Comparative analysis of competition in athletics for children aged 7 to 14 years in Sserbia, Croatia and Slovenia

Children’s sport is the foundation for establishing and developing high-performance athletes. Sports system that deals with its future keeps raising quality of children’s sport. Competition is the driving force of each sport, and athletics with its various disciplines offers children an opportunity to highlight their skills and desire to compete. In the area of children growing up it is necessary to “free out” and develop motor skills, encourage creativity and social interactivity, to direct the children’s interests and create conditions for a human world of children’s sports. The children’s first experience in track and field should originate from game and it is necessary to establish a program of athletic competitions for children, different from the adult competition program. The paper gives a comparative analysis of different national systems of athletic competition for children aged 7 to 14 years. The aim was to identify similarities and differences between the competition systems in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia and to determine its compliance with the basic postulates and principles of working with children this age. The analysis indicated that systems of children’s athletics aged 7 to 10 years are based on play and fun. Competitions for children aged 11 to 14 sports have most similarities with the system of competition for adults, while the system in Slovenia is linked to the school system. These systems have been adjusted enabling the successful execution of the set tasks in accordance with the age characteristics. Most similarities were found in reducing the distance, then the type of equipment used in the competition according to age categories, and not insisting on the highest technical requirements (eg, long jump of the zone). Analyzing and comparing the system of track and field competitive activities should lead to finding the optimal way for the development of athletics.