Reaction to the "Trophy Kids" article, my personal experience
First off I want to recommend the original Trophy kids article by @adsactly. (https://scorum.com/en-us/other/@adsactly/when-sports-stop-being-fun-are-we-creating-trophy-kids) It's a great post and definitely worth it to look into. Source This article touched me, probably because the subject hit close to home. Lots of children idolise famous athletes. I once heard my cousin say: "If I am older I want to be a soccer player, like Messi". These dreams result in competition, even at a young age. Children want to become the very best because media and most of the time their parents tell them to. This can have positive results, talented kids are able to reach the maximum of their potential. But at what costs? Depression rates amongst children are higher than ever. This is often caused by pressure to preform. Kids who aren't good in sports suffer as well. They feel the need to preform by their classmates, their parents, their teachers... only to realise they aren't as physically talented as their friends. My story I was part of that last category myself. In my class sports were very important. During sport class the teacher always let the children choose the players for their teams. My classmates only chose the fastest, or most skilled person in the given sport. At the playground the same thing happened. I couldn't play football with them because I wasn't good enough. I felt left out. Countless times I came home crying because of sports... I thought my inability to play sports was my fault and it could be fixed. So I started training. I was eight years old at this point and I spend months of trowing a ball at the basket ring, every single day after I came home from school, just to be accepted. When we finally played basketball in sports class I felt like it was time to redeem myself. I had trained months for this moment. As per usual the kids in my class chose me last, I was used to this. When we played I still wasn't able to keep up. All my months of training, no results. I felt horrible. 5 years later I got an explanation for my lack of skills in sports. I have dyspraxia. This is a brain-based condition that makes it hard to coordinate physical movement. This diagnosis gave me closure, but a base was formed for mental instability. I think my classmates weren't at fault, they followed the expectations they learned from their parents, teacher,... the expectation of becoming the best. It was in their best interest to avoid having me in their team. Sports just have to be fun for children, don't let competition consume them because people will only get hurt. Thanks for reading, please show me your opinion on this subject. Best regards, Wouter
Reaction to the "Trophy Kids" article, my personal experience
First off I want to recommend the original Trophy kids article by @adsactly. (https://scorum.com/en-us/other/@adsactly/when-sports-stop-being-fun-are-we-creating-trophy-kids) It's a great post and definitely worth it to look into. Source This article touched me, probably because the subject hit close to home. Lots of children idolise famous athletes. I once heard my cousin say: "If I am older I want to be a soccer player, like Messi". These dreams result in competition, even at a young age. Children want to become the very best because media and most of the time their parents tell them to. This can have positive results, talented kids are able to reach the maximum of their potential. But at what costs? Depression rates amongst children are higher than ever. This is often caused by pressure to preform. Kids who aren't good in sports suffer as well. They feel the need to preform by their classmates, their parents, their teachers... only to realise they aren't as physically talented as their friends. My story I was part of that last category myself. In my class sports were very important. During sport class the teacher always let the children choose the players for their teams. My classmates only chose the fastest, or most skilled person in the given sport. At the playground the same thing happened. I couldn't play football with them because I wasn't good enough. I felt left out. Countless times I came home crying because of sports... I thought my inability to play sports was my fault and it could be fixed. So I started training. I was eight years old at this point and I spend months of trowing a ball at the basket ring, every single day after I came home from school, just to be accepted. When we finally played basketball in sports class I felt like it was time to redeem myself. I had trained months for this moment. As per usual the kids in my class chose me last, I was used to this. When we played I still wasn't able to keep up. All my months of training, no results. I felt horrible. 5 years later I got an explanation for my lack of skills in sports. I have dyspraxia. This is a brain-based condition that makes it hard to coordinate physical movement. This diagnosis gave me closure, but a base was formed for mental instability. I think my classmates weren't at fault, they followed the expectations they learned from their parents, teacher,... the expectation of becoming the best. It was in their best interest to avoid having me in their team. Sports just have to be fun for children, don't let competition consume them because people will only get hurt. Thanks for reading, please show me your opinion on this subject. Best regards, Wouter
Reaction to the "Trophy Kids" article, my personal experience
First off I want to recommend the original Trophy kids article by @adsactly. (https://scorum.com/en-us/other/@adsactly/when-sports-stop-being-fun-are-we-creating-trophy-kids) It's a great post and definitely worth it to look into. Source This article touched me, probably because the subject hit close to home. Lots of children idolise famous athletes. I once heard my cousin say: "If I am older I want to be a soccer player, like Messi". These dreams result in competition, even at a young age. Children want to become the very best because media and most of the time their parents tell them to. This can have positive results, talented kids are able to reach the maximum of their potential. But at what costs? Depression rates amongst children are higher than ever. This is often caused by pressure to preform. Kids who aren't good in sports suffer as well. They feel the need to preform by their classmates, their parents, their teachers... only to realise they aren't as physically talented as their friends. My story I was part of that last category myself. In my class sports were very important. During sport class the teacher always let the children choose the players for their teams. My classmates only chose the fastest, or most skilled person in the given sport. At the playground the same thing happened. I couldn't play football with them because I wasn't good enough. I felt left out. Countless times I came home crying because of sports... I thought my inability to play sports was my fault and it could be fixed. So I started training. I was eight years old at this point and I spend months of trowing a ball at the basket ring, every single day after I came home from school, just to be accepted. When we finally played basketball in sports class I felt like it was time to redeem myself. I had trained months for this moment. As per usual the kids in my class chose me last, I was used to this. When we played I still wasn't able to keep up. All my months of training, no results. I felt horrible. 5 years later I got an explanation for my lack of skills in sports. I have dyspraxia. This is a brain-based condition that makes it hard to coordinate physical movement. This diagnosis gave me closure, but a base was formed for mental instability. I think my classmates weren't at fault, they followed the expectations they learned from their parents, teacher,... the expectation of becoming the best. It was in their best interest to avoid having me in their team. Sports just have to be fun for children, don't let competition consume them because people will only get hurt. Thanks for reading, please show me your opinion on this subject. Best regards, Wouter