athletes needed “time in the gym without distractions”. She said she was told “everyone else is doing it [correspondence school], so you have to do it too”.

“They changed our training times from after school to during school, meaning we had to leave regular school if we wanted to be part of the [senior] group,” she said.

They changed our training times from after school to during school, meaning we had to leave regular school if we wanted to be part of the [senior] group,” she said.

“They isolated us from our other commitments, responsibilities, school lives.

“And they were isolating us inside the gym. We were training when no one else was training. I thought that was … problematic.”

She, like the others in the squad, did correspondence school through Te Kura. She would do “three or four hours” worth of school work in the morning and although she felt supported by her distant learning teachers, academic “expectations” of her and the others were “low”, she said.