Youth games - to make them competitive or non-competitive?

[Eamonnca1]

This is an age-old debate but there's an article in The Atlantic this month that got me thinking about it. It's called How to Land Your Kid in Therapy, all about "Why the obsession with our kids' happiness may be dooming them to unhappy adulthoods."

Article here, the sport-related part comes on page 3:

"Who would watch an NBA game with no winners or losers? Should everyone get paid the same amount, or get promoted, when some people have superior performance? They grew up in a bubble, so they get out into the real world and they start to feel lost and helpless. Kids who always have problems solved for them believe that they don't know how to solve problems. And they're right—they don't."

Last month, I spoke to a youth soccer coach in Washington, D.C. A former competitive college athlete and now a successful financier, he told me that when he first learned of the youth league's rules—including no score-keeping—he found them "ridiculous."

How are the kids going to learn? he thought. He valued his experience as an athlete, through which he had been forced to deal with defeat. "I used to think, If we don't keep score, we're going to have a bunch of wusses out there. D.C. can be very PC, and I thought this was going too far."

It mentions stuff about kids going off to college with an enormous sense of entitlement and giving up on certain tasks at the first sign of a hurdle. In the absence of a constant stream of praise they find it hard to adapt to adult life when the shit hits the fan or when they feck up. I have to say that I've seen some evidence of that in my dealings with some college students (a minority of them, it should be said) who don't take setbacks very well and seem shocked to discover that the world is not a perfect place.

So. Shouldn't we make our youth games competitive? Don't the children want competition anyway?  Shouldn't learning to lose be as important a part of growing up as learning to win?

[lfdown2]

http://gaaboard.com/board/index.php?topic=19098.0

[Eamonnca1]

Thanks. 

I think there's a place for the Go Games (from the point of view of developing skills) but it does no harm to have competition in the mix too.

[Zulu]

I don't buy this nonsense about kids who receive praise or who don't play in 'competitive' sport will suffer in later life because they'll grow to be wusses. For a start, sport isn't the only environment where they win or lose, I coach kids who are dealing with many problems far more serious than what's presented on a football field. They are kids and my main goal is that they enjoy Football, once they do that I'm happy and I'll worry about skill development and competition later.

The games should become increasingly competitive as the kids get older but the idea that you should forge competitive will in youngs kids is complete rubbish in my view and one which is extremely detrimental to kids and the sport you coach.

[PAULD123]

I think competition is essential to judge your improvement but also I feel that if competition is the only reason for doing sport then you will lose so many kids in the process. I personally believe that youth football should be about personal development as an individual and as a footballer. To develop all the kids would necessarily mean playing less than full strength tactics and teams. That is a good thing if there is development of skills and its a good learning experience.

Youth level has to be more interested in what those lads will do when they are senior club footballers and less what they win at ten years of age. Everything that happens at youth level should be done with the aim of delivering as many kids as possible with as much skills as possible to the senior ranks. And not everyone develops at the same rate

Basically what I am saying is that youth sport should be implemented to allow competitiveness to flourish when it will be needed but with the simple short term aim that progress is the most important thing.

[theskull1]

I don't buy this nonsense about kids who receive praise or who don't play in 'competitive' sport will suffer in later life because they'll grow to be wusses. For a start, sport isn't the only environment where they win or lose, I coach kids who are dealing with many problems far more serious than what's presented on a football field. They are kids and my main goal is that they enjoy Football, once they do that I'm happy and I'll worry about skill development and competition later.

The games should become increasingly competitive as the kids get older but the idea that you should forge competitive will in youngs kids is complete rubbish in my view and one which is extremely detrimental to kids and the sport you coach.

+1