Youth sports in the national documents: Between children's rights and needs and the development of sports according to adults

Abstract

The development of national sports systems has shown that each political orientation has a different attitude towards the issues of sports and citizens' physical activity. Notwithstanding the differences registered in the direction of the national sports system development, the fundamentals of youth sports, however, share the respect for the specificities of children growing up through sports in the present, their interests, as well as their motor, social, affective and health needs, etc. Upbringing, education, and multilayered care and protection of children and youth through sports, preservation of integrity and transfer of values in sports, as well as preservation of sports rules are the directions of actions. The regulation of this type of mass sports should start from personal and social needs and it should rely on the proven practices and the current international charters of sports and political organizations. The paper has presented international and national documents: laws, declarations, agreements, strategies, action plans, recommendations, conventions, codes, as well as the documents adopted within the academic community which consider and address the issues of the youth sports in Serbia (curricula and syllabi, textbooks).