Czech children increasingly afraid to lose, shunning competitions

More and more children and teenagers in Czechia are refusing to take part in sports competitions and matches — the reason being fear of losing and a decline in psychological resilience. That's according to a survey by the Czech Sports Union, conducted among more than two thousand clubs and physical education associations.

According to the survey, while 40% of clubs reported children's reluctance to compete two years ago, that share has grown to 47% in 2026. "Today the problem exists even in youth national teams," says Vít Mařík, chairman of the Beachclub Strahov beach volleyball club and beach volleyball coordinator at the Czech Volleyball Union. According to him, it's not a lack of desire to represent the country, but an inability to withstand stress and perform at the limits of mental and physical capacity. "It's a long-term trend, but I consider covid to be the turning point — it's from that time that a major loss of resilience among children and young people became noticeable," he adds.

Parents play a role too

"Children take the possibility of losing very hard. Parents indulge them in this and prefer not to go to tournaments," says Jan Hašek, president of the TK Slavia Orlová club. According to the survey, 58% of clubs note a decrease in children's resistance to punishment and criticism — two years ago, only 37% of clubs reported this. Every fifth sports club is encountering anxiety and depressive states among young athletes more often than before.

"This is no longer a problem for sports clubs alone, but for society as a whole. If we want a healthier, more resilient, and more self-confident generation, we need to get children used to physical activity from early childhood and involve more children and teenagers in organized sport," says Jan Bohač, chairman of the Czech Sports Union.

Social media and pressure to perform

The problem extends far beyond sport — a decline in mental health among the youngest Czechs is being observed across society as a whole. "Because of pressure to perform and the influence of social media, where children constantly compare themselves to others, they tend to identify their sense of self with their results to a certain degree. If they don't win, they feel they're not good enough as people," explains mental coach Petr Vališ from SMT Academy, which works with clubs and sports federations and trains coaches.

Moderate levels of fear, stress and nervousness, he says, are important in sport and help children gain experience that's useful in adult life. But this stress shouldn't turn into unhealthy anxiety, panic attacks or depression. "The problem is that the level of stress children can withstand today isn't very high, and that requires parents and coaches to be able to guide a child through stressful situations," Vališ adds.

Alarming statistics

There's currently active debate in children's sports about whether the youngest players should keep score and play to win at all — many sports have already changed their rules: younger age groups play matches, but goals aren't counted. "Except parents keep their own score anyway, make tables and share them with each other," Mařík notes.

From a psychological standpoint, it's parents — not club coaches — who become a child's first "coaches," and the first pressure often comes from them too. Experts recommend a simple approach: remember what you yourself would have wanted to hear from a parent or coach in a similar situation, or simply ask the child directly what would help them.

The statistics confirm how serious the problem is: over the past decade, the number of children with mental disorders in Czechia has grown by a third. While around 40,000 teenagers under 19 received outpatient psychiatric treatment in 2010, that number reached 66,000 in 2024. Every fifth teenager regularly engages in self-harm, and among teenage girls — the most vulnerable group — the number of hospitalizations for this reason has doubled over the past four years.

Read also: 8 best places to swim near Prague: lakes, quarries and beaches within an hour's drive of the capital

Source: seznamzpravy.cz