Should kids get participation trophies for playing sports?

[Another Fan]

I do get the whole argument about kids today being too pampered.  The everybody gets a trophy generation.  I totally get that.

 

At the same time though cleaning out my room, I found some of mine from when I was a kid and participation ribbons for running 5ks.  Years later for me at least it does bring back childhood memories.   Me I was never the best at team sports but not the worst either.   Though maybe today its totally different with IPhones, Instagram, Facebook, etc.   Everything can be easily looked up for memories. 

 

I'm sentimental I hold onto mine. 

[May Day 10]

Yes.  Nothing wrong with it.  Its just a talking point for miserable people. 

I got them 35 years ago and they were great, and we would always look forward to them, and i never turned into some helpless adult who wants to climb back into the womb.  

[Fr. Jerk]

I grew up in the 90's. They passed them out. None of us cared because we all knew they meant nothing. 

[Buffalo716]

For Tball and such yes it’s no big deal.

 

I wouldn’t be giving out participation trophies and such to kids playing hard ball at 16

 

but I won a bunch of championships growing up and have tons of trophies so I’m indifferent ?

[Boca BIlls]

Kids should be told when they suck at something. It allows then to try different things.

 

Honestly I got them as a kid and knew they were garbage anyway. I hope kids aren't that stupid and know they mean *****.

Edited January 6, 2019 by Boca BIlls

[RaoulDuke79]

Sure you can get a ribbon or medal or something for participating,  but there should also be some special award for those that actually excel and win.

Edited January 6, 2019 by RaoulDuke79

[Happy]

Participation trophies are pointless. They can prevent kids from finding what they're good at and can succeed at based on actual merits.

[row_33]

1 hour ago, Another Fan said:

I do get the whole argument about kids today being too pampered.  The everybody gets a trophy generation.  I totally get that.

 

At the same time though cleaning out my room, I found some of mine from when I was a kid and participation ribbons for running 5ks.  Years later for me at least it does bring back childhood memories.   Me I was never the best at team sports but not the worst either.   Though maybe today its totally different with IPhones, Instagram, Facebook, etc.   Everything can be easily looked up for memories. 

 

I'm sentimental I hold onto mine. 

 

In the 70s everyone got a trophy, but we also handed out "best" trophies to the teammates deserving it, and kept score and had playoffs that meant something

 

 

[Augie]

I got orange slices. What more could you ask for???

[row_33]

12 minutes ago, Augie said:

I got orange slices. What more could you ask for???

 

Rodney Marsh played a mere nine soccer games for England. There was a reason for that, too. When Alf Ramsey told him, "If you don't work harder I'll pull you off at half time," Marsh replied: "Crikey, Alf, at Manchester City all we get is an orange and a cup of tea." He was never picked again.

[Helpmenow]

Nope

[Gray Beard]

My kids got participation awards.   My daughter was never much of an athlete.  Music was her thing.  She looks back at those participation trophies and smiles.  They bring back memories.  She knew she was never going to play sports in school, so those trophies are all she has to remember her awkward forays into the world of athletics in her elementary school years. 

 

My son played on several sports teams, and was pretty good.  He even played a little in college.  He doesn’t have any use for those silly trophies.  

[SinceThe70s]

2 hours ago, row_33 said:

 

In the 70s everyone got a trophy, but we also handed out "best" trophies to the teammates deserving it, and kept score and had playoffs that meant something

 

 

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. Everyone got a  trophy but the champs got a big one. Everyone wanted the big one.

[row_33]

44 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. Everyone got a  trophy but the champs got a big one. Everyone wanted the big one.

 

I knew I wasn’t a good hockey player, a few played Junior A and a few had a cup of coffee in the NHL

 

the participation trophy was fine for me

[KD in CA]

48 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. Everyone got a  trophy but the champs got a big one. Everyone wanted the big one.

 

Yup, and that seems ok to me. And it's rarely a trophy, more likely a ribbon.  And frankly, half the time they don't even do that.

 

My daughter got 5th in her group at a karate tournament (out of about 15) and was the last one to get a trophy.  Of course she was very unhappy with her small trophy after her cousin took first and got the big one.  

[row_33]

What was the purpose of attacking a participation trophy?

 

seemed a poor attempt at cynical wittiness by people who didn’t play sports

 

[row_33]

Some total hack like Rick Reilly started it?

 

[apuszczalowski]

Theres nothing wrong with them, the problem occurs when you star eliminating all aspects of winning and losing so you dont hurt someones feelings. Kids need to learn theres winning and losing, but they also need to be taught how it's ok if your not good or lose. Not everyone is good at it and not everyone can win. Losing isnt the end of the world in sports.....

[mead107]

Nope. Just a kick in the butt if they are bad. 

[SinceThe70s]

3 hours ago, Boca BIlls said:

Kids should be told when they suck at something. It allows then to try different things.

 

 

3 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

Participation trophies are pointless. They can prevent kids from finding what they're good at and can succeed at based on actual merits.

 

Maybe where I differ from you guys is I give more credit to the kids. I don't think that just because they get a trophy they think they're a superstar. I think they are more self aware than that. 

 

I also wouldn't discourage a kid from pursuing a sport they like because they aren't good at it. Plenty of opportunities in sports for non-athletes (refs/umps, sports medicine, player agent, to a lesser degree coaching, nowadays analytics,...) and being around the sport as the last player on the bench can only help.

 

Regardless, if the participation trophy haters marched on Washington and convinced Trump to sign an executive order banning participation trophies it wouldn't bother me. To me it's a pretty innocuous tradition.

[SinceThe70s]

1 hour ago, row_33 said:

What was the purpose of attacking a participation trophy?

 

seemed a poor attempt at cynical wittiness by people who didn’t play sports

 

 

My theory is it's the parents who are planning out little Johnny or Jenna's sports scholarship before their kid ever sets foot on a field. 

[row_33]

6 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

My theory is it's the parents who are planning out little Johnny or Jenna's sports scholarship before their kid ever sets foot on a field. 

 

I guess boomers thought they were Einstein for seeing through the pointlessness of it all? 

 

 

 

Their youth was over so they would take out all their mind games on the next generatiion.

 

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

Yes.

 

Society today is raising hyper-competitive monsters too early.

 

We need to back away from.zero-sum game playing.

16 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

My theory is it's the parents who are planning out little Johnny or Jenna's sports scholarship before their kid ever sets foot on a field. 

Yep... It's killing the system.

4 hours ago, Augie said:

I got orange slices. What more could you ask for???

Not getting scurvy?  ?

[Augie]

7 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yes.

 

Society today is raising hyper-competitive monsters too early.

 

We need to back away from.zero-sum game playing.

Yep... It's killing the system.

Not getting scurvy?  ?

 

Some of these sports parents have something worse than scurvy. It gets INSANE! 

 

 

....but I’m doing much better now. 

 

 

?

[LeGOATski]

Participation trophies aren't the problem. It's not keeping the score that's the problem. We still tell our kids "your team won/lost" at the end of the game, if they can't tell already. Some of the kids still keep score during the game themselves.

[Doc Brown]

As long as they still give out 1st place trophies then there's nothing wrong with it.  Kids know whether their team was good or not.

[row_33]

10 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

As long as they still give out 1st place trophies then there's nothing wrong with it.  Kids know whether their team was good or not.

 

who is doing the complaining about it?

 

to go back to an older reality, the hippies or crew-cut America?

 

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

15 minutes ago, row_33 said:

 

who is doing the complaining about it?

 

to go back to an older reality, the hippies or crew-cut America?

 

 

Millennials are so fooged up they are like a wild hybrid between the two.

 

Like a Steven Wright joke:

 

"I bought a dog the other day. I named him Stay. It's fun to call him. "Come here, Stay! Come here, Stay!" He went insane. Now he just ignores me and keeps typing. He's an East German Shepherd."

 

 

[SinceThe70s]

23 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

Participation trophies aren't the problem. It's not keeping the score that's the problem. We still tell our kids "your team won/lost" at the end of the game, if they can't tell already. Some of the kids still keep score during the game themselves.

 

No doubt. I saw that on a team I managed. Sometimes they'd ask me after the game who won even though we didn't keep track and there was no bigger trophy to be had. Kids were more than ready for the next step.

[ExiledInIllinois]

8 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

No doubt. I saw that on a team I managed. Sometimes they'd ask me after the game who won even though we didn't keep track and there was no bigger trophy to be had. Kids were more than ready for the next step.

Yeah... IMO, their other development is not.

 

What age are we talking?

[SinceThe70s]

1 minute ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Yeah... IMO, their other development is not.

 

What age are we talking?

 

 8 year olds. It was baseball and they'd had two years of T-Ball/Coach Pitch and it was the first year they "pitched" on their own (it was torturous).

 

The next year (9 and 10 year olds) there were standings and playoffs.

[Nextmanup]

11 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

Participation trophies are pointless. They can prevent kids from finding what they're good at and can succeed at based on actual merits.

You don't need a trophy or medal to know what you are good or bad at.

 

When it comes to important topics of concern facing the USA in 2019, participation trophies in youth athletics is not very important.

 

78% of American workers live pay check to pay check.

71% of American workers are in debt.

65% of Americans have less than $5,000 in a financial account, with many having 0 in a financial account.

 

Those are just a few topics of much greater concern IMO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[row_33]

5 hours ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

 8 year olds. It was baseball and they'd had two years of T-Ball/Coach Pitch and it was the first year they "pitched" on their own (it was torturous).

 

The next year (9 and 10 year olds) there were standings and playoffs.

 

Thank you for taking your free time to help kids play in that tortured phase of the game, takes a lot of patience and kindness and leadership.

 

 

5 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Millennials are so fooged up they are like a wild hybrid between the two.

 

 

 

 

They will be fine, just as every generation before them. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gugny]

14 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

Participation trophies are pointless. They can prevent kids from finding what they're good at and can succeed at based on actual merits.

 

Bad parenting prevents kids from finding what they're good at and can succeed at based on actual merits.

 

Participation trophies do nothing but recognize a child for participating, aka trying, aka not quitting.  It's up to the child's parents to help the child understand the bigger picture.

[unbillievable]

Participation trophies/medals are just souvenirs. That's their sentimental value. People/kids don't actual think they accomplished something, but we keep them to remind us that we got off the couch that one time...

 

5 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

78% of American workers live pay check to pay check.

71% of American workers are in debt.

65% of Americans have less than $5,000 in a financial account, with many having 0 in a financial account.

 

Since those problems occur across class lines, it's clearly an education problem.

 

I always found it ridiculous that 25% of my college credits had to be in the humanities, but those liberal arts kids didn't have to take any math/science classes.

 

It's more important to spot a metaphor than to balance a budget.

Edited January 7, 2019 by unbillievable

[teef]

sure.  why not.  it let's kids know they were part of a team and followed through with a season.  it's for small kids.  when the game gets competitive, then no, but it could be a first "accomplishment" they carry through with.  i have a 3 and a half year old daughter that was given a medal because she finished gymnastics.  she was so pumped about it she showed everyone.  what kind of person would want to take that away.

 

we got them in pop warner football as kids.  no one cared, nor did they give anyone a false sense of accomplishment.  people make way too much over this nonsense.

[ExiledInIllinois]

4 hours ago, row_33 said:

They will be fine, just as every generation before them. 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course.  Even the Puritans worried about their Kid's generation going to hell in a handbasket.

[May Day 10]

We got them, from the mid-eightees when I started in youth sports.  We would all get little trophies with our team/season.  It made me happy.  The "championship" team would get a set of larger trophies.  We never felt like we "won it all" because we got the small plastic trophies". In like 20-25 years of baseball, I never was on a team who won a league championship.

 

We knew who won.  We all wanted to win, despite knowing we would get the trophies.  Mainly thinking of baseball and hockey.  I think they stopped when we were like 14, which is fine.

 

My kid is 5 right now and plays instructional hockey and baseball.  They don't keep score, and they get a trophies after every season and my kid carries it around like the stanley cup and they sit on his dresser.  He also is competitive as hell and is obsessed about winning, scores, etc.  I don't think the 2 are related.  I also think keeping score at the ages of 4-7 would be somewhat destructive.

Edited January 7, 2019 by May Day 10

[row_33]

4 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Of course.  Even the Puritans worried about their Kid's generation going to hell in a handbasket.

 

I try to steer every one of them to STEM studies where possible.  Few care about math.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, May Day 10 said:

We got them, from the mid-eightees when I started in youth sports.  We would all get little trophies with our team/season.  It made me happy.  The "championship" team would get a set of larger trophies.  In like 20-25 years of baseball, I never was on a team who won a league championship.

 

We knew who won.  We all wanted to win, despite knowing we would get the trophies.  Mainly thinking of baseball and hockey.  I think they stopped when we were like 14, which is fine.

 

My kid is 5 right now and plays instructional hockey and baseball.  They don't keep score, and they get a trophies after every season and my kid carries it around like the stanley cup and they sit on his dresser.  He also is competitive as hell and is obsessed about winning, scores, etc.  I don't think the 2 are related.  I also think keeping score at the ages of 4-7 would be somewhat destructive.

 

You are on the right track!

 

[Keukasmallies]

Trophies, awards, special recognition should be given to those who accomplish something beyond the general expectation level for the activity.  Presenting an award for showing up most of the time could be seen as detracting from the award given for outstanding effort/accomplishment.