BF2S Forums Children and Competition

I remember my trophies from soccer when I was that young.

jord wrote:

usmarine2 wrote:

I remember my trophies from soccer when I was that young.

I honestly remember about 1 match from that age and that from being a decent Football player all my life.
That said my school team never won trophies...



Under 8's shouldn't have pressure in sports. There all pretty much the same at that age anyway. Wait until the teens until they start playing properly I say,

then why are you playing?  you have to learn to lose also.

Saw a deal on the news this morning about a town in FL that has banned the municipal All-Star game for 8-12 yr olds. Apparently, that's too early for kids to learn that some people have strengths and some have weaknesses.

I think it sets the wrong foundation.

most kids just wanna have fun.  It's the obnoxious parents and coaches, trying to rewrite their own failed lives.

usmarine2 wrote:

Flaming_Maniac wrote:

usmarine2 wrote:

I think it sets the wrong foundation.

Well you probably think all kids should be going through a Parris Island for toddlers. Not that that would be such a bad thing, actually.

well it gets worse.  where is the line?  some schools dont use letter grades anymore, too much pressure.  Some youth basketball leagues dont even keep score.  WHAT???????????

Oh yeah, there is waaaay too much coddling going on. Nobody is a failure, everyone is a winner, and these kids are just going to nosedive the second they have to pay their own bills. How to turn things around however...

Flaming_Maniac wrote:

usmarine2 wrote:

Flaming_Maniac wrote:

Well you probably think all kids should be going through a Parris Island for toddlers. Not that that would be such a bad thing, actually.

well it gets worse.  where is the line?  some schools dont use letter grades anymore, too much pressure.  Some youth basketball leagues dont even keep score.  WHAT???????????

Oh yeah, there is waaaay too much coddling going on. Nobody is a failure, everyone is a winner, and these kids are just going to nosedive the second they have to pay their own bills. How to turn things around however...

You know about a bit older I got the pressure and I didn't like it but it probably helped me. 50+ people watching as you're on the ball is fucking scary and adults shouting at you is too. It probably did help me though with confidence and such, though I wouldn't go through it again.

Bottom line: if one form of competition is restricted, kids, being humans and not completely dull-minded herd animals (except under special circumstances), will automatically find another.

usmarine2 wrote:

Why are we starting to be so soft on kids?  My god, we are raising myspace and WoW pussies.  No wonder kids shot up schools and stab people.

Marvelous leap of logic. An angry, competitive sport is restricted, and kids shoot up schools and stab people...

I agree that people are too soft on them at times, if you don't count the flensing of skin now and then with enormous belt buckles.

=Reciprocity]competition and pressure are good things at the appropriate age.  A baseball dad chewing out his 8yo son for missing a flyball is not a good thing.

Yes. Competition is actually good for kids (preparing the pampered ones for reality and all that), but the parents and other adults get way too personally involved. Therein lies my beef with the whole thing. I haven't been through one kiddie contest that wasn't rigged by someone's family member or friend of family.

This is a bad move. If you remove the competitive drive from children at such a young age all you will achieve is to make your population mediocre at everything it does. There will be no progress except by those few who have internal drive or the drive of competition instilled into them by someone in their sphere of influence.

Why do parents get so into it anyway? It's not like there's fucking money on the line. Chances are your kid will pursue something OTHER than pro *insert sport here*. Don't coddle them with shit like no scoring or 'everybody wins'... but don't get so god damned into it. Don't adults have things to worry about like taxes?

Stupid. I remember soccer matches from when I was a kid, I think I learned some good lessons. Granted, I had the support of good parents, where some parents push their kids into the sports thing way too hard.

I even had a coach who did the whole "getting pissy and cussing because his 1st grade soccer team lost" thing. I think I learned from it. Maybe I'm an exception (doubt it) but I never really felt the pressure from his little tantrums, it just made me realize that adults can be immature assholes too.

WTF!?

I give up understanding the Brits sometimes and I'm one of them..coming from a very competitive footballer I'll say this is really really really pathetic.