Great Article about keeping score in kid sports

[Lozza]

You had a draw today! No Harry just because you got more outs doesn't mean you won!

I think to a certain age 9/10 score shouldn't be kept. It not only doesn't help the kids but ice watched coaches focus on winning rather than teaching.

Our U12 grade was an abouslte joke this year. One they refuse to do a younger age and 7 year olds can play so we have 7 year olds playing with and against 12 year olds (don't worry these kids don't have the same skills as your kids) its never had finals. Halfway through this season it changed. We then had the issue where one game and one game only became a even innings finish. Which meant a game involving kids as young as 8 went for three hours. And of course there was protests galore.

 

[lstorie1971]

Doesn't it come down to parenting philosophy? If the no keeping score thing fits with your parental philosophy, then by all means, enter your kid in that league. If not, find one that fits. Either way, it doesn't make you a bad parent or one whose kids are destined to be anything different than they would have been had the scoring issue been treated differently.

 

[nanotech14]

To each, their own, lstorie1971 is correct. You as a parent have to decide, what fits. I taught my dd, winning and losing and how to do both with grace and humility at a young age.

 

[CoachBroker]

Keep Score from the time they start playing. Teach these kids that with hard work, paying attention, and having fun can be rewarding. Winning and Losing both offer oppertunities to teach a child something but you have to do it in a positive way. Our countries problems right now are a direct reflection of political correctness weakening the way we handle our business. If we do not teach our kids that there are rewards for hard work and consequences for not taking care of your business or putting for any effort, then we end up with adults who expect to be prosperous for not having to do anything.
Ok I am done.

 

[lstorie1971]

I guess the only question I would have is who gets to define the reward?

If you don't keep score but you teach the kids about sportsmanship and fundamentals and they get better objectively and subjectively, why is that not an admirable reward? Stated another way, if you stack your team with the most athletically gifted children and don't have to actually coach anything to win but you win because you are the most athletically gifted team, why is the fact that you've won every game an acceptable reward as compared to the kids who have worked and improved both objectively and subjectively?

When you define winning as the only goal, then I think the arguments against not keeping score are particularly strong, but if you define improvement as your goal, I think keeping score becomes almost an irrelevant concern.

 

[CoachBroker]

As a coach, if your not teaching sportsmanship, respect, team leadership, humility, and even courage then your missing huge opportunities to make these kids into great adults. Every game win or lose has opportunities to teach most all of these things. Our first two games this season were against the same team. Their HC does almost no incouraging but rather chooses to yell at them for missing plays or making bad throws. It gets all over me and I spent as much time incouraging their players as I do ours.

 

[NVfishing]

We keep scores in U8 TB not U8 league. We keep scores in U10 league. In basket ball we don't keep score until middle school. Soccer, scores were always kept.

Why have competitive sports if we eliminate the competition? It's the drive to do better that makes them better.

 

[sluggers]

These kids can barely find their way to the bathrooms. Both sides of this debate say some remarkably silly things.

First, no kid will be psychologically scarred by losing a game.

Second, at 8YOA, the only important life lesson to be taught to a child about winning and losing is that it doesn't matter if she wins or loses.

Third, no 8YOA kid has ever put together a 1 year--or even 1 hour--plan for improving their game after a loss.

Just more examples of mythology and sports...

 

[RubberBiscuit]

My opinion =>

Excellent article.

In my opinion those who do not see the silver lining in keeping score and winning & losing are part of the problem with our US culture these days and why it will continue to decline.

The best part of the article is towards the end and let me pull this out here for those who might have left before the end or forgot:

"
If score keeping is abolished, in the interest of making athletics nothing but fun and games, what incentive do children have to practice, and play harder or improve? "
"
"
And, if the notion of losing is removed from a child’s life, what will happen when they grow up and become adults and realize that the playing field of life is not levelized? In the end, life is not all fun and games. When children learn how to win, and how to lose at a young age – athletics are a beneficial subsidy to life.
"

The bold part is why I will passionately promote & defend that my DD's experience in high-level sports will probably have been the most important life-learn that she will ever get.

It actually saddens me that some folks don't see this silver lining......

 

[SoftSocDad]

I can only laugh at what passes for 'great' or 'excellent' writing in America these days.

Hard work does not always translate into wins and winning does not mean that those players worked harder to achieve the result. In fact, in many youth sports from ages 5 through 12, an argument could easily be made that the teams with the most wins actually did LESS work than the average team in their age group, given that W-L success at those ages is usually the result of having the players with the most natural talent or size.

What a joke.