I didn’t realize I was having that big of a disagreement with cardiffbaseball. I think his take is great. Lucky kids.
If you look at my comments carefully you will realize that I agree with some of these points you appear to be making as counterpoints. I am sure you don’t like some of my opinions.
I don’t agree that kids should get trophies for showing up. As team parents we tried to opt out of the AYSO recomendation of trophies and all but one parent agreed . She wanted them presented at the team party and that’s what happened. It wasn’t really a big deal though. We talked to our kids about it and told them it didn’t represent real life. We said we didn’t like the consumerism aspect of it and that being able to play is a huge reward in itself.
I understand that the purpose intensity and other expectations can and perhaps should change with the progression of age and experience…I acknoleged this in my last post. At several times some of the parents were out of hand at my kids U-8 soccer.The team happened to draw a lot of ,relatively small and inexperienced kids.At one point about six parents were yelling at one little guy until he just froze. Instead of a kind word they just kept yelling at him. I walked down the sidelines and smiled at him and told him he was a good boy and that he could play if he wanted to. He relaxed and started to move into the game a little. I think the other parents saw what I did and backed off.
I don’t think I am out of line for opinionating about that kind of thing,at the begginer stages as I said, or for wondering if it should be a red flag for us.Like you say, sports are not for everyone and the negative doesn’t have to be the focus. One of the parents kind of challenged us to do drills between practice and games making the assumption that we should be as serious,or perhaps as compulsive as they were. Remember…we are talking about six year old newbie, first time any of our kids has ever been on a team.
