Helicopter parents vs sports

[Sluggo]

What???



The Calgary Minor Soccer Association might eliminate scoring in games for players under 12-years-old beginning this spring.
Scoreless games will improve team-building, skill development and be more fun for children, said Daryl Leinweber, the association's executive director.
And Leinweber is not worried that the elimination of scoring would stifle young players' competitive spirit, he said.
"You're born with it. Let's face it, you know, we're in a win situation every day of our life. So I think that naturally comes out," Leinweber said.
Sport Canada recently recommended that child sporting associations across the country focus less on winning and more on the game itself.
Hockey Calgary eliminated scoring for children eight-years-old and under several years ago, and the results have been positive, said executive director Perry Cavanagh.
"When they get into the next element of the game where we introduce them to competitive play, the children are definitely better hockey players than what we had seen in the past," he said.
Cavanagh admitted, though, that there is resistance to the idea.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/sto...#ixzz1Db34QuSZ

[burn_this_city]

Theres no winners or losers, just participants.

[Kybosh]

If my childhood was like that, I feel that all the soul-crushing defeats of adulthood might be even more so.

[kirant]

Having played a lot of hockey as a kid, I found the score to be the MOST important thing to team-building skills. Everybody wanted to win and needed to work together to get there.

[Joborule]

By the end of the 21st century, the people of western society are going to be such whimps that competition will be removed from the dictionary and every guy would weigh 120 pounds.

Oh and Russia/China will rule the world.

[Envitro]

Everyone's a winner.. yay!

Did they take their ideas from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid?

[Cowboy89]

I fata'd this in the other sports forum.

One hilarious comment is found in the comment section though:


Quote:
I have been 'scoreless' dating for years now, it's boring, trust me.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

8 and under I can see.

Twelve and under? That's just pathetic. 12 year olds have cell phones. I'm sure they can handle keeping score and winning/losing.

[HotHotHeat]

All this does is cause lack of preparedness for all the losers out there. Better to teach them young that they suck than have it come up and surprise them later in life.

[Dion]

There are no victims, just volunteers.

[TSXCman]

HAHAHaha, who's going to be the parent sitting in the stands with their own scoreboard?

[shermanator]

All this does is teach the kids they can put a half-assed effort towards soemthing and still be a winner. Ridiculous!

[The Yen Man]

If I were a twelve year old kid playing sports, I'd find it pretty lame if they didn't keep score. That's half the fun. Winning is fun. Doing something for the sake of particpating without an end goal seems boring to me.

[Swayze11]

I coach in this league and have had the benefit of always coaching a very skilled team. The problem we have is when teams are winning games 10-0, 12-1, etc, etc. This is starting to become a very big problem. We are unfortunately (yes unfortunately) one of those teams that beat other teams by these scores.

The players seem to want to win and play, even the losing team in this situation. It is typically the coach of the losing team that has the most problem. Coaches in soccer compared to coaches in hockey is equivalent to night and day. When a hockey coach gets blown out by a score like that, they work on getting better as a team and work on the things that caused them to lose the game that bad. In soccer they don't do that or don't have the skilled players to do this.

It is getting to the point where teams (coaches) do not want to play us because we just have too much skill. We have constant meetings on how to improve this and a lot of the lesser teams coaches tell me to tell my players to "take it easy" or "work on passing" but I just don't believe I should have to. I understand that probably 20% of my team can play for a more competitive team and excel there but the team I coach is typically low income families that cant afford all the trips, fees, uniforms, etc.

Overall I think this is a terrible idea. Some of the kids playing in this league are part of families that don't have the resources to put their kid in a more advanced league but the kids still want to win and develop as soccer players.

[Hanni]

So do they just assume kids under 12 can't count? I can understand very young players having no real concept of what the score would actually be. However I would think by 8 they know that they are either winning or losing.

Like Swayze's case above, kids are going to easily figure out that they are losing by a wide margin.

[flylock shox]

I wonder how they'll handle try-outs, or will kids just be randomly assigned to teams regardless of ability?

I can understand this for kids 8 and under, but in countries with decent soccer development programs, scouting starts at age 13. I can't imagine a kid with only one year of competitive play at that age being particularly good at it.

Lower the age though and I can see some serious benefits to this.

[Yasa]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

8 and under I can see.

Twelve and under? That's just pathetic. 12 year olds have cell phones. I'm sure they can handle keeping score and winning/losing.

I've worked in schools where kids ages 5+ had cell phones. Some of them had the iPhone 4. I was shocked when I found out.

[MarchHare]

Soccer isn't like basketball where a game might end with a score of 82-67 that is difficult to tally without a scoreboard. What does this say about the league's confidence in our education system when they assume that 12 year olds can't count keep track of a typical 3-1 or 2-0 soccer game in their heads?

[Edit]
Beaten by Hanni as I was typing this!

[BigBrodieFan]

Sorry, but kids have to learn some time. I wouldn't let either of my boys participate in anything like that. My kids play sports competitively, and my son who's now in 8th grade started 'trying out' for Elite basketball and football teams in 6th grade. He has drive and determination to get a scholarship for College and is very focused. In the States, you have to be, starting at around 12 years old (7th grade).

Soccer sucks anyway.

[YYC in LAX]

It's soccer...#### it. They're bound to be pussies anyway.