China: Gymnastics Camps for Children, Training or Torture?
Recently, the world has been pointing out another form of child abuse in China – it is not a sweat shop, child labour of any sort or any typical forms of abuse that children have been subjected to over the years. This abuse stems from recreation, from sport
– gymnastics camps for children.
The Chinese method of sports training is farsighted. It is treated methodically with extensive planning. Much like agriculture, the sports champions are cultivated.
Training starts at the earliest of ages and as skill is sown, the embryonic talent grows into a more impeccable form- cut, spruced and nourished to the optimum level.
China followed the Soviet model for athletic development and its mechanics are not a recent introduction. An established system dictates that children displaying requisite potential are handpicked by scouts who travel across the country to find them.
These gifted youngsters are then sent for “boot-camp-style” training to specialized institutions. Their training is sponsored by the state.
Having this knowledge, it will not be wrong to assume that China has children, significantly below the age of 16, training to be champion gymnasts in the Olympics. So it follows that one should not recoil in shock at the news of Chinese gymnastics camps
for children.
However, the news has been catching the world’s attention. Pictures of young children in training have been floating on the internet, extracting a collective gasp of sympathy and appall from the international community.
The rational side of the argument moves to compare gymnastics with any other sport. If children are not prohibited, rather, are encouraged to play popular sports such as football, then why should the treatment of gymnastics be any different?
One may present the “facts” reporting gymnastics as the most dangerous women’s sport. The claim is supported by the statistically high number of injuries sustained during the sport.
On the surface this argument is very compelling and may convince one that gymnastics is not comparable to, say, football because of the higher probability of injury. Closer inspection, however, reveals otherwise.
Injury surveillance reports, written in Australia, explain that sprains and fractures are common to all sports, but face, eye, intracranial, internal organ, spine and nervous system injuries are more common in other sports than in gymnastics.
The report further says that Gymnastics has a stable “field of play” and “closed skill type”. This translates into the most common gymnastic hazards (i.e. falls) being predictable. Hence, they can be prevented by providing precautionary measures.
This supports the fact that gymnastics leads to fewer instances of traumatic injury. However, it does not encompass the injuries resulting from accelerating recovery or from over-practising.
The pictures of underage gymnasts in training are more appalling because gymnastics is inherently a sport comprising of unnatural body positions. The skill is based on flexibility, that is higher in youngsters.
The point of concern then should not be the young age of the trainees or the positions they assume while training.
Rather attention should be directed towards the lack of balance that rigorous training camps promote, regardless of what sport it is and what country it is taking place in.
There needs to be a system that places age caps for extensive training depending on the effect of the physical activity on the trainee’s health. These age caps should be employed globally and will obviously differ from sport to sport.
The focus should be the child’s health and happiness, and while there is no instrument to gauge the latter, the former can be looked after by working out a balanced training schedule that matches levels and durations of training to the age of the trainees.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: