I received this recently from one of our league’s sponsors who was thanking the many league volunteers for all they do and had to share it. I thought it was very well put.
Thank "all" of you for the time and effort ya’ll spend making a difference in our children and community. I’m a firm believer that sports help prepare our youth to deal with pressures coming their way. Also, learning to win with dignity and lose with pride while striving to get better is a solid foundation for future leaders.
I should print this out and hand it to certain coaches and parents who sometimes lose sight of why they are there on the sidelines 🙂
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February 19th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I don’t think i ever remember being told that soccer was anything more than winning and having fun. I could be wrong, but if it happened, I don’t remember it.
I’m also very skeptical of ‘teach our youth’ line. That sounds very propagandistic to me – as in government-sponsored military propaganda. Kind of like that quote from – i always forget who it was – Teddy Roosevelt? How sports training is great for preparing soldiers to go into battle. Something like that. Not my idea of what sports, much less soccer, should be all about. “Here son, learn out to kick this ball, so you can learn how to rip another man’s heart out!”
There are good lessons that can be learned, but I think it really takes good coaching. What is trusting your teammates, why does it work, why does it not work, why is it important, how should you do it, how did you do it, how did it feel? All of that stuff and all the other values. Kids may implicitly understand this stuff, of course, but I think it needs to be explicitly pointed out and taught.
February 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Well, in a way I believe that’s what something like this is trying to say. Sports can teach valuable lessons kids can use later in life. Of course that DOES take good coaching. But you highlight what, to me anyway, this person was trying to say. Winning with dignity – humility and good sportsmanship. Losing with pride – being proud of your effort knowing you put everything into your performance and even if you lose, your proud of what you did.
But I agree you have to TEACH the kids and I’m not sure this fragment was assuming otherwise. I think it just highlights a lot of what many coaches are trying to teach their kids AND that competition isn’t a bad thing if handled properly (ie winning, losing, and pressure)
But I guess we all will read something different from it!