The child in their territory

a possible environment for childhood

By: Thiago Filla de Almeida and Danilo Augusto Ribeiro

We have been thinking a lot about the place the child occupies within sports. The more time we spend in this environment, the more we become convinced that we need to ask some questions that seem simple, but that perhaps we have stopped asking: for whom are we doing sports? Who is the child who is in sports practice? The child who plays sports today will carry which values into their life in society?

These questions gained even more meaning recently, when a father from a younger age group (from U6 to U13) asked about results. The question, in itself, is legitimate. Parents have the right to know the project, to know how their children are being cared for, what the team's objectives are and how competition is part of that process. But that conversation led to reflection on how far the role of parents goes and where the responsibility of the other adults involved in a child's sports development begins. How are we dealing with parental expectations? How are we, as professionals responsible for conducting the sports process, positioning ourselves in the face of these questions?

Parents have a fundamental role. They are, many times, the main reference for that child. They are the ones who take them, pick them up, accompany them, encourage them, console them and celebrate. But precisely because they are so important, we need to help them understand that being a father or mother in sports does not mean being a coach, a director, a referee or an evaluator of their own child. Perhaps the most important role is to be present so that the child can win without feeling superior, lose without feeling like a failure, make mistakes without feeling that they have disappointed and, mainly, practice sports knowing that they will continue to be loved regardless of the result. Are we prepared and are we aware of the impacts that our conduct can cause in children?

We have observed families reorganizing their entire lives around their children's sports practice. Parents who divide the family to take a boy to train in another city; children often living far from their family, with third parties, in pursuit of an uncertain sports career; children with schedules taken over by training sessions, games, trips, championships and evaluations, accompanied by an increasingly early expectation: "what if he becomes a player". The general sports law (2023) and Fifa Guardians (2026) are documents that will clarify different points on these questions.

But what if he just wants to play?

There is nothing wrong with a child dreaming of being an athlete. The problem begins when the dream stops being theirs and becomes the adults'. When every training session becomes an evaluation, every game becomes a judgment and every result becomes a measure of their worth. Sports, which should expand their experiences, begins to occupy their entire childhood.

We also need to look at this child's schedule. Do they really need one more training session? A personal trainer? A gym? Individualized attention? Do they need to occupy every possible space so as not to be "left behind"? Or do they need time to play, rest, be with family, spend time with friends and simply do nothing? Numerous studies point to different negative factors when a child specializes early. For professor Wilton Santana, we are at a point of early hyperspecialization.

Doing less can also be part of the development process

When we look for an engineer to build a project, we trust that they know how much iron, cement and structure are needed for it to remain standing. When we go to the doctor or the dentist, we trust their training and their knowledge to guide what needs to be done. Why, when we place our children in a sports project, do we so often have difficulty trusting the professional who studied to work with movement, sports, learning and development?

Of course parents should ask, follow along and participate. But we need to recover a relationship that seems to be getting lost: trust in the knowledge of the person conducting the process. Questions for sports managers: how is your relationship with the parents/guardians of the children who are attending your Soccer/Futsal project? Do you hold a meeting at the beginning of the semester to present the methodological guidelines? Do you promote gatherings to present and discuss the calendar and/or possible competitions to participate in? Does your development process include individual meetings with parents who are interested in knowing about their child's development?

If a teacher allows a child to play, we need to ask, before concluding that he is not coaching. If a team loses a match, we need to ask, before concluding that the work is wrong. Not every pedagogical decision needs to coincide with what the adult would like. Are we allowing the child to be themselves in our environment (internal and external)?

This is the point at which we need to talk about the right to play. João Batista Freire, Alcides Scaglia, Wilton Carlos de Santana and Carlos Rogério Thiengo, from different contributions, help us understand the game as a space for learning, creativity, decision-making, experimentation and autonomy.

Defending playfulness does not mean defending a practice without pedagogical intent. Quite the opposite. It requires knowledge, planning and a clear conception of childhood. Playing is not the opposite of learning. For the child, playing is perceiving, deciding, making mistakes, trying again, creating and finding solutions. The child lives play fully, without perceiving the world around them. They just feel and live.

Recently, a undergraduate student who participated in a class I was attending in a course reported that he was trying to build a more playful environment, but could not sustain this position within the project he worked on. This made me think: when a teacher decides to defend childhood, who sustains that teacher? What is their purpose? What are the references that guide them on this path of "multiple" football/futsal coaches from the stands?

We do not need to be against competition. Competition also educates. It teaches how to deal with victory, defeat, frustration, rules and adversities. Losing a game is not a pedagogical error. The problem appears when competition ceases to be part of the sporting experience and becomes the purpose of childhood.

And we need to talk about error. The player makes mistakes. The teacher makes mistakes. The referee makes mistakes. We all make mistakes. How do we want to form creative players if we do not allow them to experiment? How do we want to teach autonomy if we control all decisions? And how do we want a child to learn to deal with frustration if adults cannot deal with the frustration of seeing them make mistakes? The environment created by the teacher and the sporting surroundings must meet the child's wishes, and not push them away.

The recent episode that occurred in Santa Catarina, in which a father fired shots at the referees' car, after disagreeing with a decision in a children's futsal match, forces us to stop. Not to turn that case into a spectacle, but to ask: what else needs to happen for us to decide to act? In the referees' car could have been their children, also 10 years old.

Extreme violence is perhaps the most visible face of something that begins much earlier: in shouting, in humiliation, in the disqualification of the referee, in excessive demands and in the idea that a child needs to win to justify the adults' investment.

Therefore, this manifesto is mainly for parents.

Just be parents!

Ask your child if they enjoyed the training. Ask what they learned. Ask if they are happy. Or do not ask anything, let them speak, if they want to speak, and anything else. Be present when they win and, but also when they lose. Do not turn the journey home after a game into another game. Do not compare your child with another child. Do not fill the entire schedule because another boy is doing more. Get to know the project, talk to the teacher and trust the process.

Your child does not need You to also be the coach.

They need you to be their parent.

They do not need you to explain every mistake after the game. They need to know they can count on you after it. They do not need you to solve all their difficulties. They need to learn to face them. They do not need to win to make you happy. They need to know they will continue to be a source of pride even when they lose. Be a good listener.

For teachers, it falls to them to defend play with knowledge and courage. For managers, to build a culture in which training is not just synonymous with results. For federations and organizers, to think of competitions that respect the different stages of childhood. For refereeing, to understand that, on a children's court, error is also part of the educational process. A contradictory society, when not hypocritical, is already punitive enough. Refereeing must always be educational.

We are all socializing agents. We all educate through our attitudes.

Perhaps it is time to change some questions. Instead of asking only "who won?", ask "what did that experience produce in that child?". Instead of asking "does he play well?", ask if "does he still enjoy playing?". Instead of asking "does he have a future?", ask if "is he living the present well?". And, before we ask what athlete we want to form, ask what child are we helping to form?

That is why we defend an idea that we consider increasingly necessary:

THE CHILD'S TERRITORY.

A child who can play, experiment, compete, make mistakes, learn, rest, create, live together and dream. Who can want to be an athlete, but who does not have to stop being a child to try to get there.

Sport can be a place of excellence without ceasing to be a place of childhood. It can teach discipline without producing fear, competition without turning opponents into enemies and form athletes without ceasing to form people.

Let us not allow the haste of adults to steal the time of childhood.

Because the child does not need a more productive childhood.

They need a fuller childhood.

And perhaps the question that we should take into clubs, associations, federations, schools, universities and stands is:

What else needs to happen for us, adults, to finally decide to respect childhood?

FREIRE, João Batista. Pedagogy of Football.

SCAGLIA, Alcides José. Pedagogy of the Game.

SANTANA, Wilton Carlos de. Pedagogy of Futsal: playing to learn.

THIENGO, Carlos Rogério. Studies on development and curriculum in football.

RIBEIRO, Danilo Augusto. Studies related to pedagogy, development and sport.

Thiago Filla de Almeida is a Physical Education Professional specialized in youth methodology, with experience in the coordination of sports initiation at Avaí Futebol Clube. Currently, he works in Institutional Relations at the Instituto Futebol de Rua, where he works to expand the impact of sport as a tool for social transformation, connecting projects and partnerships throughout Brazil. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thiago-filla-de-almeida-0098b3152

Danillo Augusto Ribeiro is a Physical Education Professional with more than 15 years of experience in the teaching and coaching of Futsal for children and young people. He was a university professor at the Universidade Norte do Paraná and technical and methodological coordinator of sports initiation at Club Athletico Paranaense and Avaí Futebol Clube. Currently, he works as a Sports Analyst at the Instituto Futebol de Rua, in addition to providing consultancy in the structuring and restructuring of processes in clubs, schools and football and futsal associations. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danilo-augusto-ribeiro-0410321a3/