The Musings of a Giant Idiot

When should kids be in leagues that keep score and have winners and losers? Sometimes you read about the baseball leagues or the soccer leagues that have no scores and every kid is a winner. Some argue that by doing this a child will have more self-esteem, I think there may be something to that when they are just learning about sports, but what about when they have been playing for a couple of years and there are still no winners or losers? I cannot remember any “everyone’s a winner league” when my brother and I were growing up, you learned quickly that there were two possibilities when you played and if you wanted to win you just had to practice harder. What is the point of playing if everyone is going to win, what lessons are learned from that? By letting everyone “win” an inflated sense of ability is going to form. When a loss finally occurs how are they going to react? Will they just quit when faced with adversity or will they work harder to improve their game and come back and win the next time they play? I do not have kids yet but when I do I want them to know that they are not always going to win and that there are lessons to be learned when you lose. I think it is easier to learn lessons by losing than by “winning”.