[MicroBob]

I found it to be an interesting article. There are some aspects I agree with...others I didn't. But it did make me think.

Some thoughts/observations:

I think the incidents of downplaying competitivenes in American schools may be exaggerated (although I have no data or evidence for this opinion).
There are many situations I'm sure of where some honor-society student commits suicide because they couldn't deal with the pressure and eventual disappointment of NOT making valedictorian or first-flute in the orchestra, or whatever.

There are many suburbs in America where all you need to do is swing by a little-league soccer or baseball game to draw an opposite conclusion from what Dr. Al represents in the article: That we are actually getting a bit carried-away by our competitiveness and are perhaps pushing our kids to hard.

Seems that the incidents that Dr. Al sited were just exaggerated rebound-responses to some of the over-competitiveness that is out there.

A little balance would be appropriate of course. Fostering SOME degree of competitiveness without going over-board and putting an excessive amount of pressure on our youth.


I feel my background had a fine amount of balance in competitiveness.
I have always been a fairly competitive person even though my parents never really pushed me a whole lot. I simply enjoyed competing.
My Dad taught me to play chess when I was 6 and we played every single night. I was determined to beat him and I eventually did when I was 9. I never got frustrated. I just liked trying to play.
When I would play with my friends it was kind of boring because I was so much better than them and there was no challenge.

Since I was so small growing up I had little chance to succeed too much in physical sports....but I enjoyed the experience of playing as hard as I could...and still do.
I played in a couple of adult-soccer leagues this year...I'm 34 and was trying to run-around and keep up with faster and bigger 25 year-olds (with only marginal success).


I played little-league baseball (I was awful) and my Dad was our coach for a couple of years. We had a competitive drive and succeeded without any pressure. Just go out and have fun and play hard.
But we did whatever it took to win...pulling the 'hidden-ball trick' or telling the umpire that their player should be out because he took his helmet off while the ball was still in play.
you can play hard and be nit-picky about the rules in your efforts to win without enforcing a "if you don't throw a strike your world is going to come to an end" type of mentality.
We had the least amount of talent in the league but finished 8-6. If we lost we were okay....because we put forth a solid effort and played hard.

Later in college...I was an umpire in that same little-league for $8/gm.
For some reason we didn't have any mightmare issues with parents that are common-place elsewhere. The kids played hard and enjoyed themselves. Even the team that was grossly out-manned and lost virtually every game 25-2 before eventually winning their last game of the year I think benefitted from the lessons of little-league baseball.


I worked for a couple of individuals who were die-hard Tennessee football fans. Would drive 7+ hours for every home game, etc.
If Tennessee lost they took it very personally to the extent that they would get extremely depressed. They just took the games WAY too seriously.

I believe I have read of studies that fans who take too much joy or sadness in the results of their pro or college sports team typically have other psychological issues (perhaps including not enough involvement with one's family while growing-up although I can't remember for sure).


Okay - One last little tale...sorry...I know it's long.
Dr. Al's article reminded me of my grade-school gym-teacher (named Richard Simmons....seriously, that was his real name).
We would be playing soccer or basketball or something and Mr. Simmons would wait for the game to be tied...and THEN he would blow his whistle signalling the end of the game and the end of gym-class for the day.
"Final score is 9-9!! It's a tie so EVERYBODY WINS!!"
All of 4th graders were REALLY pissed-off every time he did that. We would call him "Mr. 'Everybody-Wins!!' Simmons" because he did it so much.
15-20 years later I worked with Mr. Simmons for several years in a college-athletics environment (he was no longer a gym teacher) and he was actually just as interested in the results of the home team as the next guy. I think he did the Tie-Score thing for us 4th graders because he saw that we were taking the game TOO seriously.
no real point....just a funny little story that the article reminded me of.