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T- Ball
tacking1
Member Posts: 3,844
OK y'all, my 5 YO is playing T-Ball ( baseball for the kidneys where you put the ball on a big rubber tee and have a whack)
His team is undefeated and really trouncing thier opponents. They have a couple of players that can throw and catch, making thier defense very much better than the other teams. The star is a little girl that really does understand the game. My son plays 3rd base and when he gets his hands on a ball he just tosses it to her!
All my son's player hit well, as the coach (a woman) really works and organizes the practices. She is even helping them learn to place thier hits with relation to the runners. I am amazed at the results her work prove.
anyway, because of the disparity between his team and the others, the league is asking that score not be kept, just a win/loss.
I am opposed, and want y'all's opinion.
His team is undefeated and really trouncing thier opponents. They have a couple of players that can throw and catch, making thier defense very much better than the other teams. The star is a little girl that really does understand the game. My son plays 3rd base and when he gets his hands on a ball he just tosses it to her!
All my son's player hit well, as the coach (a woman) really works and organizes the practices. She is even helping them learn to place thier hits with relation to the runners. I am amazed at the results her work prove.
anyway, because of the disparity between his team and the others, the league is asking that score not be kept, just a win/loss.
I am opposed, and want y'all's opinion.
Comments
Last year my son played soccer and they didnt keep score either. I think this is OK for when the kids are just learning fundamentals, but if they are going to improve they have to learn the consequences of mistakes, good plays/bad plays etc.
I think it's important to learn that when you are behind in score you can even things up by trying harder. By the same token, if you are ahead you can blow it by taking it too easy. IMO wanting to win is key to playing the game.
The biggest problem in many early kid's sports are type A parents driven to succeed at any cost. Man how I hated the screaming parents not happy with their kid's performance.
This is OK when they are really young and just learning the basics. Helps them from getting discouraged. They do need to have winners and losers at the next level. They have to learn that everyone cannot be a winner. It pi$$es me off when the schools give EVERYONE a trophy or ribbon just so no one has hurt feelings. That's sending the wrong message.
This is the PROBLEM. We are teaching people that equality is a good thing. That it's ok to be mediocre. That your best is good enough, win or lose.
I call BS. Apathy is ruining our country and catering to the lowest common denominator is a bad thing.
I ain't saying that we should teach them that they are better than others just because, but that they CAN / SHOULD TRY TO BE!
The league I coached in involved a 4 inning game. There were 11 kids on the team and every kid batted every inning. Outs did not stop play, the goal was 4 at bats per game and time in the field for each kid.
Score was not officially kept and there was not an official winner. I was always amazed at the parents that kept score and even more amazed at the ones that kept their kids batting averages and other stats.
What did not amaze me were the kids who's parents were so into their averages, dogged their kid about their play and tried to champion their kid as some sort of star of the team. Most of those kids usually dropped out of baseball by the time they were 12-13 as their parent burnt them out and they lost their love for the game.
IMHO, T-Ball should be a time to learn the basics and just have fun being a kid.
I really try to make shure that our son sees the experience of playing as something that leads to having friends and getting to do something he likes. He once decided he wanted to quit about two thirds through the practice season.....THAT is where I had some....real issues trying to figure out what to do. I made him play until it was through. I felt really bad....but I told him...his "buds" really needed him and it wasn't just O.K. to quit. The next year he wanted to play again and this year he has signed up again...so, I think it was fine to MAKE him....but I could have just died every time I got him ready to go during that one part of playing.
"Who won?"
"Who brought snacks?"
Yep. Winners and losers need to be defined. But...these kids are SIX YEARS OLD! Teach 'em to love the game and then worry about the score later.
Would you hound your six-year-old who couldn't put a .270 into the ten ring? Let's keep some perspective.
1. My personal view, taken directly from the movie "The Incredibles"; "They keep coming up with ways to celebrate mediocrity". This has been hashed over on every sit-com and conservative radio show in the last few years. Why call it a competition if every child gets a trophy or no score is kept?
However, this is quite often usurped by...
2. My parental view; Let's get everyone on the same page, teach team building, basic skills and the ability to listen to instructions. Their individual talents will come through in high school. What we have at age 5 is practice. Practice at winning, losing, playing and being part of a team. Those are the most important things to learn at that age. Score for T-ball is kept strictly for the egocentric parents. My experience was that most kids are more concerned with what the snack will be after the game than the final score.
I have two views on this...
1. My personal view, taken directly from the movie "The Incredibles"; "They keep coming up with ways to celebrate mediocrity". This has been hashed over on every sit-com and conservative radio show in the last few years. Why call it a competition if every child gets a trophy or no score is kept?
However, this is quite often usurped by...
2. My parental view; Let's get everyone on the same page, teach team building, basic skills and the ability to listen to instructions. Their individual talents will come through in high school. What we have at age 5 is practice. Practice at winning, losing, playing and being part of a team. Those are the most important things to learn at that age. Score for T-ball is kept strictly for the egocentric parents. My experience was that most kids are more concerned with what the snack will be after the game than the final score.
I echo a bunch of what this guy says. I guess being of "two minds" on the issue.
We did, however have a great game last night. My son's team was losing 13-11 going to our last at bat. They scored 5 giving them the lead, then held the other team to none! When my son's team came in for thier last at bat, one of them asked if they were winning. The coach said no. This kid said "well, we need to do something about that!"
it's provided countless hours of entertainment!
Unless well coached, it sometimes takes on the
air of a fine old fashioned Chinese Fire Drill -
which, in my opinion, makes it even MORE
entertaining![:D]
As enjoyable as it is, the reason to keep sports fun for them is not just so we can see them smiling and laughing. It's also done so they'll stick with it long enough to learn the truly important lessons the sport will teach them over the long run.
You can discuss pushing yourself to succeed, never giving up and holding up your end in a group effort all you want, but it doesn't work near as well as having them also live this out as their mental wiring is being layed down. The willingness to apply themselves to outdo others and always striving to improve becomes instilled in them and to varying degrees ends up spilling over into other aspects of their lives.
I'm nowhere near pushing my kids so hard that I risk their becoming resentful, but I also don't want them to receive awards for just coasting along. Slowly building spirit in them at a very young age means they don't have to be pushed later.
IMHO, fostering mediocrity would be doing my kids a disservice.