Team based sports are such a contradiction in themselves because there are several parties involved; for starters there are the players themselves, then the parents of all those kids, the coach, and the parents who act as if they have played the sport all their lives and can stand on the sidelines and yell at their kids for them to straighten up their act or do better than they are. The worst thing can be when your parent has the duality role of being both your parent and the coach. I have experienced this first hand as a child when I was younger during the days when I was into many sports as compared to my present self, now don’t get me wrong I love competition, being active, and sports just like any other kid but having your parent act as the coach means that everything will be twice, thrice, basically it will just seem harder than if the coach was not a family member, friend, or anybody that is close to you. I don’t believe this hindered my love for sports I just couldn’t handle it when I was younger because it seemed I was being yelled at for not putting in the best effort and everything but I understand know that it was just a mechanism to get me to make improvement in the sport. I have played or participated in a multitude of sports and activates so I also understand that with each sport though there is a different approach to what is learned there is always the overarching goal in each: and that is to win ,although the people running the sport sometimes won’t say this directly and will just tell you to try your best or that they want to see the results from all the practice what is really implied is I want you guys to win which is why I claim that these completive sports are such a contradiction. The child’s prior relationship with the coach doesn’t mean everything that is not the point I am making because a coach that is slowly introduced to the child will be just as expectant as the coach who is the parent or family member the only main difference is the fact that the parent will know or will most likely know the child’s weakness, strengths, and just the overall knowledge of the kid’s interactions and experiences with the sport. The other coach will eventually know the child’s experience with the sport just gradually and possibly at not as a fast rate, the parent coach on the other hand will make exercises both in and outside of the sport environment to challenge you and allow the child to overcome the obstacles they have when playing the sport, which is a good thing of course, but as was mentioned before it just seems like the child takes on more with familial expectations and if one family member realization that you are in a sport it is sure to spread to all the others and then these family members will show up to the game and cheer you on and want to see the results of the involvement with the game. The coach as a family member is just one spectrum of being in a sport.
The other part of a team based competitive sport is the fact that one is expected to work with the other members, other players as a unit yet still grow and develop and hone their own skills simultaneously. Why should this come as such a surprise to me, you must be thinking? Well I get that working in a collaboration is something that is supposed to come naturally after playing sports for a while but it can be something that some of the children struggle with and have a hard time overcoming. One of the main reasons for this is the kid may be a relatively good player and has no problems because s/he knows this along with all the parents and the coach and so the player gets that boost of confidence that exists within them more apparently than say the other kids and so that kid will be expectant to win and when they don’t blow up in anger or burst into tears or something along those lines. The other thing the kid would do is not be reliant on the team or the other members because they feel as if they can do it all on their own or the team shouldn’t be burdened because they can handle it all alone. The reverse can happen with the opposing team they realize that they are facing a good, well known team and so that whole team gets discouraged and the mentality they have is that they will automatically lose so they don’t try as hard as they normally would. In sports there are people of varying sizes but what is normally assumed with this is that the team with a range of mostly smaller or perhaps younger kids is that they will be crushed easily and then the thing I always seem to notice not every time but usually there is a bigger kid on one of the team one that is well known for being rough or one that will mow the adversary down in order for their team to win and so it makes the reverse team scared or nervous to face them, but it has to be done. Some would say that isn’t fair to have someone of that stature on the team with how they handle the situation with their body alone but if that is what they were told to help their team win then it isn’t cheating unless they physically cheat. The thing that I don’t understand is why people will perceive that smaller children cannot do as well as the others because in reality depending on the sport of course they can take advantage of their height to help them duck over the larger players or other ways to surpass the players. Teamwork is something that always has to be taken into consideration and how to use each player’s niche to the whole team’s advantage to help them in their victory.
The players always seem to be concerned about who was the one who scored the goal because it becomes programmed into the players head somehow that whoever scored the goal was the one who did the best work or something similar to that phrase. In actuality if the team didn’t exist to help that person score the goal then the goal most likely wouldn’t have happened. It is a team effort but that is what is overlooked and forgotten the most. If the coaches and parents told their children that the sport works in that manner as opposed to telling them that they are the ones who are the best and will win then there would be more growth for the teams overall and not just a self-centered attitude that is often seen from the players. I understand completely as I have played sports before but it becomes a bit much to expect everything to happen the way it was envisioned in everyone’s mind. The thing that is common within everyone’s mind is that we are going to win this game today which is not bad in itself but when is it ever not about just winning or would that just change the whole perception that comes with sports that they are to win? Sports are supposed to be fun but the competitive aspect of them can make that be diminished or amplified it merely depends of the player of the sport. Sports aren’t meant to be played perfectly but so many see it that way, yes there are rules put into place but in general I think sports should be played to both teach and better the people playing it not all about winning.
