Wednesday, June 6, 2007
I love what I do.
It's mostly because I really love sports, and because my parents saw fit to make my knowledge of proper grammar a priority, I also love to write about sports.
But now, we together will embark on a journey that has me really pumped up because it has fully captured the essence of what drives me as a writer.
I get to tell people what I think about stuff.
Let me back up a bit -- we here at The Roadrunner have always been interested in hearing what you, the fine citizens of Valley Center, think about the things going on here in town.
To further probe into the thoughts of our community, we are introducing a pair of web logs, also known as "blogs," that will hopefully encourage discussion on a range of topics that will cover things not only here in Valley Center, but across the country and even the world. Our esteemed editor, David Ross, and I will be sharing our thoughts on various subjects and providing you, the community, with an outlet for expressing yours, if you so choose.
This space will mainly be dedicated to discussing topics in sports, although I have little doubt that we'll end up covering things in pop culture (such as movies, music, video games, and maybe even fashion).
Welcome to the first installment.
-- -- --
In brainstorming what to discuss right off the bat, I must confess that I've been wanting to discuss this topic for a while now, but have had to content myself with random conversations.
To put it in a specific topic, I'd like to talk about the affect parents have on children in youth sports.
We've all heard the horror stories about people like Todd Marinovich, the former USC quarterback who went on to play for the Los Angeles Raiders in 1991. The story goes that his father, Marv, wanting to see his son become an NFL quarterback, tied his son's right arm behind his back so that he would learn to throw left-handed. I've only heard rumors about that, but I do know that Marv hired his son a throwing coach and a nutrition coach before he was 10 years old, so I don't have too much trouble believing it.
Todd did make it to the pros after an impressive career at USC, but played in a total of six games in the NFL and battled legal problems with drugs and sex until he faded into sports infamy.
Obviously this is an extreme case, but the fact remains that there are a lot of small issues within youth sports that are done with the best intentions, but can actually have adverse affects on the children involved.
If we really want to hit this at its heart, we have to look at what it is that parents want for their kids. Obviously parents want their children to succeed, but we have to ask -- how do we define success?
A good place to start is with an article from Reader's Digest (yes, I have been known to pick up Reader's Digest...no, I am not a senior citizen...yes, it's okay for people younger than 55 to read it) back in 2005 called "The Perfect Childhood: Why It's Bad For Kids" by Judsen Culbreth.
The author examines parents who over-protect their children by heaping undeserved praise on them and making tough decisions for them, as well as trends in society like teachers using colors other than red to correct papers.
It's a good article because I think it gets to the point about why parents can get so carried away in trying to create this "perfect" childhood. Check it out online at www.rd.com/content/the-perfect-childhood-bad-for-kids/ if you get the chance.
The basic premise is that if we are honest and realistic with our children, they will benefit from it in the long run. Kids are smart; they know if they're not so good at a particular activity, so if we keep telling them that they are, how can they not be confused about things?
This carries over perfectly into the world of sports, because athletic competitions are just that -- competitions. As in, the one who runs the fastest, throws the hardest, hits the furthest, drives the fastest or jumps the highest will win. We reward the players who achieve the highest level of play.
Of course, the most evident example is in professional sports, where athletes like Peyton Manning, Barry Bonds, LeBron James, Jeff Gordon and Sidney Crosby are paid millions of dollars to do what they do. They are rewarded in terms of their earnings, but also within the scope of their respective sports when they win championships and other accolades that come to the best of the best.
So what if we treated professionals like we treat children? Would we say that J.P. Losman is "just as good as" Peyton Manning, even though he clearly is not? Would we give a participation ribbon to the players on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays just for showing up to play another sub-par season? Would we make up an award to give to Tony Raines, like "Most Cheerful Driver"?
Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that kids should be treated like professional athletes. If anything, there are more than a few pros who should be treated like children in a lot of ways.
But the point I'm trying to make is that we'll help kids in the long run by being honest and realistic.
I remember being eight years old and signing up to play on my brothers' City Rec baseball team. We had a good team that eventually won the championship that year (and I still have the tiny, powder-blue Panthers shirt to remember it).
It was a great summer...and I don't care one bit that I only played right field on occasion (and most of that time was spent picking dandelions, as my mother likes to point out). If my parents had been telling me that I was the MVP of the team, I would have been more than a little confused, mostly because our clear MVP was our catcher, a gigantic 12-year-old named Josh Pike who may or may not have been Jose Canseco's little brother.
And I also know that if our coach and the league had been set up like some I've seen, we wouldn't have even been keeping score. Working for the local paper back home in Jamestown, we had a few baseball leagues where they didn't keep score, the teams played all of their players in the field all game, nobody got out, everybody batted every inning and I'm sure they all went out for ice cream after the game. If you can call that a game, because it always sounded more like chaos with a bat and ball thrown in the middle.
The coaches always said that the league was set up to keep the kids who weren't as talented from being discouraged. Trust me, a kid knows if he's good or not, regardless of the score. I don't remember the score of a single game from my time with the Panthers, but I do remember that I wasn't very good.
And you know what? That made me want to get better. So I practiced, I stopped picking dandelions, and by the time I was 12, I was the starting shortstop and the league's co-MVP. At least, that's what my parents told me...
Looking back, I see now that the key to the whole thing was about motivation -- if I hadn't experienced what it felt like to be passed over in favor of someone who was better, I wouldn't have put in the time and effort to improve myself. It's a lesson that transfers so easily to the myriad of other aspects of life as well; if you want to go to a good college, you have to study and get good grades in high school, or if you want a good job, you have to learn how to do it by studying in college. I love that about sports; not only are they fun, but they're microcosms of life.
In the end, all I'm saying is that parents can have a bigger impact on their children's experience in sports by letting the kid actually have the experience in sports. Let them run, let them play, let them win, let them lose -- whatever they do, let them do it and let them know that you're behind them no matter what.
Just don't let them pick dandelions in right field.
-- -- --
Now it's your turn, Valley Center.
You can let us all know what you think about this in a number of ways, the foremost by going online to www.valleycenter.com/blog/blogsports.html and commenting. You're here already, so go ahead. It's ok.
You can also send an e-mail to sports@valleycenter.com with "blog comment" in the subject line.
You are also more than welcome to send a hard copy through the mail or fax, and if you're really desperate, I'm sure you can find somebody who can pony express your letter up here to our office for you.
But however they get here, I will take the best submissions and put them in next week's issue of The Roadrunner for all of Valley Center to see. If a particular topic generates more than a single week's worth of riveting discussion, I may print submissions from prior topics. We'll all just have to see how that goes, really.
There are a few house rules, though -- I won't consider anything unless it has the submitter's name, nor will I print anything that is laced with profanity and/or racial epithets.
Basically, if you stick to the point and present your thoughts with any kind of coherence, we shouldn't have a problem. But I will edit for spelling and grammar if I have to.
And just so everyone knows, my mom already told me I did a great job on this article, and I fully expect a participation ribbon from my boss.
It's mostly because I really love sports, and because my parents saw fit to make my knowledge of proper grammar a priority, I also love to write about sports.
But now, we together will embark on a journey that has me really pumped up because it has fully captured the essence of what drives me as a writer.
I get to tell people what I think about stuff.
Let me back up a bit -- we here at The Roadrunner have always been interested in hearing what you, the fine citizens of Valley Center, think about the things going on here in town.
To further probe into the thoughts of our community, we are introducing a pair of web logs, also known as "blogs," that will hopefully encourage discussion on a range of topics that will cover things not only here in Valley Center, but across the country and even the world. Our esteemed editor, David Ross, and I will be sharing our thoughts on various subjects and providing you, the community, with an outlet for expressing yours, if you so choose.
This space will mainly be dedicated to discussing topics in sports, although I have little doubt that we'll end up covering things in pop culture (such as movies, music, video games, and maybe even fashion).
Welcome to the first installment.
-- -- --
In brainstorming what to discuss right off the bat, I must confess that I've been wanting to discuss this topic for a while now, but have had to content myself with random conversations.
To put it in a specific topic, I'd like to talk about the affect parents have on children in youth sports.
We've all heard the horror stories about people like Todd Marinovich, the former USC quarterback who went on to play for the Los Angeles Raiders in 1991. The story goes that his father, Marv, wanting to see his son become an NFL quarterback, tied his son's right arm behind his back so that he would learn to throw left-handed. I've only heard rumors about that, but I do know that Marv hired his son a throwing coach and a nutrition coach before he was 10 years old, so I don't have too much trouble believing it.
Todd did make it to the pros after an impressive career at USC, but played in a total of six games in the NFL and battled legal problems with drugs and sex until he faded into sports infamy.
Obviously this is an extreme case, but the fact remains that there are a lot of small issues within youth sports that are done with the best intentions, but can actually have adverse affects on the children involved.
If we really want to hit this at its heart, we have to look at what it is that parents want for their kids. Obviously parents want their children to succeed, but we have to ask -- how do we define success?
A good place to start is with an article from Reader's Digest (yes, I have been known to pick up Reader's Digest...no, I am not a senior citizen...yes, it's okay for people younger than 55 to read it) back in 2005 called "The Perfect Childhood: Why It's Bad For Kids" by Judsen Culbreth.
The author examines parents who over-protect their children by heaping undeserved praise on them and making tough decisions for them, as well as trends in society like teachers using colors other than red to correct papers.
It's a good article because I think it gets to the point about why parents can get so carried away in trying to create this "perfect" childhood. Check it out online at www.rd.com/content/the-perfect-childhood-bad-for-kids/ if you get the chance.
The basic premise is that if we are honest and realistic with our children, they will benefit from it in the long run. Kids are smart; they know if they're not so good at a particular activity, so if we keep telling them that they are, how can they not be confused about things?
This carries over perfectly into the world of sports, because athletic competitions are just that -- competitions. As in, the one who runs the fastest, throws the hardest, hits the furthest, drives the fastest or jumps the highest will win. We reward the players who achieve the highest level of play.
Of course, the most evident example is in professional sports, where athletes like Peyton Manning, Barry Bonds, LeBron James, Jeff Gordon and Sidney Crosby are paid millions of dollars to do what they do. They are rewarded in terms of their earnings, but also within the scope of their respective sports when they win championships and other accolades that come to the best of the best.
So what if we treated professionals like we treat children? Would we say that J.P. Losman is "just as good as" Peyton Manning, even though he clearly is not? Would we give a participation ribbon to the players on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays just for showing up to play another sub-par season? Would we make up an award to give to Tony Raines, like "Most Cheerful Driver"?
Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that kids should be treated like professional athletes. If anything, there are more than a few pros who should be treated like children in a lot of ways.
But the point I'm trying to make is that we'll help kids in the long run by being honest and realistic.
I remember being eight years old and signing up to play on my brothers' City Rec baseball team. We had a good team that eventually won the championship that year (and I still have the tiny, powder-blue Panthers shirt to remember it).
It was a great summer...and I don't care one bit that I only played right field on occasion (and most of that time was spent picking dandelions, as my mother likes to point out). If my parents had been telling me that I was the MVP of the team, I would have been more than a little confused, mostly because our clear MVP was our catcher, a gigantic 12-year-old named Josh Pike who may or may not have been Jose Canseco's little brother.
And I also know that if our coach and the league had been set up like some I've seen, we wouldn't have even been keeping score. Working for the local paper back home in Jamestown, we had a few baseball leagues where they didn't keep score, the teams played all of their players in the field all game, nobody got out, everybody batted every inning and I'm sure they all went out for ice cream after the game. If you can call that a game, because it always sounded more like chaos with a bat and ball thrown in the middle.
The coaches always said that the league was set up to keep the kids who weren't as talented from being discouraged. Trust me, a kid knows if he's good or not, regardless of the score. I don't remember the score of a single game from my time with the Panthers, but I do remember that I wasn't very good.
And you know what? That made me want to get better. So I practiced, I stopped picking dandelions, and by the time I was 12, I was the starting shortstop and the league's co-MVP. At least, that's what my parents told me...
Looking back, I see now that the key to the whole thing was about motivation -- if I hadn't experienced what it felt like to be passed over in favor of someone who was better, I wouldn't have put in the time and effort to improve myself. It's a lesson that transfers so easily to the myriad of other aspects of life as well; if you want to go to a good college, you have to study and get good grades in high school, or if you want a good job, you have to learn how to do it by studying in college. I love that about sports; not only are they fun, but they're microcosms of life.
In the end, all I'm saying is that parents can have a bigger impact on their children's experience in sports by letting the kid actually have the experience in sports. Let them run, let them play, let them win, let them lose -- whatever they do, let them do it and let them know that you're behind them no matter what.
Just don't let them pick dandelions in right field.
-- -- --
Now it's your turn, Valley Center.
You can let us all know what you think about this in a number of ways, the foremost by going online to www.valleycenter.com/blog/blogsports.html and commenting. You're here already, so go ahead. It's ok.
You can also send an e-mail to sports@valleycenter.com with "blog comment" in the subject line.
You are also more than welcome to send a hard copy through the mail or fax, and if you're really desperate, I'm sure you can find somebody who can pony express your letter up here to our office for you.
But however they get here, I will take the best submissions and put them in next week's issue of The Roadrunner for all of Valley Center to see. If a particular topic generates more than a single week's worth of riveting discussion, I may print submissions from prior topics. We'll all just have to see how that goes, really.
There are a few house rules, though -- I won't consider anything unless it has the submitter's name, nor will I print anything that is laced with profanity and/or racial epithets.
Basically, if you stick to the point and present your thoughts with any kind of coherence, we shouldn't have a problem. But I will edit for spelling and grammar if I have to.
And just so everyone knows, my mom already told me I did a great job on this article, and I fully expect a participation ribbon from my boss.
Labels: parents, perfect childhood, youth sports
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