Youth sports is something that can have a major impact on the developement of children. Most of the the things that youth sport can teach children are beneficial to their development, there are still many drawbacks to it. We have all heard of parents that take their childrens sports too serious, but being pushed by their parents can hurt the childrens view of good competition. Because kids nowadays are focusing too much on winning, whether it is in club sports or youth sports, their views of real sportmanship have been skewed. Some leauges and communities have taken good strides to help bring the kids back to enjoying the game by not keeping score. I beleive that at a certain age the kids need to be able to play without worrying about winning. If children just play these sports to win and not have fun, then they are being robbed of the enjoyment and fun that sports can provide.
Youth sports however is not all bad because it can provide alot of positives in some kids lives. Some kids live in rough neighborhoods and don't have positive role models around to set a good example. If these kids play sports they will have less free time and can do something constuctive that will teach them hardwork and even teamwork. All kids that play youth sports can learn these valuable lessons and gain good healthy habits that they can use in life
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I disagree with the idea of not keeping score, even at a young age. I think it is important for kids to learn how to deal with a win or a loss at a young age. I don't think the score should be the main focus, but I do think that they need to be taught that when they lose they should learn from it. the same holds true for when they win. They should understand what they did right, that helped them win the game. For example, team work. I feel like our society is getting filled with a bunch of "wimps" who are afraid of failure. It seems as though we are babying our children. I think from day one we should be teaching kids to embrace failure and teach them to succeed from the mistakes they learn in life, sports or whatever else this concept can be applied to. The sooner they fail, the sooner they will learn to pick their heads up and keep striving until they achieve their goals or dreams.
ReplyDeleteThe question I have about youth sports is when does it become about "winning" rather than having "fun?" The reason I ask is because the most common reason that children give for quitting youth sports is that it stopped being fun. Was it fun because they were not keeping score? Or was it no longer fun because they realized they were not as skilled as they needed to be to win?
ReplyDeleteI may have shared this in class, but when I was in my grad program, I worked with 5 and 6 year old kids, teaching them to play soccer. We purposely did not want to emphasize winning and losing, so we did not keep score, and we told them at the end that they were all winners. This obviously goes against what Jim is suggesting. While it sounded good, I am not sure whether it was really beneficial to the kids or not, especially if their parents sat in the stands and kept score for them.
I believe the score doesn't matter in youth sport. It is all about learning the game at that young of an age, not winning. I've been coaching youth sports and working with children for the past 2 years. Every time we try and focus on the fundamentals and make sure the kids are having fun. I believe one downfall of youth sport is that many parents take it too seriously. I always have parents yelling/cheering for kids between the ages of 6-10. I think that is way too young to be competitive.
ReplyDeleteI believe that score matters at a young age because it teaches them to deal with real life let downs. Not everything is going to be handed to them, and it is better to learn at a young age rather than when your older and on your own. I think youth sports really teaches them about what to expect in life. I am not saying that playing tee ball is a huge life changer, but the concept of working hard (winning) and getting the reward or satisfaction of the win. Also, losing helps them realize that some things are not going to go in your favor. For example, down the road they may want to go to a college and have their heart set on it and get rejected. If they never experience a sense of "let down" they won't know how to react and deal with the disappointment.
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