In Amerika You Are Punished for being Successful

[CanuckInUSA 0]

When I was a kid around 9 years old I played on a hockey team that won games and lost games. One day we traveled to another part of the city to play an exhibition game against another team. I just assumed this game would be like the rest (what did I know I was just a kid). This other team beat my team 9-0 and I was devastated. It wasn't the first time we lost a game, but it was the first time we got dominated as badly as we were. Guess what? I got over it. Losing 9-0 never left any permanent scars. I also played on some football teams, but in this case I came from an area of the city that was known to produce good players (mainly because we had good coaches) and I was on the winning end of many 72-0 games. Oh winning is so much better than losing, but lessons are learned faster when some losses are thrown into the mix. There is nothing wrong with losing if you can learn something from the experience. Society is definitely getting softer when it comes to shielding kids from losing. Whoever told you life would be easy was clearly lying to you.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[popsjumper 2]

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>In college I made 38% on a test and got an A. I was embarrassed as hell.

I had a class like that - signals and systems. I'd get 50% on a test and get a B. Invariably Amazing Rob would get a 96 or something. I also learned a tremendous amount.

>I took my paper to the prof and gave it back to him saying, "Thanks for the A but you
>haven't taught me a damned thing and this paper proves that I didn't learn a damned
>thing."

Hmm. Should they have dumbed down the test so people could get higher grades?

Of course not!
Every idiot in the class should have gotten an F.

I won't get it started about quality of instruction.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[kallend 2,027]

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11-year-old football star told not to score too many touchdowns

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Demias Jimerson of Malvern, Ark., is 11 years old — and he’s so good at football that “he’s going to score almost every time he touches the ball,” according to his intermediate school principal, Terri Bryant.

In other words, he’s so good he must be stopped. Because Jimerson runs circles around the other kids on the field, Bryant has decided he’s not allowed to score more than three touchdowns, provided his team has at least a 14-point lead.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/29/11-year-old-football-star-told-not-to-score-too-many-touchdowns/

Not vetted yet but sounds about right.

Most of the arguments made in this thread are just stupid. The better team still won, the sucky team still lost. No "PUNISHMENT" was involved, and maybe a lesson in good sportsmanship was learned.

I see running up the score as not a whole lot different than continuing to hit an opponent in a boxing match who is down on the canvas.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[champu 1]

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Being physically strong and being a good ball player are two seperate attributes.

Yeah, but when you're 11 the two are more closely linked than when you're 21. Kids grow up at different speeds and I would imagine the prevalence of stand-out athletes is highest around that age.

I watched the video and the kid is not "Mongo" just stepping over opponents or anything, but I would agree that letting him play with the next grade would probably challenge him more, and be good for both him and his classmates.

It's not too dissimilar to letting kids take math classes of the next grade or two above theirs if they excel at it.

[billvon 2,991]

>Of course not!
>Every idiot in the class should have gotten an F.

Should all of us (except Amazing Rob of course) gotten an F?

[DaVinci 0]

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but one question -- is it OK for a winning team to put in their second-stringers, or should they continue to try to kick the shit out of the losing team

The coach should decide if he wants to play the 2nd string. It would be a smart move, but it should not be mandated by someone else.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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Being physically strong and being a good ball player are two seperate attributes.

Yeah, but when you're 11 the two are more closely linked than when you're 21. Kids grow up at different speeds and I would imagine the prevalence of stand-out athletes is highest around that age.

I watched the video and the kid is not "Mongo" just stepping over opponents or anything, but I would agree that letting him play with the next grade would probably challenge him more, and be good for both him and his classmates.

It's not too dissimilar to letting kids take math classes of the next grade or two above theirs if they excel at it.

Yup. When I was a kid all the kids in one age class (peewee, bantam etc) would compete to be the "rep" team to travel to other towns and play the other "rep" teams. When they weren't traveling they played league in the next age class up.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

It is a good thing Rugby is not all that popular in Amerika. Unlike American Football where the team who scores kicks the ball off, in Rugby the team who is scored against must kick the ball off back to the scoring team. In a possession sport such as Rugby, it is possible for the inferior team to never really touch the ball. It was not easy watching New Zealand destroy Canada 79-15 the other night in World Cup play. But one needs to remember Canada kept on having to give the ball back to New Zealand after the All Blacks kept on scoring with their superior play. Definitely not a sport for the "Leave no child behind, everyone is a winner" crowd.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[captain_stan 0]

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Being physically strong and being a good ball player are two seperate attributes.

I watched the video and the kid is not "Mongo"

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Kids need to learn that losing is ok and that you're not always going to succeed at everything. Teach them that if they want to succeed, they need to work harder and practice. They don't need to be taught that when you're not good at something that everyone will come down to your level so things are even. That just doesn't happen in life. You don't get better by competing against people who are worse than you. You get better by challenging yourself.

+1

Whoever told you life would be easy, was clearly lying to you.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[billvon 2,991]

>The coach should decide if he wants to play the 2nd string. It would be a smart move . . .

WHAT? Not giving it the best shot you have with the best team you have? For shame! No wonder America is going down the toilet with attitudes like that!

[DaVinci 0]

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>The coach should decide if he wants to play the 2nd string. It would be a smart move . . .

WHAT? Not giving it the best shot you have with the best team you have? For shame! No wonder America is going down the toilet with attitudes like that!

You clearly know nothing about team sports. Or being a coach for team sports.

[billvon 2,991]

>You clearly know nothing about team sports.

That was sarcasm. Of COURSE teams use second strings, especially when they are doing really well. It gives their players a break and gets the second string some practice.

Of course, this flies in the face of the "don't punish people who are winning!" thing. Coaches do in fact pull out people who are winning to give others a shot - just as this school did.

[kallend 2,027]

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>The coach should decide if he wants to play the 2nd string. It would be a smart move . . .

WHAT? Not giving it the best shot you have with the best team you have? For shame! No wonder America is going down the toilet with attitudes like that!

You clearly know nothing about team sports. Or being a coach for team sports.

It seems you do not know much about pro-football then, Mr. Anonymous. 2nd string players are often put in when a team is way ahead.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.