In Gipuzkoa, a child can enroll in a sports club, but is required to do School Sports from 6 to 12 years old (from 6 to 8 years old Educational Games, from 9 to 12 years old Multikirola). Currently, 17,545 children participate in the Multikirola program, of which 36% only do Multikirola and 64% are also registered in a club, according to data published by Diario Vasco

Why only the club?

The ruling that suspended the obligation has cheered many parents. They argue that they should be free to choose the sport they want and that the child does not have to do other sports that he does not like. What is more, in addition to doing the sport you like in a club, the need to attend School Sport takes a lot of time for the child, so it is understandable that several parents consider the obligation excessive. Performance is also sometimes key: they often focus on improving and progressing in the sport that the child (family) has chosen, specializing in what he likes and/or is skillful and competent. With the elite sport in mind, moreover, the model that imitates or approaches it, based on competition, is not seen as bad by many, and more or less many clubs move around this model.

Why School Sports?

According to the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, which is going to appeal, it is clear that: If the School Sport is rejected and only a club-based sport remains among the lords and children, “an elitist and exclusionary system, structured around the talented and focused on results and achievement, would be built. It would be divided between good and bad.” In fact, those who cannot participate in a club – for example, because of their socio-economic situation – are excluded from the model.

At the beginning and with children, instead of being limited to a single sport, in the case of boys, directly to football, one of the objectives of School Sport is to try everything related to physical activity and work on competences and skills in a comprehensive way, also because, according to several experts, early specialization is not beneficial in the long term. The characteristics and values of School Sport were summarized by Luis Mari Zulaika, professor of Physical Education, during the round table held by LUZ: “the diversity of sports; the de-emphasis of the result –there is no classification in the lower levels–; the groups do not do it by level –instead of putting the best in one group and the mediocre in the other, forming natural and mixed groups with the roommates–; the prioritization of the educational objectives; the responsibility of the management is the schools and not the clubs or sports associations whose objective is the result and performance; the participation of all, with rules that the difference between the less and the more played is small”.

One model and the other: the tree vs the pyramid

We can talk about tastes, freedom, wasting time... but basically, what is often behind is two ways of understanding sport that often collide. As Zulaika explained in the above-mentioned round table: “Before, the model of the pyramid was followed, organized to create high-level athletes in the future, for which the best were chosen, they focused on them and the others were lost along the way. In the 21st century, if the goal is to promote an active lifestyle among all citizens, this model does not serve us. Twenty years ago a general law was proposed for the UAE –then each historical territory made its own interpretation–, closer to the model that would be for all citizens, to promote an active and healthy lifestyle. The model of the tree was chosen for this: at first the child will try everything to develop basic motor skills in integrity and generality, and tomorrow the branches will begin to emerge, some will be destined to the upper level and performance, but all others will be prepared and have the culture internalized to maintain an active lifestyle in their free time. What happened? What happened? That the pro-performance collectives have enormous strength, that they are an extraordinary factual power, and that those who should make decisions succumb to this pressure. In the case of Gipuzkoa, for example, for many years we have had a very well developed tree model but we are going backwards due to the strength of the pyramid model.”