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“While playing you get to know a man better than through talking to him over the course of a year.”

Plato

What would youth work be without playing!

Fighting games
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For generations, people have played. Playing is a reflection of life. Therefore, the game is a preparation for life. However, it is also about how the individual sees himself:

Winning or losing – carrying through, but also learning to cope with failures and defeats.
Achieving success as a team - learning collaboration, cooperation and communication
Experiencing togetherness – create experiences and fun with friends
Succeed in competitions - by carrying on, persevere and not giving up.
Goals – having a goal in mind and not letting failure discourage you
Venting/working off- reduce stress, enjoy and have fun

What did Plato mean in his statement about playing: “While playing you get to know a man better than through talking to him over the course of a year.” - While we are playing, we see a much different side of others. The reason is that, while playing, we often behave according to our innermost thoughts, feelings and actions. Sometimes we might present reserved, shy, holding back – yet, when we are playing we can let go, behave in a more natural way.

Playing nights
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We forget our restraint but live it out in a playful manner, so to speak. Those who have not learned to lose will be sad, angry or offended at losing. Someone who wants to win regardless the costs, might ignore one or the other rule, abuse the situation to his advantage and gloats over the losers.

People who have learned to work together, express considerations for one another will display those habits in a playful situation as well. Winner, loser, leader, follower, cautious, bold, timid or shy children, strategists and easy-maker - all possible attitudes can be observed.

I am convinced that everybody has seen or experienced situations as mentioned above. In others or oneself.

In conversations, it is much easier to fool others. We can hide what we really think, who we really are and pretend to be someone, we are not.

During play, traits may emerge, which give the observer a very different picture. Anyone who has ever watched children playing would have made some interesting observations regarding the child’s behaviour and character. Watching kids playing gives the observer the opportunity to get to know them a lot better than any conversation could do.