Children and Youth Sports School
Encyclopedia
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al institution for children that originated in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Sports schools were the basis of the powerful system of physical culture (fitness) and sports education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
of the USSR. The main features of this system remain in the system of sports education in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and other post-Soviet states, and also became the basis of similar systems in other countries, one of the most powerful ones at the present time being that of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Many legendary athletes, such as Nikolai Andrianov
Nikolai Andrianov
Nikolai Yefimovich Andrianov was a Soviet/Russian gymnast. He held the record for men for the most Olympic medals at 15 until Michael Phelps surpassed him at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics...
, Nellie Kim
Nellie Kim
Nellie Vladimirovna Kim is a retired Soviet gymnast who won three gold medals and a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics...
, Alexander Popov
Alexander Popov (swimmer)
Aleksandr Vladimirovich Popov ; is a Russian former Olympic gold-winning swimmer, widely regarded as one of the greatest sprint freestyle swimmers of all time.-Career:Born in Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast , Popov began swimming at age 8 at...
, Viktor Krovopuskov
Viktor Krovopuskov
Viktor Alekseyevich Krovopuskov is a retired sabre fencer, who competed for the USSR.Krovopuskov began fencing at age 13 at the Children and Youth Sport School in Moscow, his first trainer being Igor Chernyshev. In 1967 he joined the Armed Forces sports society in Moscow. He was a member of the...
, Vladislav Tretiak
Vladislav Tretiak
Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, MSM is a former goaltender for the Soviet Union's national ice hockey team. Considered to be one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the sport, he was voted one of six players to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Centennial All-Star Team in a...
, Valeri Kharlamov, Anatoly Alyabyev
Anatoly Alyabyev
Anatoly Nikolayevich Alyabyev is a retired Russian biathlete, who represented the USSR. He initially trained at Children and Youth Sport School of Spartak in Vologda, but competed as a senior while training at the Armed Forces sports society in Leningrad...
and Sergey Bubka, started their path to Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
success from sports schools.
Establishment and early years
The system of sports schools was founded in the 1930s. In 1934, Young Pioneers StadiumYoung Pioneers Stadium
The Young Pioneers Stadium was a sports complex in the Soviet Union, intended exclusively for children and youth training, the largest in Europe of this kind. It was located in Moscow...
was built in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, the first specialized sports extracurricular institution in the USSR. In the same year the first children's collective was established by Dynamo sports society; this was a prototype of sports schools by sports societies.
In 1935-1936, the first sports schools were opened in Moscow, Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
and other cities of the USSR; they were created and functioned on the basis of regulations, approved by the Central Soviet of Sports Societies and Organizations of the USSR. By the 1940s dozens of schools functioned in the USSR by Dynamo sports society, Spartak sports society
Spartak (sports society)
Spartak is the International Fitness and Sports Society of Nikolai Starostin.-Overview:Spartak was the first and the largest All-Union Voluntary Sports Society of workers of state trade, producers' cooperation, light industry, civil aviation, education, culture, health service etc...
, CDKA, sports societies of Trade Unions, OSOAVIAKHIM and in the system of education. After the Great Patriotic War, sports schools were frequently reorganized, transferred from the jurisdiction of sports societies to that of the system of education and vice versa.
Olympic Reserve schools
After the USSR joined the Olympic Movement in 1951, Specialized Children and Youth Sports Schools of the Olympic Reserve appeared, to prepare young athletes for the sports of highest achievements. The number of such sports schools grew, as did the number of sports disciplines within sports schools. They included not only Olympic sportsOlympic sports
Olympic sports, as defined by the International Olympic Committee, are all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. The Summer Olympics, as of 2012, will include 26 sports, with two additionall sports due to be added in 2016...
, but also national sports disciplines as well as tourism, orienteering
Orienteering
Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they...
, and other sports.
Structure
Sports schools were compatible with the administrative division of the country: there were District, City, Oblast, Central, Republican sports schools. To enter sports school, a child could have a recommendation from one's secondary school; children were also invited to come into a certain sports school for the selection during lessons in an ordinary school, or they could come for the selection on their own initiative. In accordance with specifics of different sports disciplines, the age of children and youth admitted into a sports school was between 8 and 14. Groups were organized according to ranks of athletesUnified Sports Classification System of the USSR
Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR is a document which provided general Soviet physical education system requirements for athletes. The classification was established in 1935 and was based on separate classifications, which existed for several sports disciplines before...
: there were separate groups for Second-Class Junior Sportsmen, First-Class Junior Sportsmen, Second-Class Sportsmen, First-Class Sportsmen, Candidates for Master of Sports of the USSR, Masters of Sports of the USSR. Term of study in each group was one to two years, with different sports normatives applied in each year.
Popularity
By 1971 there were 3,813 sports schools in the USSR, with some 1.3 million children and youth training there. These included 2,434 schools with one million attendees under the jurisdiction of the system of education and 1,245 schools with 340,000 attendees functioning in the system of sports societies. And by 1991, some 6,000 sports schools functioned in the USSR.Sports schools in post-Soviet states
After the break-up of the USSRDissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
, the system of children and youth sports in Russia passed through difficult times, but managed to retain the network of sports schools, and Physical Training Clubs (DYuKFP) were created in addition to them.
In 2005 some 4,951 sports schools and DYuKFPs functioned in the system of education and in the system of Rossport. To the former belonged 2,944 institutions of physical culture and sports education: 1,917 sports schools, 464 Specialized sports schools of the Olympic Reserve, 556 DYuKFPs and 7 centers for physical culture. Only sports schools of the system of education were attended by some 2 million children and youth, and they had more than 13,000 departments in 122 sports disciplines. Rossport institutions were attended by some one million young athletes.
Sports schools in other countries
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an countries, in particular East Germany, where they were called "Kinder- und Jugendsportschule" and abbreviated as "KJS"; for instance, Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt
Katarina Witt is a German figure skater and model. In Germany she was commonly called "Kati" in the past, but today her full name is used more often....
and Sven Fischer
Sven Fischer
Sven Fischer is a former German biathlete. He trained with the WSV Oberhof club, and was coached by Frank Ullrich and Fritz Fischer and Klaus Siebert...
attended such schools. Similar sports schools were established in the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
(called Schools for Sports Initiation there), allowing these countries to raise the level of sportsmen and achieve highest results at World Championships and Olympic Games.
At the present time some 3,000 sports schools exist in the People's Republic of China, including full-time ones, and this system is essentially based on the powerful system of sports schools of the USSR.
There are sport school in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n countries such as Singapore Sport School in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Bukit Jalil Sport School in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Malaysia. Both of these sport school established after end of Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
(1991).