At what age should kids be playing to win?

[stui magpie]

One school of thought is that kids should be encouraged to play sport for physical activity and that kids sporting teams should be encouraging that activity as it's own end and not care about winning.

Another is that this works up to a point, but kids are competitive and like to win. If you want to get fit, go for a jog, try playing outside, ride a bicycle, etc. There's plenty of options open for parents to to get their kids to be active.

My personal thought is up to around age 10 it should be about fun and skill development. Participation for it's own sake, get them involved in the atmosphere and surrounds of team sports without worrying about the result.

After age 10, IMHO, reality needs to start kicking in slowly. By all means encourage kids of all sizes, shapes and abilities to participate but there needs to start being a purpose. You play a team sport to win. If the fat or unco kid wants to work on their fitness and skills, that's what you want but to gift them a game on the basis that we need to encourage kids to participate to the detriment of the teams chances to win is missing the point. team sport is about the team, not the individual.

I've left this deliberately open. Thoughts?

[5150]

From day 1 - don't want no loser kids becoming vice captain in whatever sport they play winning best clubman / most improved.

Seriously though, the age for enjoyment is getting lower. I think Jarrad Witts was only 13 or 14 when earmarked by Collingwood.

At the same age most kids are counting their pubes or playing PS3.

[Dave The Man]

With the New Academies coming in. We can get Kids into the Academies at about 13 years old

[think positive]

[Wokko]

How can someone learn how to lose if they never get a chance to win?

[watt price tully]

[ronrat]

8 year olds playing will know the score even if you don't have one. It teaches them maths. In junior cricket they have to retire when when they make say 30 or 50. How are they going to know how to build towards a score if you don't keep count. I like the grading concept though.

[David]

I don't think there's anything wrong with encouraging healthy competition, even amongst little kids. Where you run into problems is if winning becomes the number one goal, not actually enjoying the game. That's where teaching good sportsmanship and encouraging teammates (particularly the ones who may not be so gifted) is so important.

Even at the age of 8 or 9, the idea of playing football without keeping score (as happened at the Auskick I went to) seemed absurd. We knew what the score was.

[pietillidie]

This time I'm playin' to win!

Having no children, I'll be tentative, but I would imagine I would encourage competition especially in areas the child looks like he/she wants to take seriously.

But some things are for relaxation; some things are for the hell of it; some things are hobbies; some things are competitive, and so on, so it would be a horses for courses thing even from a young age, wouldn't it?

But, I take advice in these areas

[think positive]

Good post

Thing is to, without competition, you don't learn to be a good winner, or a good loser, and in life sometimes you lose sometimes you win. Doing both with grace is a great lesson.

[The Prototype]

I don't think there really is an age to start to win, kids will play to win at school, they will play for fun at school and on the sporting field I think its up to the parents to teach them how to handle defeat in life and how to be a gracious winner.

In children's sports I believe that the parensts are more the ones that cause issues during the whole win/loss thing. You can see how competitive they can be and how they act when the coach takes a kid off and replaces them with someone else. Also the drive some parents have to make their kid play a sport sometimes they don't care for etc. I think the best thing to watch on this is Trophy Kids, a documentary on parents living through their kids and pushing them for "greatness" regardless of the kids' feelings, etc.

Teach them to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat and there won't be many issues. As much as we try and take away the playing to win thing from the younger ages of sports, the kids know the score. Just need to educate them on how how to behave and be better sportspeople.

[King Monkey]

It's actually a tricky subject, I've gained more perspective on the matter since assistant coaching the under 9's & 10's the last 2 years and started to coach the under 11's this year.

It's not easy to find the "one-size-fits-all" balance, as there are some kids ready for the competitive nature of team sport at a younger age than others.
That said, I think Stui's ages in the OP are about right as a happy medium.
It gives a couple of seasons for the strugglers to practice and become proficient enough to at least contribute when there is something on the line.
These kids won't kick it to their teammate with no coordination when the result is on the line, but that's not as much of an issue without ladders and premiership points.

The balance that we'll be looking for this season in our under 11's will be a combination of - teamwork, discipline, improving skills, improving game awareness, and of course the 2 things that will be in focus from the other side of the boundary as well - enjoyment and winning!!
Those 2 things, enjoyment and winning, are linked. It's natural to enjoy things more when one is successful.

I was really against the no scoring, no ladders thing as of about 2 years ago, - but can now see some benefits of holding off until about under 11's before encouraging the competitive aspect.
It certainly does hold some of the kids back, but it also helps others get up to speed.

[King Monkey]

[pietillidie]

[think positive]