YINCHUAN, Northwest China, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Wu Tianrui used to love playing mobile games and was always preoccupied with his ranking in the games. After a trip to Beijing last summer, he voluntarily gave up mobile games and went to the gym more often.
This change began with a basketball.
"Last year, my sister went to Beijing to take part in the finals of the Little Basketball League, and my parents took me to the games," he said.
Wu is a second-year primary school student in Zhongning County, in China's western Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
He said he found that playing basketball not only helped him see the outside world, but also attracted the attention of his parents.
The "Little Basketball" project, launched by the Chinese Basketball Association in 2017, is a popular event for teenagers aged 6 to 12. The rules are modified from the adult competitions. It uses a smaller sized basketball, lower baskets and smaller courts that are more suitable for teenagers and children, aiming to cultivate teenagers' interest in the sport.
"Little basketball is more fun. I feel like I haven't eaten all day without touching the ball," Wu said.
Yin Jiancheng, deputy director of the Zhongning County Bureau of Education and Sports, said that for children like Wu Tianrui, sports like small basketball bring positive changes in personality and physical well-being.
In a way, sports also help keep children in school.
Principal of Kuankoujing school, Wan Zhanwen, said that some children want to drop out of school, but sports such as small basketball have opened a new door for them, giving them an interest and a stronger desire to stick with schooling. Some children's grades have improved significantly.
Hao Xingwen, director of the Zhongning County Sports Center, said that last year 106 teams from 59 primary schools participated in the county's small basketball league. This year, the number of teams has increased to 220, with five new competition zones added.
The development of small basketball among primary school students is a microcosm of the growing attention paid to physical fitness in China.
Chen Gang, secretary-general of Ningxia Basketball Federation, said that basketball associations and education departments can cooperate to promote basketball, which can bring professional teachers to schools, make physical education more flexible, and help expand the basketball population base, which is a win-win scenario.
The question of whether physical education can be done well or not depends much on the attitude of the school principal.
At the beginning, some school principals in Zhongning County thought that sports activities could affect academic quality, so Zhongning County included the development of sports activities in the school year-end assessment, which "forced" the principals to change their ideas.
Nowadays, football, basketball, roller skating and other sports have become the characteristics of many local school sports programs, and some principals have even become sports enthusiasts.
"More and more principals, teachers and parents are paying equal attention to physical health as they do to their children's academic achievements. I believe that with the vigorous development of sports in schools, the number of myopic and overweight children will be greatly reduced," Yin Jiancheng said.
