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Us, as a Nation, is crap at sports. I think that if you look at sport generally, not just Football, but across the whole board, you'll agree with me. If you take into account tennis, golf, rugby, the olympics, cricket, football and all the rest, we're not actually much cop.
And I think I know why that is.
It all stems from our school days. Those legendary words that are said in every school before every sports day. "It's not the winning, it's the taking part."
Utter bollards.
Sports day is like a physical exam. Before a maths GCSE does the invigilator bloke say "Now listen kids, don't worry if you don't know the answers, it's the taking the exam that counts, not the number of marks you get"? Of course he doesn't!
So why are kids told, effectively, not to bother trying their best on sports day? They are basically told, it doesn't matter if you win or if you come last. Hardly going to get them doing their best, is it?
Who cares if the fat boy gets upset because he comes last? He'll probably get top marks in something else anyway, so what's the probelm? No one is going to be good at everything, so why not give those that are good at sports the chance to show it, and then recognise that acheivement.
Before any of you say anything, I was never particularly sporty at school either.
Moving on from that point, why do they give out medals for the top three people at an event? Who wants to celebrate the fact that there are two people better than them? I wouldn't. All or nothing. What's second or third place? There's still someone out there better than you. Why would you want to celebrate that fact?
Getting back on track, I think we need to be more like America (You don't know how difficult it was for me to type that) in regard to our sports. We should encourage a competitve attitude, not suppress one. Encourage kids to try and run faster than their mates, to jump further or whatever.
When we get kids WANTING to win, then we may have a chance of getting somewhere on the world stage when it comes to sporting events.
Thoughts?
And I think I know why that is.
It all stems from our school days. Those legendary words that are said in every school before every sports day. "It's not the winning, it's the taking part."
Utter bollards.
Sports day is like a physical exam. Before a maths GCSE does the invigilator bloke say "Now listen kids, don't worry if you don't know the answers, it's the taking the exam that counts, not the number of marks you get"? Of course he doesn't!
So why are kids told, effectively, not to bother trying their best on sports day? They are basically told, it doesn't matter if you win or if you come last. Hardly going to get them doing their best, is it?
Who cares if the fat boy gets upset because he comes last? He'll probably get top marks in something else anyway, so what's the probelm? No one is going to be good at everything, so why not give those that are good at sports the chance to show it, and then recognise that acheivement.
Before any of you say anything, I was never particularly sporty at school either.
Moving on from that point, why do they give out medals for the top three people at an event? Who wants to celebrate the fact that there are two people better than them? I wouldn't. All or nothing. What's second or third place? There's still someone out there better than you. Why would you want to celebrate that fact?
Getting back on track, I think we need to be more like America (You don't know how difficult it was for me to type that) in regard to our sports. We should encourage a competitve attitude, not suppress one. Encourage kids to try and run faster than their mates, to jump further or whatever.
When we get kids WANTING to win, then we may have a chance of getting somewhere on the world stage when it comes to sporting events.
Thoughts?
Page:
allardini wrote:
> By saying "It's not the winning, it's the taking part" then
> kids like me who are crap at sports just feel worse, and feel that
> sports suck, because the phrase itself is corny.
But sport is about winning though isn't it ? Any team, football, cricket e.t.c. only wants the best players at any level - local to international. Unfortunately, as many of us find out, its rare that everyone at school is superb at sport, if they're on a team and that tema looses many blame them for that defeat. How many times do people go "Ah well good try eh ?" ? Rarely. We all want to win. When we don't win we look for excuses and anything other than our own failings, never mind if we made a maistake ourselves or if the other side was better, we , in our newly found blame culture, want someone to blame, and its usually the kids who are less talented than the rest of us.
Yes the phrase is corney, but so is everything to do with sport ! it's all so old and cliched anyway....yawn :)
~~Belldandy~~
> By saying "It's not the winning, it's the taking part" then
> kids like me who are crap at sports just feel worse, and feel that
> sports suck, because the phrase itself is corny.
But sport is about winning though isn't it ? Any team, football, cricket e.t.c. only wants the best players at any level - local to international. Unfortunately, as many of us find out, its rare that everyone at school is superb at sport, if they're on a team and that tema looses many blame them for that defeat. How many times do people go "Ah well good try eh ?" ? Rarely. We all want to win. When we don't win we look for excuses and anything other than our own failings, never mind if we made a maistake ourselves or if the other side was better, we , in our newly found blame culture, want someone to blame, and its usually the kids who are less talented than the rest of us.
Yes the phrase is corney, but so is everything to do with sport ! it's all so old and cliched anyway....yawn :)
~~Belldandy~~
By saying "It's not the winning, it's the taking part" then kids like me who are crap at sports just feel worse, and feel that sports suck, because the phrase itself is corny.
I think the original post is right in saying that winning is all that counts. It does, taking part is pointless unless you really believe you can win. Look at the England team, as soon as they come back all the sports presenters e.t.c are saying the euqivalent of "Ah yes, well the taking part has given the experience to win the 2006 event" Rubbish ! We lost and thats it.
At school I hated sports and P.E completely because it seemed pointless. The culture in many P.E departments up and down the nation is that if you're english you like football and cricket. Again, rubbish ! I'm was, and still am, rubbish at both because I have no interest in them. They're boring to me. I knew I couldn't really help to win at them so by a combination of things I managed to avoid P.E all the way through the last year it was compulsory to do it. The fact that choice was really limited led to my hatred of nearly all things sporty.
How did it all turn out ? Well at 20 I'm not the thinnest of people, but I did well in all the other school subjects and I've finished the first year of University in the top 5 of my year for exam score average. Most of those who devoted their school time to sport I still see...stacking the shelves across the town's supermarkets and in other desirable jobs.
England may be bad at sport, but I couldn't care less ! :)
~~Belldandy~~
At school I hated sports and P.E completely because it seemed pointless. The culture in many P.E departments up and down the nation is that if you're english you like football and cricket. Again, rubbish ! I'm was, and still am, rubbish at both because I have no interest in them. They're boring to me. I knew I couldn't really help to win at them so by a combination of things I managed to avoid P.E all the way through the last year it was compulsory to do it. The fact that choice was really limited led to my hatred of nearly all things sporty.
How did it all turn out ? Well at 20 I'm not the thinnest of people, but I did well in all the other school subjects and I've finished the first year of University in the top 5 of my year for exam score average. Most of those who devoted their school time to sport I still see...stacking the shelves across the town's supermarkets and in other desirable jobs.
England may be bad at sport, but I couldn't care less ! :)
~~Belldandy~~
Thing is, our population isn't actaully that low.
In 2001 we had 59,647,790 in our country, and are ranked 20th in the world, if you go by population. Here's the top 20:
Countries Ranked by Population: 2001
--------------------------------------------------------
Rank Country Population
--------------------------------------------------------
1 China 1,273,111,290
2 India 1,029,991,145
3 United States 278,058,881
4 Indonesia 228,437,870
5 Brazil 174,468,575
6 Russia 145,470,197
7 Pakistan 144,616,639
8 Bangladesh 131,269,860
9 Japan 126,771,662
10 Nigeria 126,635,626
11 Mexico 101,879,171
12 Germany 83,029,536
13 Philippines 82,841,518
14 Vietnam 79,939,014
15 Egypt 69,536,644
16 Turkey 66,493,970
17 Iran 66,128,965
18 Ethiopia 65,891,874
19 Thailand 61,797,751
20 United Kingdom 59,647,790
Some pretty major countries are below us. France, Italy, Argentina, Canada, Austrailia (with only 19million people).
Go here:
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbrank.html
for the full list. Just put in which ever year you want to look at.
In 2001 we had 59,647,790 in our country, and are ranked 20th in the world, if you go by population. Here's the top 20:
Countries Ranked by Population: 2001
--------------------------------------------------------
Rank Country Population
--------------------------------------------------------
1 China 1,273,111,290
2 India 1,029,991,145
3 United States 278,058,881
4 Indonesia 228,437,870
5 Brazil 174,468,575
6 Russia 145,470,197
7 Pakistan 144,616,639
8 Bangladesh 131,269,860
9 Japan 126,771,662
10 Nigeria 126,635,626
11 Mexico 101,879,171
12 Germany 83,029,536
13 Philippines 82,841,518
14 Vietnam 79,939,014
15 Egypt 69,536,644
16 Turkey 66,493,970
17 Iran 66,128,965
18 Ethiopia 65,891,874
19 Thailand 61,797,751
20 United Kingdom 59,647,790
Some pretty major countries are below us. France, Italy, Argentina, Canada, Austrailia (with only 19million people).
Go here:
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbrank.html
for the full list. Just put in which ever year you want to look at.
In my view one of the most important factors of why we seem to *Struggle* at sports is because of money.
At the moment im trying to get myself into Tennis a little more because i believe i have a talent, but one of the problems i have come across is that for all the gear, paying for tournaments etc is a hell of a lot of money. I like to think of myself as pretty well off, my family has 3 cars, we live in a 5 bedroom house and generally are well off, and yet we struggle to pay for all of this. I'd hate to think how the less fortunate families cope on the money side of things.
Secondly, in direct response to your main point, you say that we dont tell our kids to WIN. Well they do that at my school, and pretty much everyone does'nt give a crud anymore because they push us too far.
And as Dr.Duck for a small country we do, do quite well at sports. We have a world number 4 in tennis. We are ranked 8th in the world at footie, We have a top ten golfer, 5th best cricket team in the world, arguably the best rugby side in the world. For a country with a low population that is pretty damn good dont you think?
At the moment im trying to get myself into Tennis a little more because i believe i have a talent, but one of the problems i have come across is that for all the gear, paying for tournaments etc is a hell of a lot of money. I like to think of myself as pretty well off, my family has 3 cars, we live in a 5 bedroom house and generally are well off, and yet we struggle to pay for all of this. I'd hate to think how the less fortunate families cope on the money side of things.
Secondly, in direct response to your main point, you say that we dont tell our kids to WIN. Well they do that at my school, and pretty much everyone does'nt give a crud anymore because they push us too far.
And as Dr.Duck for a small country we do, do quite well at sports. We have a world number 4 in tennis. We are ranked 8th in the world at footie, We have a top ten golfer, 5th best cricket team in the world, arguably the best rugby side in the world. For a country with a low population that is pretty damn good dont you think?
Hmm...
For the majority of kids, how well they do academically will determine the nature of the rest of their working lives, at least to a pretty large extent.
How good at sport they are.. well, it no doubt brings health benefits and the like, but for that you don't have to go into it with a win or nothing attitude anyway. A bit of exercise is all it takes.
Kids already place a lot of importance on sporting ability - having been crap at football in primary school (and high school for that matter :O) ), i've seen one side of it. And being crap made me pretty unhappy too.
Do we really want to place even more importance on sporting achievement for young children? When you can't live up to it, it is tough.
And what would it achieve? We sell out our kids' happyness in return for a few more gold medals and if we're lucky, a world cup now and again.
We're a relatively small country. Everyone always has high expectations every time a major international competition comes around, but we are just a small country, selecting the best sportsmen of a small group. In that respect, i think we do reasonably well.
Maybe i've over-estimated the cost of pushing children harder. And perhaps there are other scenarios where competetiveness should be nurtured.
But that's my opinion.
For the majority of kids, how well they do academically will determine the nature of the rest of their working lives, at least to a pretty large extent.
How good at sport they are.. well, it no doubt brings health benefits and the like, but for that you don't have to go into it with a win or nothing attitude anyway. A bit of exercise is all it takes.
Kids already place a lot of importance on sporting ability - having been crap at football in primary school (and high school for that matter :O) ), i've seen one side of it. And being crap made me pretty unhappy too.
Do we really want to place even more importance on sporting achievement for young children? When you can't live up to it, it is tough.
And what would it achieve? We sell out our kids' happyness in return for a few more gold medals and if we're lucky, a world cup now and again.
We're a relatively small country. Everyone always has high expectations every time a major international competition comes around, but we are just a small country, selecting the best sportsmen of a small group. In that respect, i think we do reasonably well.
Maybe i've over-estimated the cost of pushing children harder. And perhaps there are other scenarios where competetiveness should be nurtured.
But that's my opinion.
Next you'll be saying we need Fat Camp.
Heheh, Fat Bloke from Pop Idol at Fat Camp...
Heheh, Fat Bloke from Pop Idol at Fat Camp...
Us, as a Nation, is crap at sports. I think that if you look at sport generally, not just Football, but across the whole board, you'll agree with me. If you take into account tennis, golf, rugby, the olympics, cricket, football and all the rest, we're not actually much cop.
And I think I know why that is.
It all stems from our school days. Those legendary words that are said in every school before every sports day. "It's not the winning, it's the taking part."
Utter bollards.
Sports day is like a physical exam. Before a maths GCSE does the invigilator bloke say "Now listen kids, don't worry if you don't know the answers, it's the taking the exam that counts, not the number of marks you get"? Of course he doesn't!
So why are kids told, effectively, not to bother trying their best on sports day? They are basically told, it doesn't matter if you win or if you come last. Hardly going to get them doing their best, is it?
Who cares if the fat boy gets upset because he comes last? He'll probably get top marks in something else anyway, so what's the probelm? No one is going to be good at everything, so why not give those that are good at sports the chance to show it, and then recognise that acheivement.
Before any of you say anything, I was never particularly sporty at school either.
Moving on from that point, why do they give out medals for the top three people at an event? Who wants to celebrate the fact that there are two people better than them? I wouldn't. All or nothing. What's second or third place? There's still someone out there better than you. Why would you want to celebrate that fact?
Getting back on track, I think we need to be more like America (You don't know how difficult it was for me to type that) in regard to our sports. We should encourage a competitve attitude, not suppress one. Encourage kids to try and run faster than their mates, to jump further or whatever.
When we get kids WANTING to win, then we may have a chance of getting somewhere on the world stage when it comes to sporting events.
Thoughts?
And I think I know why that is.
It all stems from our school days. Those legendary words that are said in every school before every sports day. "It's not the winning, it's the taking part."
Utter bollards.
Sports day is like a physical exam. Before a maths GCSE does the invigilator bloke say "Now listen kids, don't worry if you don't know the answers, it's the taking the exam that counts, not the number of marks you get"? Of course he doesn't!
So why are kids told, effectively, not to bother trying their best on sports day? They are basically told, it doesn't matter if you win or if you come last. Hardly going to get them doing their best, is it?
Who cares if the fat boy gets upset because he comes last? He'll probably get top marks in something else anyway, so what's the probelm? No one is going to be good at everything, so why not give those that are good at sports the chance to show it, and then recognise that acheivement.
Before any of you say anything, I was never particularly sporty at school either.
Moving on from that point, why do they give out medals for the top three people at an event? Who wants to celebrate the fact that there are two people better than them? I wouldn't. All or nothing. What's second or third place? There's still someone out there better than you. Why would you want to celebrate that fact?
Getting back on track, I think we need to be more like America (You don't know how difficult it was for me to type that) in regard to our sports. We should encourage a competitve attitude, not suppress one. Encourage kids to try and run faster than their mates, to jump further or whatever.
When we get kids WANTING to win, then we may have a chance of getting somewhere on the world stage when it comes to sporting events.
Thoughts?
Page: