Fun is when you win
My daughter plays in a recreational youth soccer league
– a league where scores aren’t kept, games don’t count and there
are no playoff games. I ask, so why play? The standard answer the
league gives is
”
for fun.
”
Fun is when you win
My daughter plays in a recreational youth soccer league – a league where scores aren’t kept, games don’t count and there are no playoff games. I ask, so why play? The standard answer the league gives is “for fun.”
Thank God we didn’t fight World War II with this mentality. I guess that’s another column for another section of this paper. The point here is that there should be even more fun and satisfaction in striving to unify a group of people – young or old, amateur or professional – to win a title or team championship. Isn’t the maximum fun attained when that championship game is won?
All sports, by definition, are played to determine a winner and a loser. If not for the desire to win, sports wouldn’t have lasted longer than the first caveman rock toss event, and the Olympics wouldn’t have gone beyond the fields of Athens.
No one enjoys watching preseason football – because it doesn’t count for anything. That’s the same reason why golf ratings are so much lower on Saturdays than Sundays, because on Saturday the winner isn’t determined.
Imagine the NFL season coming to an end each December without any playoffs or the Super Bowl. No one would watch.
Imagine the impact this thought would have if implemented at the local high school level. There would be no Central Coast Section playoffs, no awards, nothing.
Imagine the world without a World Series, a Masters tournament, a Grand Slam tennis event, the Daytona 500, the Kentucky Derby, boxing, etc, etc, etc…
I understand the thought process behind teaching young kids fundamentals, work ethic, respect for coaches, team chemistry, etc, etc. Those are all valuable life lessons, but so are the lessons that we all learn from winning and losing. Learning to win and deal with loss is just as valuable a lesson at any age.
I remember when I played sports kids received trophies for three reasons and three reasons only: A.) Their team won a championship. B.) They made the all-star team. C.) They won an individual award such as MVP or something of that nature.
Today, every kid receives a trophy regardless of skill level. They get one just for participating – whether or not their team won or lost every game, and whether or not that young athlete was the best or the worst player on the team. Just sign up, pay the registration fee and, presto, instant trophy at the end of the season. This is all fine and dandy but what is this ultimately teaching our youth? Answer: To expect something for nothing, perhaps?
What’s most crazy is that more and more of these “fun” leagues are spouting up all over the place. Yet there’s not a single parent watching that doesn’t know the score.
The “progressive” thought here to teach children that everyone is a winner when in fact that is far from the case in the real world where dealing with winning and losing is an everyday event.
We teach our kids to use the potty and brush their teeth as early as possible. We should also teach them about winning and losing too, and being able to handle either with grace. Because, in the long run, about the only person who is winning in this everyone-is-a-winner youth-sports mentality is the guy making the trophies – not the kids who will one day enter the real world where the ability to excel is paramount.
