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TEACHING DEFEAT? GET RID OF THE COACHES
By fred | August 26, 2008
In today’s paper, there was an article that upset the heck out of me. I kept thinking about it over and over. Discussed it with my Sally, my wife, let me give you an outline of the story.
Back east, in Connecticut, there is a kid playing baseball – he is nine years old – all the kids in the league of teams are in that age bracket. At nine years of age he is one hell of a pitcher, he throws a 40 mile per hour ball, not only that – but he throws it straight. Never hits a batter, not wild.
The youth league is throwing him out; his only fault is that he is too good. A team they were going to play showed up at the ball park and when they heard that he was pitching they put their gloves/bats, etc. away and went home, never even played – forfeiting the game. So those heading up the league said this 9 year old pitcher cannot play anymore, he is just too good, beats everybody.
My bride of 58 years, Sally, she could understand that the kids may be afraid of him, never having had to face a 40 mile per hour ball, that it is not fair to have a person that good play against them. Also she said they should allow him in a league of older kids that to me has some merit, still it bothers me, especially the coaches not letting their kids play again him – let me explain.
Those of us, and most kids, especially boys, are likely included here, that have played sports, football, baseball, basketball, whatever – have come across a hell of a player every so often and when playing against that guy, if on another team of in single play, you and your team or just you – got your ass wiped – badly.
What I am trying to say is, in my opinion – one of the reasons our kids play sports is to learn ‘HOW’ to win and ‘HOW’ to lose. I remember in football, getting knocked on my butt, it hurt, sometimes fingers, shoulders got dislocated, I broke my nose four times as we did not have nose guards in those days. A lot of blood, black eyes, taped fingers, shoulder, etc. – now what would a kid learn if he got knocked down and stayed there and cried about it?
One of the greatest lessons of the game of football is to get up and get back in the game, no matter the fear, the pain. I certainly do not remember the scores of the games we played, nor do my teammates. I do remember that no matter the fear, the hurt, blood, etc. we bounced back up and played to win, sometimes we did, and sometimes we did not. BUT, we always tried, we always got back in the game, we did not put our equipment back in the bus and walk away, our coach would never have allowed that. You played to win, if you did not, you know you tried and the coaches knew we tried. If we were playing the league champs, we made damn sure they knew they had played football to win, they were not given the championship, at least by our Poly High team. That to me is the lesson our kids must learn, to try, to always keep trying, no matter the odds against you – you gotta keep trying.
What is a coach teaching a group of young kids when they show up at a ball park and learn that they are up against a terrific pitcher and they fold up? — forfeit the game without playing? He is teaching them to not even try, to me that is so bad, teaching kids defeat, teaching them not to try, try for the moon. Sure in all likelihood they were going to get their butts kicked, but to give up with out trying to win against big odds is teaching kids defeat, to be wimps. It is the one lesson that a coach should never teach this kids. Ya gotta try, nothing is impossible; you gotta teach kids to go for it, not be happy in defeat but know that you at least tried. To fold before a game, to me the coaches and the league officials should resign, they are not fit in my opinion to teach kids.
O. K. you may have a different opinion, if you do, let’s hear it. All I know is I never wanted my kids to not try, they should always give it their best shot. If you lose after giving it all you have – so be it – at least you gave it all you had.
Topics: ARE WE BECOMING A NATION OF WHIMPS??? | 5 Comments »
August 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
This is just the manifestation of our society… give people everything..work for nothing, then bitch about it.
This coach( and I use the word loosely) is a first class wussy and should be banned from sports and teaching anyone but his own kids.
This is what liberal policies will get you… so everyone vote Obama so we can treat all young people this way.
Maybe we should all just stop going to work because we might not get a promotion… maybe we should all stop going to school because we don’t get an “A”.
Maybe we should just let the govt give us all the same no matter what.. then we would have no need for winners or losers.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
As usual,Uncle Fred’s perception is right on.You learn much more when you lose than when you win.Just think about investing.When you win,you only reinforce what you already know-or think you know.When you lose,and the money vanishes from your account,that gets the brain thinking.This sucks.This is no way to get ahead.What can I do in advance to minimize these events,while still being in the game to win?You learn when you lose.My wife is a hospital social worker.She works a lot with people who have been told that they have lived a very long life,but now have a health issue that means there won’t be much more time.These folks tell my wife over and over,you are still young.Let me tell you something.the one big regret I have,in my long life is the time that I didn’t try some new direction because it might have failed.These folks Never talk about regretting an actual failure,it is always something they almost tried,but didn’t.Years ago,my dad gave me a tattered piece of paper he had saved for years.It was a trivia question from an 1940′s magazine.Name this American.He bought a farm.It failed.He opened a store.It failed.He joined the militia,thinking a military career might help.It did not work out.He ran for public office.He lost.Who was this loser?Turn the paper upside down,where the answer is printed in tiny letters.This is Abraham Lincoln.What do you suppose he would have told those boys to do?Go home?Or take the field and put up one hell of a fight.mark.
August 28th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Fred, maybe we should do away with Little League and coaches and keep our adult egos and judgements out of kids play time. When I learned to play ball there were no coaches uniforms baseball diamonds, just a bat, a ball, acouple of mits ( which we shared) some kids and a vacant lot. A bat would be tossed in the air, it would be grabbed, then hand over hand we would decide who would get first choice at choosing up sides. Sometimes you would be on the winning side and sometimes not. Sometimes there would be disputes but we worked them out and showed up the next day to play. We learned how to socialize without adult supervision. If you wanted to play learned to get along. I am 82 and most, not all, of the kids I grew up with turned out OK, and for the most part, we learned through experience, on our own. So let the kids play without our input, you might be surprised how well they will do.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Well, Doug I have to agree with you and disagree with you.
First off, voting for Oboma is not going to be a gift to anyone. To my way of thinking the Bush government has raped the Americans, and I mean raped in the true sense of the word. Billions of our dollar NOT ACCOUNTED FOR! A little give back is not bad. Money that could have paid our Social Security for years, could have paid health plans, etc. All in my mind raped – stolen from our people by this administration.
WHAT DO I WANT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
What I expect from government is a “Single payer health plan” we all pay the same – we all get the same care, works in every other industrialized nation in the world. Yes, you hear stories about folks having to wait, etc for an operation, BUT the facts do not lie, folks live longer, are far more healthy than we are as a nation by a long shot. One figure alone, we as a nation spend twice what any other nation on earth spends for health care and we are 24th in life expectance. Wow, for spending twice what anyone else spends we are 24th in line. So I expect that from government.
I also expect my taxes will provide a decent education for my children. That should be a given, and I mean college included.
I expect from my nation that if I worked all of my life that I have the RIGHT to a decent life on retirement. At least a place that will take care of me properly.
Yes, taxes may go up, I don’t give a damn, works in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, etc, all are healthier, live longer, are very productive, can see no reason why we in America cannot have the same. Folks there do not have to worry about a doctor or hospital bill that will take their home, etc. — their kids will get the best education they can absorb — so they do not have to worry about that — they know that they will not be thrown into the street when they are old so they do not have to worry about that.
So they are happy people as a nation, they can concentrate on working, making their lives more productive, they do not have to worry about those three basics of life – MY GOD WHY WOULDN’T THEY BE HAPPY.
You may call me a socialist, whatever, I have traveled to Europe a number of times to the countries I mentioned — it works there- why not here. Believe me those folks are not lazy because the basics of live are a given they are extremely productive people, check it out.
THAT IS WHAT I EXPECT FROM GOVERMENT – BUT – WILL NEVER GET AS WE ARE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE WHAT IS GOOD FOR OUR PEOPLE.
And life goes on. Uncle Fred
September 1st, 2008 at 12:26 am
Right on Fred
We should at least try some of those programs
instead of just saying they wont work and
continuing with the same old crap that has not
worked for years now GOOD LUCK GETTING IT
OSCAR