It is 1 January 2031.

Surprisingly, the early winter seems severe enough for skating on natural ice. That was a long time ago. The Winter Olympics begin in just over a month in Sapporo, the city that also hosted the Games in 1972. We have plenty of medal prospects. Dutch sport is doing well overall, and this is largely thanks to what we used to call gym class. Nowadays, it has a rather long name: motor remedial teaching (MRT). Exactly 100 years after the introduction of Special School Gymnastics, we are completing the introduction of the new ecosystem of movement and sport.

In the new ecosystem, every child, regardless of their abilities, has the opportunity to develop. No longer is the focus on ‘the talented’, while the so-called untalented are fobbed off with the leftovers of time and energy. In the new system, which was launched in 2024 and gave us a new perspective on the development of young people, every child has the opportunity to develop further. Other countries look at the Netherlands with envy. At all schools, physical education is taught by specialist teachers; the years-long decline in motor skills has been halted; playing outdoors is the new normal; the dropout rate in sport during adolescence is exceptionally low; and there is close, logical cooperation between physical education and sports clubs. The world of sport is rubbing its hands at the prospect of so many physically capable children who represent a goldmine for future sporting success.

It is 31 December 2020.

Here and there, excessively heavy fireworks explode. For almost everyone, this is the first pandemic in their lifetime, casting a shadow over the world. People are glad the year is over. Sport was hit at least as hard as almost every other sector of social life. It once again became clear that the Rutte government has too little regard for sport and physical activity. All sports competitions except professional football competitions were suspended, and many sports clubs were struggling to stay afloat. There were concerns about the way sport is organised in the Netherlands. Does our club structure still have a right to exist?

In addition to the problems arising from the COVID-19 crisis, many sports clubs have been experiencing a major exodus of young people for years. The tennis federation lost 40,000 junior members between 2015 and 2020, and other major federations such as the KNVB are also dealing with high dropout rates among adolescents. The causes? We have forgotten to let children play at a young age. Contrary to what the scientific literature has been showing for years, selection takes place at an early age in many sports. Children who can barely tie their own football boots are already being trained by major clubs to become professional footballers. Seven- and eight-year-old children have to demonstrate their skills at the KNLTB’s trial days. In 2020, society is gradually beginning to realise that this is unnecessary and ultimately counterproductive for 1) lifelong physical activity and 2) sporting success later in life.

During these years, the KNVB launched the Equal Opportunities project, the KNHB abolished selection up to the under-13 age group, the KNGU decided that top performances by Dutch gymnasts should not be expected before their 20th year, and various federations, including the KNLTB and the NHV, stopped grouping young children according to their year of birth and instead began grouping them according to skill level. In addition, under pressure from a unique alliance of healthcare, sports and educational organisations, the cabinet recognised that action needed to be taken under the motto ‘all children should learn to move well again’.

If the COVID-19 crisis has taught us anything, it is that a healthy and active society is the best medicine against the outbreak of major pandemics. And learning to move well, just like reading and arithmetic, should primarily take place at a young age.

It is 8 January 2024.

The COVID pandemic is behind us and at last the government is taking physical education seriously. After acknowledging that children’s movement skills are declining, increasingly more measures have been taken in recent years to turn the situation around. For example, a minimum number of physical education hours has now been established, to be taught by qualified professionals.

A shining example of this development is the 2+1+2 Movement Concept, which Arnhem adopted in 2018. Research by HAN University of Applied Sciences using the BLOC test has shown that the decline in children’s motor skills can be halted. Since 2020, Arnhem schools have been using the BLOC test systematically to monitor the motor skills of Arnhem’s young people.

Arnhem’s success lies first and foremost in quantity: the movement concept is based on encouraging physical activity through physical education (twice a week), additional activity in the school curriculum, and activity around school hours (twice a week). An equally important key to the success of the Arnhem approach is the quality of physical education. To teach children to move well, it is important to stimulate pupils’ work attitude, athletic learning ability, interpersonal skills and intellect.

This is what happens in Arnhem following thorough research by Sebastiaan Platvoet. In the study for which he received his doctorate in 2020, the researcher from HAN Sport and Exercise concluded that work attitude and athletic learning ability in particular are of great importance. Teachers can develop these skills by applying purposeful teaching methods. The specialist teachers in Arnhem embraced this approach and have since observed that children’s attitudes have changed. As was already made clear on the youth news programme in 2020, children themselves take the lead in choosing the right level from the exercises offered by the teacher.

About Sebastiaan Platvoet

Sebastiaan Platvoet works as a senior lecturer/researcher in talent identification and talent development at the HAN Academy of Sport & Exercise. He also leads the talent expertise team there. In 2020, he completed his doctoral research, ‘Physical education: a gold mine for the development of future successful athletes?’, at the University of Groningen. In his work, he seeks to support students, physical education teachers, community sports coaches and trainer-coaches in translating scientific insights into practice.

In 2020, Sebastiaan Platvoet had a short animated film made about the findings of his dissertation. At the time, he ended his argument with the question, ‘am I dreaming?’ “I believe that by 2031, insights from science will be widely applied, that all children will above all be able to enjoy the pleasure of sport, that physical education will finally have the place it deserves, and that a goldmine of potential future elite athletes will have been uncovered.”