We either have a competition problem or a pain problem with our young athletes, maybe both.
In my discussion with high school coaches, it’s become a refrain: Our student athletes either don’t want to compete, or they don’t want competition to hurt, or they don’t want to work so hard. They want to participate, and they want to feel good.
This is a problem, in my book anyway.
I recently asked the track coach what happened to the school’s runners in middle and long distances. He told me he couldn’t get student athletes interested in competing in those events, particularly girls.
Thinking about my own experience as a runner, I had to laugh. On the first day of high school gym class, the entire class had to run about two miles. The gym teacher approached those of us who hadn’t stopped along the way or weren’t fainting from exhaustion. He said: “You’re on the cross-country team.”
And so I was.
I also went out for the track team, but I didn’t have much speed or endurance. But I had a little bit of grit. So the coach looked at me and said, “You’re our hurdler.”
And so I was.
We didn’t get much choice in our decisions growing up. But the bigger point is we were raised to not fear a challenge.
I grew up with three brothers in the 1960s. We played a neighborhood game called “Kill the Carrier” (also sometimes called “Smear the Queer.”) The point of the game – if you could call it that – was to run with a football until about 10 other kids jumped on top of you and tore the ball out of your hands. Then the rest of us chased the kid who took the ball, tackled on him, and tore the ball out of his hands.
We’d play until we were too sore or tired to move anymore. As senseless as this game was, it taught a lesson we also learned in every other sport we played – that competition and experience of pain are what sports are about, and they’re what make sports rewarding.
The better you were at enduring pain and embracing competition, the better you did at sports.
I’m not sure how we lost sight of those lessons as we raised the next generation. Maybe it was the advent of soccer, which didn’t involve as much rough and tumble. Maybe it was the advent of the “participation trophy.” But we’ve apparently lost sight of some important values.
Sports are important because we are physical beings. We were built to use our bodies, and we’re unhealthy when we don’t. In an increasingly sedentary society, sports are critical for keeping our wits sharp and our attitudes positive. Competitive sports also teach us to be disciplined and dedicated, to work hard and to push ourselves.
That’s why we include sports in our school curriculum.
Sports without effort, without pain or real competition, are of limited value. That’s what is troubling about what our coaches are seeing.
What can we do about it?
First, let’s acknowledge we have a problem.
Secondly, let’s incorporate competition in school lessons – from the spelling bee to the honor roll to gym class. We needn’t attach glory winning or shame to losing. We need to teach that competing can be fun, and that sportsmanship is important.
Thirdly, let’s look at creating a summer sports camp in Haines for girls, a place to teach our young women that pushing hard and having fun aren’t opposing ideas. For our young women to thrive in the world, they will need to compete. They will have to endure types of pain.
Life can be hard. If we’re preparing our children for the world, we must teach them to have a certain amount of toughness. Sports should teach those lessons.