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Taking Sportsmanship Too Far
Author:
sportsaholic@softwerkz.com
Date:
3/31/2007
With all the writing that I do stating how deplorable the state of youth sports is today. How parents of youth athletes are raising a generation of spoiled, morally deprived children who lack good sportsmanship I started to think that I was being too cynical. Taking it just a bit too far for all of the good that healthy participation in sports brings to our children. BUT, I found an organization that has taken it one step further. In my opinion, a step too far into the simply asinine. A Cincinnati youth baseball league has banned chatter unless it is positive chatter for your own team. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/COL03/703300359/1082/SPT.
Gone will be the days of "We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher." and "Hey battah, battah, battah.". Sure, Major League baseball has a rule (4.06(a)(2)) regarding engaging in using language, but this takes it to a whole new level. At the very youngest of ages (t-ball) this probably makes sense and at the older levels (high-school) this kind of banter doesn't make any sense, but in the ages in between it is part of the game.
There is absolutely no need and no place for anything vulgar or derogatory in this chatter, but banning all chatter doesn't make sense either. Who are we fooling if we think that our kids don't say much worse things to the opposing players during the handshakes after the games or whilest in the midst of playing the game and are in the proximity of the opposing player. My son has told me some of the things that kids have said to him during and after some of the games that he has played in and I have made sure that he understands in no uncertain terms that if I ever find out he has used such language against an opponent that I'd make sure he understood what soap tasted like (figuratively speaking of course).
Not every word that a kid uses is "throw-down" word meant to issue or incite some kind of violence. This is not a question of poor sportsmanship either. We need to teach our children/players/youth athletes what appropriate language and conduct is at all times not just on the playing field and that some banter is just part of the game used to psych the opponent out and that part of their getting better at the game is learning how to filter out all that extra "noise".
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Provided by: Youth Sports Forum
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