especially for 6-11 yr olds. I watched my grand kids go through the youth soccer programs and can attest to the fact that they learned about sportsmanship and the fact that games are about a lot of things they need in growing up besides "winning". This business about teaching small kids its all about winning is simply BS in my opinion. It leads children down a path that ends up in an arena where decisions are made not based on integrity and can explain what we see today in admission scandals across our universities. It also is part of deflating footballs or illegal taping of practices. Here is a Forbes article on the "win at all costs" culture Some people I know say "why give a child a trophy when his team loses". I say "why not" ? They are being rewarded for spending days and nights practicing when instead they could be on video games or hanging out in some mall. They are being rewarded for playing as hard as they can despite often against far more skilled teams. They are being rewarded for paying attention to their coaches and for learning that you can be a "winner" by playing hard against a better team. These are just a few things I've noticed as I grow older when viewing youth sports and how they add to the raising of a child to becoming a healthy functioning adult.
Sorry for the soap box. I just get so very upset when I hear the often repeated Lombardi stmt of "show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser"-when it's applied to youngsters-which is the mentality of those who argue against participation trophies out of a sense of some misguided male machoism.
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www.forbes.com]
There so many publications on the benefits to children of receiving rewards for sacrifices, and going all out in practice and playing by the rules -in youth sports that are precursors to a happy, well balanced adult life-here is just one: [
medium.com]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2019 09:16PM by waterfield.
