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I've been mulling over a Junior All-American football game from years ago. I watched as the 7- and 8-year-old boys gathered attentively around the coach for a pre-game pep talk. "You've got to get mad and kill those guys!" the coach shouted. "It's the only way we'll win!" The boys glanced at each other, shrugging their shoulders. These boys had little for which to get mad; obviously, the coach was more driven than his team. Later, a fistfight broke out among the parents in the crowd. These parents and coaches were coming into the sport of pee-wee football with false expectations about the level of combat on the field while ignoring the players' need to simply enjoy being a part. The competitive pressure was all from above, and the boys just shrugged it off. Fast-forward five years: The ranks of those football players have thinned out, leaving mostly experienced 12- and 13-year-olds. The crowds have thinned out too, with the more assault-oriented parents escorted off the field long ago. The boys, while still enjoying the team dynamic, are now old enough to be driven to win by their own expectations of achievement. They get mad, they hit, they win, because they want to stand out as individual athletes. If you're like me, knowledgeable about sports but not child development, you might find this confusing. I thought little children came out of the box wanting to throw touchdowns and be the team hero. Which is more important to youthful athletes, the fun of learning a sport as a team, or the individual drive to achieve and win? If they're both important, when does the emphasis shift from one to the other? Playing to learn or playing to win: Parents should know Somewhere around a player's 10th birthday, a change takes place in most youth team sports. The "everybody plays, it doesn't matter who wins" philosophy that your 6-year-old learned in one of the last areas of simple fun and games - the Under-6 AYSO leagues - gives way to the "earn your playing time based on skill, because we want first place" philosophy. Parents and athletes should be prepared for these impending changes. It can easily become a painful time, a major disappointment for the young athlete who is fair in skill, and therefore undervalued for his effort. There are clear lines of demarcation between play-for-fun and play-to-win leagues. Keen competition ebbs and flows in baseball and softball, whether it is in-season games or off-season leagues. In soccer, Plus leagues that offer highly qualified coaches and serious tournament play have emerged over the past decade. Club and all-star leagues also are built around the play-to-win, pressure-is-on philosophy. On the other hand, recreational leagues often state in their rulebooks that every player must be on the field at some point in the game for a minimum amount of time. In some under-10 soccer leagues, no winners or losers are declared, and no team standings are kept. There are good reasons not to pressure younger children to focus on the final score of a game, just as there are good reasons to let older kids go for the win. If you put the pressure to win on too early, like the overeager football coach mentioned above, you risk alienating children from the very sports that you want them to enjoy. The kids also might miss out on the team bonding experience that brings players back again the next year. The who-cares-who-wins philosophy can be key to early player development, according to Coach Charlie Cochrane of Mission Viejo. He has 10 years of coaching experience. Three years ago, when I interviewed him for an article on "no standings" soccer, Charlie told me, "When no one is keeping standings, the coach is free to try different strategies and move the players around." This way, young athletes can learn different positions and skills without fearing that they will be faulted for losing a game, and coaches get a break from the parental expectations of a favorable win-loss record. But, in later years, these games can be painful to watch for players, coaches and parents who want a successful team, not just a chummy one. Now that his daughter is 10 and playing on a Plus team, Cochrane says, "It's a different ballgame. She can still enjoy playing soccer, but all the kids on the team are serious." (Even her recreational team was serious enough to make it to the championship game this year.) The coach's role becomes more strategic than developmental, he says. "Instead of coaching to the lowest common denominator, you coach to the highest level player on the team, and let the other kids catch up." Sports stages and ages Sports psychologists have clearly mapped out the ages and stages for developmental team play versus individual accomplishment. A well-regarded book that touches on the psychology of youth sports is "Adolescent Development" by Elizabeth B. Hurlock. Hurlock proposes several developmental stages for children and sports: Infancy (0 to 3 years) is the time for simple, repetitive, self-centered play, not organized sports. Childhood (3 to 6 years) is when kids start to exhibit more complex and imaginative types of play that incorporate elements of sports, such as swinging a bat or kicking a ball, but the organizational and rules-oriented aspects of most team sports are a little much for children to master. Youth (6 to 11 years) is the stage where participants tend to prefer team games with a low level of organization and moderate competition. This is the perfect time to introduce the who-cares-if-we-win, let's-just-be-a-team philosophy. Talent should be divided equally among teams. Coaches and parents should be told that winning is not the goal; instead, the focus is on skills development. "No standings" works well here. Adolescence (12 to 21 years) according to Hurlock, is when youth athletes begin to prefer competitiveness. Sports skills have developed; the adolescents have seen that rewards exist for mastering those skills. They no longer want everyone to win and nobody to lose; they want to show that, with what they've learned and the skills they've acquired, they can come out on top. However, when Hurlock lumps all adolescents and teens into a category that spans nine years, she might be over-generalizing. The years 11 through 13 are a crucial transitional stage, according to an article titled "The Youth Sports Experience" by Dr. Merlin Bicking. Bicking, writing as a sports parent and coach, maintains that in terms of cognitive, skill, and motivational levels, this is perhaps the most important age, and the most difficult. "Children don't develop from fun-oriented to competitive over the summer. There must be a gradual change during these three years from the fun to competitive stage." One way to do this, according to Bicking, is to continue to rotate players between teams, and positions on each team, as much as possible. Peak performance After a player's 10th birthday, and once a sports skill set is established, the emphasis begins the shift to winning and motivating individual athletes to peak performances. For example, the level of competition in Orange County softball heats up quickly after age 10. By the high school and college level, local teams are producing some of the finest softball players in the country. Witness the predominance of local softballers in the College World Series, as well as the players from Tustin, Anaheim Hills and Irvine on the 2003 USA Softball Women's National Team. Coach Dennis Hlozek is an Orange County parent who has taken his son's teams to championships in the past, coached all-star teams, and this year coached his daughter's softball team to a first-place finish. Coach Hlozek says that by ages 10 or 11, "if leagues, no matter what the sport, have no-winner games only, the kids who have the desire to compete will quit and look for more competitive sports or leagues...If it is done properly, playing to win is not a bad thing." Serious competition also makes the games more interesting by showcasing individual performers. Dennis's daughter Valerie plays Club soccer and all-star softball. Now, at 11 years old, she is setting her sights on higher levels of sports achievement. "She's very competitive, and as a result, she's always very proud to finish first. Valerie plans on playing professional soccer for the San Diego Spirit and playing softball at UCLA." Even at higher levels of individual performance, the team ideal helps relieve the pressure and provide inspiration. Dennis's son has moved on from team sports to surfing, but the team ethic apparently draws him back: "He is on the varsity surf team at Tesoro High School. The more I learn from him about the sport, the more I appreciate how it is very similar to all sports." Despite the pressure to perform, being a member of a close-knit sports team helps set up a lifetime of enjoyment. Individuals step up to the plate Once skills are established, the competitive players naturally want to leverage their abilities into a successful win-loss record. This is where a dichotomy seems to emerge. There is no "I" in Team, but the letter "I" is featured in other choice words such as Win, Champion, and First. When the pressure to win is on, can you have both a close team and individual superstars, or are they mutually exclusive? Individual performances often make or break a particular game. Even with the force of collective will, there seems no way that a team can assist a lone batter in swinging and hitting the ball. And certain positions, such as the point guard in basketball, the quarterback in football, or the pitcher in baseball or softball, naturally carry more of the fate of the team in their hands. Courtney Brown is an 11-year-old all-star pitcher in a South County softball league. She knows about the pressure to win games that can rest on an individual's shoulders. But she wouldn't trade the pitcher's mound for a less-involved position. "I like being the pitcher, because everyone looks up to you." Her individual performance is important to her, but when she needs support, she looks to the others on the team. "Team unity is still important. That, and just having fun." Lauryn Guthrie is an 11-year-old power hitter and catcher who plays in a competitive fall-ball league. Lauryn knows that a win or a loss can hinge on a single at-bat, but she maintains a healthy attitude that helps her deal with the pressure. Lauryn says that when she's at the plate, "I get confident, and say to myself, 'I'm going to hit this one.' But, if I get out, it's fine because we'll get up again." Lauryn keeps her cool by maintaining a team perspective: "I like to win, but you don't have to win to have fun. I want my effort to be strong, but team effort is more important than just thinking about yourself." So, a supportive team can take the edge off of the expectations of individual performance. Even in the teen years and beyond, there is still room for players and coaches to experience one of the great pleasures in sports - seeing a team of individuals become something greater than the sum of their parts. Team spark can turn into a flame Many championships include magical moments when every player is swept up in the enthusiasm of the group, and everyone somehow delivers beyond expectations. Coach Dave Weyrick has coached girls' fastpitch softball for the past six years. He just returned from the Triple Crown World Series in Park City, Utah, where his oldest daughter and her 16-and-under team played. Weyrick focuses on getting his Orange County recreational softball teams to win or lose as a unit. His suggestion: "I post the positions and batting order in the dugout for everyone to see. I rotate the players so that everyone gets involved. No one sits out twice until everybody has sat out once." He takes delight in the results. "When the kids know that they will get to play and the rotation is fair, everyone gets fired up. There is a spark in the dugout. We've won games that we had no business winning because of that team spark." He also coaches in a competitive offseason league, where he has to make some tradeoffs in the everybody-plays philosophy. "In the more competitive tournaments, I have to position players where I think they will give us the best chance to win." But, "there are also scrimmages and warm-up competitions (where) I stick to the everybody plays and no-one-sits-twice approach." To keep team spirit going, according to Weyrick, "the key is to communicate openly to the players, in advance, exactly what their roles will be." In major league baseball, the spotlight seems to shine on players like Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, who can change the outcome of a game with a couple of swings. Yet last year's champion, the Angels, seem to exemplify team spirit in a league dominated by superstar individuals. Best of both worlds In any team sport, it seems, the best individual superstars are the ones who work with the entire team. Shawn Killian, director of the Planet Hockey Ranch in Salida, Colo., gave me one good example. "Wayne Gretzky's deadliest weapon was his unmatched ability to work with his teammates. Players who do not continually look to advance the puck to a teammate tend to be players who lack fundamental skating and puck control skills." Not every team can come together under pressure, and set aside personal goals to contribute to the team's success. The coach can encourage team spirit, but not force it. But when it happens, it creates memories that remain after the win-loss record is forgotten. One of the first questions that a parent should ask before signing up a pre-teen for any team sport, is "Does my child need to develop skills? Is there an everybody-plays rule and a focus on player development? Or, does the coach expect an established level of playing skill, so the team can go for a first-place finish?" After the early years, a steady upward progression of competition and an increasing expectation of individual performance is normal. Just don't put the pressure to win on too early. Instead, emphasize the joy of teamwork. In later years, when players are ready to show their stuff as individuals, but still need emotional support, they'll turn to that team ideal that they learned at 6 and 7. David Kries of Mission Viejo writes about families, sports and computers for several regional publications. To reach him: davidkries@cox.net. |
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