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The negatives of a participation trophy
The negatives of a participation trophy
The negatives of a participation trophy
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Explanation Participation trophies are awards handed out for simply participating in an athletic event or program. These trophies are very common in youth athletics across the country and their effects on children have been debated for years. In many areas around the country, teams hand out thousands of trophies to children, and many of the children will receive more than one particiation trophy (Merryman). Arguments have been formed from both sides of these trophies and researchers have found beneficial and harmful effects on young athletes when given participation trophies. Researchers have found that “when living rooms are filled with participation trophies, it’s part of a larger cultural message: to succeed, you just have to show up” …show more content…
According to a community soccer organization in Southern California, “the American Youth Soccer Organization hands out roughly 3,500 awards each season — each player gets one, while around a third get two” (Merryman). This community also spends up to twelve percent of the athletic budget a year on these types of trophies.
The way this community values awards to children is not beneficial and does not teach them important life lessons. Giving every child a trophy in a community may cause them to underachieve; on the other hand it can also be a motivator to keep some kids active in sports. In sports as well as life there are winners and losers and children have to start understanding that little by little. Participation trophies to an individual may lead them down a good or bad path, but it depends on how the child receives and views the trophy. The trophy can be harmful making it seem like people don’t have to work hard to accomplish anything, which can affect an individual in the future. The participation of sports is important as it can lead to better time management and teach valuable lessons, and participation trophies help children stay active in the sport. Any individual who receives participation trophies can be lead down a path of
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A solution could be improved by only handing out trophies to those who have earned them. There have been many studies to show the harms of participation trophies and how they can affect a child’s future. One study has shown that “if coaches use trophy presentations as a way to acknowledge each player’s unique effort or contribution, that message can be powerful” (Ross), but the fact is that many coaches will not do this and for that reason participation trophies must be banned from youth athletics. When coaches hand out these trophies they are sending the message that they don’t care and just want the children to always be acknowledged as “winners.” Participation trophies have also diminished the value of true awards, and can make the children who have put in the effort and hard work not feel the reward they should. “In the kid’s movie The Incredibles, the evil villain tries to give everybody superpowers. His theory is that if everyone is special, then no one is special” (Krumrie). This is very true in our society and needs to be implemented by regulations and rules to make sure this does not happen. These rules and regulations would be set by athletic associations across the country to ensure the use of participation trophies are not used in sports. The directors will come
Children shouldn't be given participation trophies, this can cause false sense of confidence and it can make them expect to always be a winner in life. This can affect them every day not everyone will nail that job interview or win the game and it will be hard on them not being able to except that they lost or couldn't do it. You don't get paid to just show up at a job, you have to work. You don't win by showing up to the hockey
Our society has shifted its beliefs in how we should treat competition in young people. The question is asked, should all kids get a participation trophy? As it may seem to be an unanswerable question, it honestly isn’t. Thought that the participation trophies may send the message that “coaches” value the kids’ efforts despite their abilities, trophies do not need to be given out. Your words mean just as much when you remind an athlete that you value them in more ways than one. Some may think trophies are a great idea because it shows that everyone’s a “winner.” However, I disagree with that idea. I believe that kids should know that they need to work their hardest in order to be rewarded and understand that not
Handing out participation trophies does not teach kids about the real world. O’Sullivan says, “We reward them for having a parent capable of registering them for a sport.” Participation trophies are for registering and showing up the day they hand out trophies, they are not for hard
...rk, Michael A. "Winning. How Important Is It in Youth Sports?" Youth Sports Institute: Michigan State University.
A participation trophy can help a child's drive to improve. When a child plays a game and loses, but then watches the other team get a trophy they feel that they suck and won't try to improve. Once they get a participation trophy they make the child feel like they did good and that next time if they get better they will get a bigger trophy for winning and not losing. For instance, “Further, studies also tell us that children who participate in sports get better…”(Huffington 1). This exemplifies that children who participate feel the drive to get better at the sport. When inferring that since they participated they are getting an award if makes them feel like they did good, and then they want to get even better to get a better reward. Thus making the kids get better at the sport showing that participation trophies are beneficial to children, but there are more opportunities to show how they are
Some people may argue that if everyone gets a trophy, everyone will be happy. That might be an understandable concern, however, according to people on blog.sportssignup.com, “By acknowledging everyone with the same award we’re actually celebrating no one and even undermining the efforts of those who really deserve to be recognized.” Similarly, it makes the kids who work really hard feel like there efforts were equal or worse than the efforts of those who do not try hard and do not work hard. On the other hand, if everyone gets a trophy than winners are no longer special. Kids should play sports because they enjoy playing them, not because they want a trophy. It is like one of those arcade games at the movie theater, you keep playing until you win. Another way to say this is, sports were made because they wanted to let people have fun and try to compete, but now sports is turning into the concept of everyone is a winner. Kids and adults feel like we are ruining what sports are supposed to be. In summary, many citizens think that kids should not get trophies for participation because only kids who work hard deserve
John Darns worked hard his entire soccer season for his trophy; he attended every practice, went beyond the required off season training, and always left the field knowing he left everything he possessed on there. With grass stains in his shorts and bloody scrapes on his knees, he was finally rewarded with the championship trophy, that beautiful two feet tall golden trophy with a man on top in the middle of kicking what would be a perfect goal. Yes, he wore that orange tiger on his jersey well; he truly deserved that trophy. Yet a few feet away, are The Black Hawks, the team who lost every game the entire season, getting an almost identical trophy for participating in the league. They did not work as hard: they practiced less than half as much as John’s team, and they are rewarded almost equally to make sure everyone feels like a winner. The concept that every child deserves a blue ribbon or a trophy for trying their best plagues generation Y every day of their young lives.
As one evaluates the article, “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” Jessica Statsky explains the dangers of children being involved in competitive sports at a young age. She worries that sports “entice children into physical actions that are bad for growing bodies” (para. 3). She also states that coaches and parents may push their child athletes farther than they want to be pushed. Statsky explains how life lessons may be learned and friendships may be gained through sports, and that winning should not be the most important part of playing. With possible risks of life long injuries, one should support Statsky in her claim that children should learn to play the game, not so much compete.
Once youth athletes get even more trophies, youth athletes just see them as objects that take up space and collect dust. In the article, "The Great Trophy Debate: Do We Need Participation Awards?" The author states that "A trophy or a medal should be a symbol for something earned, not a token of appreciation. " Coaches need to make awards mean something more than just trying.
Participation trophies have become a standard in American society. These “awards” have infiltrated and overtaken the world of youth athletics and other child-based competitions. The competition itself is healthy, but the participation trophies that accompany the contests are weighing the country down. By using the trophies, the country is exposing and compromising the immature generations. The problem lies deep within certain issues that are becoming major threats to society. Participation trophies in youth athletics are improperly advocated by parents, stall maturity and growth, and fail to prepare children for the future. If these issues are not addressed by the leading generations today, the wellbeing of the future country is at risk.
Kids should not get participation trophies because that means that kids are getting praise without doing much to earn it and that won’t help them in life, this will prepare them for what society has to throw at them, and even though people might think they are sentimental, but people will soon just forget about them. Participation trophies are harming our kids because they are teaching our children that in the future, they don’t have to work hard for what they want. According to an article by Vivian Diller, “After studying children's coping and resilience mechanisms for over 40 years, Stanford researcher Carol Dweck states that too much praise may lead to less
Opponents argue that participation trophies are fair solution in youth sports. However, if both teams received a trophy it would not be fair to the winning team. The team that wins is the team that put forth the proper effort in preparing for the game. Children need to learn that they cannot win everything in life, it is impossible to always win. But at the same time, children also need to learn that it is okay to lose at times. Losing is a great too...
Imagine walking into a rec center’s storage closet and thinking you walked into a major athlete’s attic on accident. There are soccer trophies lined on shelves, basketball medals hanging from everywhere they can, miniature football statues packed in open boxes, swimming awards in towers along the walls, and tennis posters taped to every space with enough room to hang on. Ever since the middle of the 20th Century, coaches have been giving out participation trophies to every kid who plays the sport. But trophies should only be given to winners because, trophies don’t mean anything when everyone gets one, trophies cause narcissism, and giving trophies to everyone sends the wrong message.
Todays generation of kids have been crafted to expect praise for everyday tasks and have become entitled all because of something many people thought was harmless, participation trophies. If you ask anyone, they have probably recieved a participation trophy at least once in their life and some will think it was a good thing, but others may beg to differ. In my opinion participation trophies are a bad tool in life because it goes along and is a big part of the we are all winners concept. Trophies should be a symbol of accomplishing something not a symbol of participation in an activity and a few people have written about their opinion about this situation varying from critical writers, to college athletes from around the country here are
Others, such as Parker, make a very interesting point on a child’s self-esteem, but a child needs to learn from their mistakes and learn at a young age that not everything is given to them. This mentality could make them struggle later in life and make them learn the harder way. Getting rid of participation trophies also raise the competitive nature of the sport or activity. When people realize that there is a prize for winning, they will work harder than the people knowing that they won’t get anything out of it. These trophies also don’t mean as much to the children because they know that identical awards sit in the rooms of children all over their town, state, and even more, their country.