winning is bad

CruisnGrrl

CruisnGrrl

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http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/10/23/dont-celebrate-winning-corbett

Is achievement still something to celebrate? Is winning a game preferable to losing a game?
These are questions Bill Michalopulos is asking himself these days. The answer he’s getting is no — achievement is now something you should be ashamed of, something you should hide from other people and ignore if at all possible.
And buddy, you better not win.
It’s a bit of a strange story, this one, still leaves me shaking my head, but here is the background:
Michalopulos is president of the Ottawa South United Soccer Club. With 6,300 members, ranging in age from four to adult, it is the largest soccer club in the city. It is also a very successful soccer club, its teams routinely topping many of the tournaments and inter-city leagues across Ottawa.
It is a member of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association (EODSA), which is the governing body for amateur soccer clubs in the city. The EODSA is part of the much larger Ontario Soccer Association (OSA).
Anyway, when the summer soccer season ended last month, a representative from Ottawa South United went to the EODSA offices to pick up their medals. Many of the OSU teams had won their divisions, or come in second.
The awarding of medals at the end of the season is an annual tradition for soccer clubs in the city, just as it is for hockey, baseball, and I would guess most organized sports. The medals are normally awarded at a team’s annual banquet.
This year, though, EODSA didn’t have any medals to hand over. The OSU representative was told the soccer league had decided against awarding medals. The reason: Medals promote competition.
When Michalopolus heard what happened, he contacted the EODSA to say someone at their office must have been mistaken, or hallucinating or something. Surely this can’t be true. He received the following e-mail:
“The EODSA league will not be giving out medals. The decision was ratified by the EODSA board at its September 1 meeting. As you know we have reduced fees in the league to $200.00 per team this season, in addition the presentation of medals is considered to emphasize winning versus player development, which is the new focus of OSA programs.”
So there you have it — winning is a bad thing. The presentation of medals is a bad thing. Don’t know if you caught this story.
“I still have trouble believing it,” says Michalopulos. “We don’t live in some Utopian world where there’s no winners or losers.
“Kids have been getting medals and trophies for as long as there’s been organized sports. Now all of a sudden that’s wrong?”
Michalopulos is also annoyed the decision was made at the end of the season, without any warning. The winning soccer teams (sorry, the slightly-better-than-everyone-else teams) were expecting some sort of recognition for their achievement.
Now, they get nothing. And in case you think this is a one-time screw-up, an aberration of some sort, it is not. Winning is now frowned upon by the EODSA. Seen as something harmful for your child’s development.
This past season, scores and standings were outright banned for all soccer players in the association under the age of nine. It will be raised to 10 next year, and 11 the year after. Before long, you will have to be 12 years old before you are allowed to win a soccer game in Ottawa.
I know what you’re thinking. I’m making this up. But I contacted the president of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association and it’s true.
“It’s all part of the long-term athlete development plan that Sports Canada and the Canadian Soccer Association is putting into place,” says Wayne MacDougall. “We want to put more emphasis on development, and less on winning.”
All right, hold on a minute. Isn’t the purpose of athletic development to win? Maybe I’m dense here, but can there be any other purpose?
I mean, do you develop athletic skills so you can become a better polka dancer? Isn’t the whole idea in becoming better that you win more than you lose?
“Honestly, this is what the experts are telling us to do,” says MacDougall. “We don’t set the policy, we just implement it.”
Great policy. Great experts. Heaven help our kids.
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maybe some one misread the memo and it should be "whining is bad"
 
LOL those kids are going to get eaten alive in high school.
 
in todays society everyone's a winner. we dont want to hurt anyones feelings ya know
 
Flashmonkey said:
LOL those kids are going to get eaten alive in high school.
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True. These kids are in for a rude awakening when they start living in the real world.

Their stupid little soccer league may not keep score but life certainly does. If i ever have kids hopefully they'll be riding dirtbikes when they're 4 and they'll be as much into sports as I am. I hope not to be "that hockey dad" but I'd like to be able to instill in them the competitive spirit that I have. Not so much that I want them to win, but i want them to want to win.
 
First of all, it's a Sun newspaper. Second of all, there's almost certainly more to the story than they're presenting. It's all old-news..GTHL versus house league all over again. I wouldn't take one story and feel the sky is falling..ease up and calm down. Yeesh..
 
caboose483 said:
True. These kids are in for a rude awakening when they start living in the real world.

Their stupid little soccer league may not keep score but life certainly does. If i ever have kids hopefully they'll be riding dirtbikes when they're 4 and they'll be as much into sports as I am. I hope not to be "that hockey dad" but I'd like to be able to instill in them the competitive spirit that I have. Not so much that I want them to win, but i want them to want to win.
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No it doesnt. Everyones equal...we;re all winners
 
A guy at work was telling me about his kid's hockey games, where they don't keep score.

At the end of every game if the subject came up, the kid would always know the score. "7-3. We won" or "5-6, we lost".

That kid's gonna be OK.
 
fastar1 said:
A guy at work was telling me about his kid's hockey games, where they don't keep score.

At the end of every game if the subject came up, the kid would always know the score. "7-3. We won" or "5-6, we lost".

That kid's gonna be OK.
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Are you kidding me? They dont keep score? hahah
 
i always thought it was funny that they would give the entire teams medals for just playing, forget having won anything...i guess this is the 180 degree turn they are doing and keeps cost down...but it's all good that they raise kids like this, there's always gotta be losers, hehehe...
 
Soon we'll have a group of young adults that will get jobs and expect to get paid just for showing up.
 
fastar1 said:
A guy at work was telling me about his kid's hockey games, where they don't keep score.

At the end of every game if the subject came up, the kid would always know the score. "7-3. We won" or "5-6, we lost".

That kid's gonna be OK.
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It all depends on the league. Some kids don't want to be in ultra-competitive environments in certain sports. They may be on a good soccer team but maybe not in hockey. Remember, these are 7, 8 year old kids. If you want to push your kid, you work hard to get him into Triple-A..if he just wants to have fun, you put him in house league. The not keeping score thing is a bit much, I have to agree.. :-) Not every kid can take the pressure of the hockey parents who want them to win at all costs. What kind of damage can you do to a kid when he's 7 and you're telling him he's a loser? Let's not start down the black and white road of the Sun newspaper chain..
 
The reason: Medals promote competition.
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I guess we won't be having any teams for the Fifa World cup.

Even if some ppl discredit that article, its still reflected in today's society, why do u think a bus driver would be paid more than a University graduate?
<<putting flame suit on>>
 
RockerGuy said:
I guess we won't be having any teams for the Fifa World cup.

Even if some ppl discredit that article, its still reflected in today's society, why do u think a bus driver would be paid more than a University graduate?
<<putting flame suit on>>
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It's really more of a parenting problem. I'm not sure anyone here has seen hockey or soccer games for kids. It's really a little embarassing and makes most normal people want to re-evaluate their kid's participation. At what age is it ok to push your kid to win at all costs? There are many train wrecks that result from this mentality. I've seen hockey parents yelling at their 7 year old saying "You wanna be a loser your whole life? You were terrible!! I'm embarassed by you!!" Is that a good thing to be telling your 7 year old? The parents are simply too involved. It'd be nice if we banned parents from watching their kids..I'm sure the kids would be a lot better off. I actually listened to a dad before my game on Wednesday night, watching his 8 year old practice, saying how his kid was clearly the best player on the team, how he deserves more ice time, he won't get noticed, his game is like Rick Nash's..like, seriously?? He's EIGHT!!! Sigh..
 
Even in my local house league they keep score....and hand out trophies and medals. All below the top 3 get participation medals or whatever, which is fine....but at least the top gets recognition.


That said, I've seen the "hockey dad" railing on his kid a few years ago. It's house league!!!!....if you want to push yer kid go to the more advanced levels.
 
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Nothing wrong with telling people participation is important...it is. There's everything wrong with saying that everyone's a winner because that isn't true.

This is the basis of the reason why high school students get a rude awakening at Uni now. At High School it was all about the taking part and marks were awarded willy nilly and everyone gets high marks with no real deadlines etc.
 
invictus43 said:
It's really more of a parenting problem. I'm not sure anyone here has seen hockey or soccer games for kids. It's really a little embarassing and makes most normal people want to re-evaluate their kid's participation. At what age is it ok to push your kid to win at all costs? There are many train wrecks that result from this mentality. I've seen hockey parents yelling at their 7 year old saying "You wanna be a loser your whole life? You were terrible!! I'm embarassed by you!!" Is that a good thing to be telling your 7 year old? The parents are simply too involved. It'd be nice if we banned parents from watching their kids..I'm sure the kids would be a lot better off. I actually listened to a dad before my game on Wednesday night, watching his 8 year old practice, saying how his kid was clearly the best player on the team, how he deserves more ice time, he won't get noticed, his game is like Rick Nash's..like, seriously?? He's EIGHT!!! Sigh..
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Everything has to be done in moderation. But outright disregarding hard work?? Thats a whole different story
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