If you want to raise the blood pressure and lose the respect of people serious about sports, belittle their passion by telling them, Its just a game”. Then smugly point out that “Its not whether you win or lose that matters most, its how you played the game”.
To those who devote substantial portions of their life to sports as athletes, coaches or administrators these clichés are naïve and offensive. In the world they live in winners are respected while losers get eliminated or unemployed. In fact even youth coaches rate winning so highly that they believe a child would rather sit the bench on a winning team than play for a losing team. Surveys show they are dead wrong. Kids like to win but it’s the adults who need to win.
Winning isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. It’s the grand reward for effort, the golden ring that motivates sacrifice and justifies hard work. Yet too many adults over estimate the importance of victory and underestimate all of the fun and learning that can take place in passionate pursuit of victory.
If we teach our children to love the process more than a result, to find pleasure in competition and play, not merely victory, we give them a lifetime gift of renewable pleasure.
