I posted this to my FB yesterday, and surprisingly got positive feedback.

 

I hate the "everyone gets a trophy mentality". Eventually, somewhere in life a person will have to learn to accept defeat and failure.

 

To many people want to take away life lessons, valuable life lessons, that youth sports can teach. I really can not stand the everyone gets a trophy mentality. Give it to the MVP, or don't give them at all. That is life.

 

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/foo....html?vp=1

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TravC59, aka JacksJags. @TravC59 on Twitter
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Good for them!!!

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What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is agoin' on here???

I posted this to my FB yesterday, and surprisingly got positive feedback.

 

I hate the "everyone gets a trophy mentality". Eventually, somewhere in life a person will have to learn to accept defeat and failure.

 

To many people want to take away life lessons, valuable life lessons, that youth sports can teach. I really can not stand the everyone gets a trophy mentality. Give it to the MVP, or don't give them at all. That is life.

 

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/foo....html?vp=1

 

Who cares if a kid gets a trophy at the end of the year for playing on the team?  I really could care less either way.

 

When I was a kid (and you too...) I got trophies at the end of the year for being on the team....they also gave out other individual trophies too.

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I have trophies from my youth.

 

Except they call them "diplomas".  They don't give them for just participating.  At least they didn't back then, unless you were an athlete.

 

Wow, that came full circle.

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I posted this to my FB yesterday, and surprisingly got positive feedback.

 

I hate the "everyone gets a trophy mentality". Eventually, somewhere in life a person will have to learn to accept defeat and failure.

 

To many people want to take away life lessons, valuable life lessons, that youth sports can teach. I really can not stand the everyone gets a trophy mentality. Give it to the MVP, or don't give them at all. That is life.

 

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/foo....html?vp=1

 

Teaching this to some of my boys this year, they started out strong winning their first 4 games. In the second half of the season we lost some players and dropped 3 of our last 4 I keep telling them football is about life, you have to learn how to win and how to lose.

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I'd like to think the way I have raised my children will impact their life more than if they get a trophy for playing sports.

 

I am guessing the people outraged by the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality are the type of parent that takes youth sports way too seriously.

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Who cares if a kid gets a trophy at the end of the year for playing on the team?  I really could care less either way.

 

When I was a kid (and you too...) I got trophies at the end of the year for being on the team....they also gave out other individual trophies too.

 

For me it's about teaching the kids a lesson they have to learn in life, you won't always win and you won't always be the best. I got another kid on the team, he goes 100% in practice, hands down the fastest kid on my team, the hardest hitting kid on my team, but on gameday it takes one play to take him out of the game all day long.

 

If the other team has a player as fast or big as him, he quits no other way to put it. He doesn't know how to compete or God forbid lose, that's going to be a problem for him as he grows older.

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I'd like to think the way I have raised my children will impact their life more than if they get a trophy for playing sports.

 

I am guessing the people outraged by the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality are the type of parent that takes youth sports way too seriously.

 

Nice way to take a cheap shot at Travis, some how I doubt that's the case. Like it or not but youth sports is where a lot of these young boys learn life lessons, a lot of these boys have no Father figure in the home and we know the school system doesn't hold anyone accountable anymore. I'm thrilled you're raising your kids right, but for many of these kids (gotta stop saying boys cause there's a girl on our team) the opportunity to learn life lessons is far and few in between.

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Did any of your "letter" in sports when you were in school? Should letters only be given to you if you win?

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Did any of your "letter" in sports when you were in school? Should letters only be given to you if you win?

 

Sure I "lettered" in wrestling my Junior and Senior year, I didn't "letter" my Sophomore or Freshmen year, what does that have to do with anything? It took 2 years of getting beat out of varsity every match, and guess what my Junior year when I cracked the varsity lineup it was a great thing.

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Sure I "lettered" in wrestling my Junior and Senior year, I didn't "letter" my Sophomore or Freshmen year, what does that have to do with anything? It took 2 years of getting beat out of varsity every match, and guess what my Junior year when I cracked the varsity lineup it was a great thing.

 

Everybody on the varsity get a letter? A participation letter?

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Love this! Not surprised at who doesn't...

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Everybody on the varsity get a letter? A participation letter?

 

No it's not a participation letter, you had to earn a spot on varsity every week for your weight division. IE 3 guys on the team that wrestle at 189 only 1 in varsity they have to wrestle off every week for that spot, to letter you had to be varsity for 75% of the season, several weight classes no one lettered because no one was varsity long enough.

 

However you're missing the point of the subject.

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I never saw the value in participation trophies.

 

We had them for my little league team, but most kids knew you got one just for showing up and being on the team for part of the season. One kid quit in the middle of the season and still got a participation trophy. 

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I think it is vital that we make sure losers understand and accept their place in society.

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If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
- Bob Marley


 

This is just so odd to me; I really don't get why people are so opposed to this. I don't think I've ever had a player state the he/she was playing for a trophy. They're children for crying out loud. All that they want to do is to put on some gear, get a bunch of people together and go play football. They just want to run around with their friends and see who can lay out a good tackle, or who can catch a pass.

 

The players know who the best player on the team is, it's really not a secret. I mean, you'd have to require psychological counseling and/or chemical-based therapy if you didn't. Me standing in front of a table with a plaque and telling a 30 second story about the one time in practice that Johnny said something so funny that I almost had to stop practice because I was laughing so hard isn't going to skew his view of the world, it's just not. On my squads, everyone who finishes the season gets physical recognition for their participation. This makes sense to me because, the last I checked, football is predominantly a team sport. Each player who straps on a helmet is putting effort towards making the team better than it was the day before. If they aren't, it's on me to motivate them to do so.

 

We also recognize the best Offensive Player, the best Defensive Player, the best Lineman, the team MVP, and the Coaches' Choice player. Every single one of the players who win these awards, I make the player tell the group who they most owe that trophy to. Because -- surprise! -- they didn't get it on their own. They had a teammate who they had to beat, a coach that challenged them, a parent that they wanted to impress, or an opponent who required them to step up, but they didn't do it all on their own.

 

To me, all this is doing is telling the members that it's okay to ignore the contributions of the many who had a part in the success of the few. "Hey, your son has a love of football and all of that, and he sure did try hard this year, but we needed him to be a tackling dummy for this kid who is just more physically developed than he is. I mean, I know that he 'thinks' he likes football, but I don't think football is the game for him." It's pathetic, it's lazy, and it's entitlement at it's very core.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

I think it is vital that we make sure losers understand and accept their place in society.

 

Yea everyone always wins and life is an even playing field. You know what kids, if you can't do as well as the next guy don't worry society will make sure you get "equal" rewards :whistling:

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I think it is vital that we make sure losers understand and accept their place in society.

 

Ask Michael Jordan what motivated him most when he was growing up...

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Yea everyone always wins and life is an even playing field. You know what kids, if you can't do as well as the next guy don't worry society will make sure you get "equal" rewards :whistling:

 

So you're saying kids are so dumb that receiving a trophy that everyone else got has them believing they are as good at that sport as everyone else on the team, and that the lesson they learn is that they need not excel in life, they will get a meaningless reward either way?

 

You don't give kids much credit.

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If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
- Bob Marley


 

So you're saying kids are so dumb that receiving a trophy that everyone else got has them believing they are as good at that sport as everyone else on the team, and that the lesson they learn is that they need not excel in life, they will get a meaningless reward either way?

 

You don't give kids much credit.

 

I'm saying it's one chance to teach kids a life lesson. Not to many institutions teach kids that rewards are earned instead we teach rewards are entitlements, but hey hyperbole is fun!

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