Take me out to the Ball Game

This article from 2008 seems almost quaint in the current youth sport environment. It does ask what is many times posed as the big ticket debatable question, "Does involvement in sports promote character or produce characters".

This goes back to the quote from sportswriter Heywood Hale Broun:
"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."  

If that is the case, it seems like we are spending a lot of time as coaches and sports administrators attempting to jam square pegs into round holes. Maybe that is the most maddening part of the problem.

from vision.org
http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/article.aspx?id=4710

Society & Culture 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

March 11, 2008

Early seasonal sightings in North America of the blue-beaked shortstop and the red-breasted right fielder foretell of flocks sure to follow. As winter gives way to spring, town parks and area playing fields will sprout youth sport programs—a bevy of brightly-colored, budding ball players eager to strut their stuff.  

Laden with lawn chairs, picnic baskets and pets, proud parents leave their nests to assemble and enjoy the adorable exuberance and athletic exploits of their offspring. The cheerful scene of children at play in a safe and well-supervised setting is a delight to behold and a credit to communities that care for their fledging citizens. 

For many moms and dads, going out to the ball game is a welcome diversion from daily duties, a time of wholesome family fun in hometown America. If you buy them some peanuts and cracker jacks, they won’t care if they ever go back to the harried pace and hectic regimen of routine responsibilities.


In the Big-Inning

Early in the 20th century social agencies like the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) began sponsoring sports and structured recreational activities, ostensibly designed to keep boys out of trouble. 

In 1938 an oil company clerk named Carl Stotz had an idea for an organized baseball league for the boys in his hometown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. With some help from family and friends, the first official Little League game was played on June 6, 1939.  Over the past six decades, Little League Baseball has become the world’s largest organized youth sports program with over 180,000 teams in all 50 U.S. states and 80 different countries. 

Little League Baseball describes its mission, unchanged since 1939, as being to: “provide a wholesome, healthy activity for children using the ball field as a classroom, to instill discipline, teamwork, sportsmanship and fair play, and to establish a set of values to guide them into adulthood, and hopefully responsible citizenship. These are the reasons Carl Stotz founded the program, and they are the reasons it exists today.” 

Since the middle of the 20th century, adult-organized athletic activities for youth have grown dramatically. The view that these programs convey values, and cultivate character has been generally accepted in American culture. 

A 2001 National Council of Youth Sports report indicates that 63 percent of boys and 37 percent of girls in America participate in an organized youth sports program for an average of five years. Over 38 million children participate in structured sports programs annually.

It’s Only a Game, Isn’t It?

Why do parents continue to register their kids in record numbers? Is it all fun and games?  Or is there an expected return on their investment of time and money? At a time when warnings of childhood obesity abound, the obvious benefits of additional activity and exercise are attractive. Some have fond memories of their own childhood experiences and wish the same for their kids. Others express hope that physical abilities learned through structured play with peers will foster confidence and enhance social skills, teamwork, cooperation and the ability to deal with disappointment.


But are we asking too much of sports and extracurricular activities? Is it reasonable to expect fields to function as classrooms of character? If we claim that sports can assist in building character, must we concede that if abused they can damage and destroy character? 

By nature, competitive sports involve determined effort and emotional intensity. It is this inherent pressure to push oneself to perform that attracts some parents to enroll their kids in these activities. They anticipate that the discipline demanded by competition will promote physical and mental toughness, produce character and prepare children for the rigors of life.


But does competition promote Character or produce characters?

Daniel E. Doyle, Jr. is founder and executive director of the Institute of International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. Widely-acclaimed institute initiatives include National Sportsmanship Day, The World Scholar-Athlete Games, and the Center for Sports Parenting. Doyle holds a master of arts degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has addressed sports ethics with student athletes for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on over 100 college campuses and has received two honorary doctorates for his work in sports education. 

Doyle recently discussed the relationship between sports and character with Vision. When asked if competitive sports can deliver the much-desired benefit of building character in children, he replied: “Sports can teach traits that transfer into skill for success in life, but athletic prowess alone is not a guaranteed path to good life choices.” 

In his recently released book, The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting, the first in a three-volume series that can serve parents as a comprehensive guide for navigating the youth sports scene from novice to the NCAA, Doyle declares: “As a youngster playing sports in Worcester, Massachusetts, it was common to hear a well-meaning coach say, ‘If you’re a success on the court, you’ll be a success in life.’ This is not necessarily true!” 

“For those unable to transfer athletic excellence to other undertakings, there seemed to be a revealing common denominator: their success as young athletes had given them a false, even delusional sense of self-importance. For many, athletic success was accompanied by the passivity and even complicity of parents, coaches or teachers who permitted the young stars to take shortcuts and neglect their academic and character development.  When parents encourage balance and perspective, sports can have a wonderful impact on a child. Without such balance and perspective, sports can produce detrimental, sometimes devastating consequences.” 

Sadly, a lack of perspective causes some to perceive the young player’s rite of passage as the first encounter with the formidable forces that determine winners and losers in the game of life. To these folks this is more than mere child’s play. Their offspring’s identity, and no doubt their own, is at stake.


Cheers, Jeers, Tears and Fears!

Unfortunately, all is not fun and games in Norman Rockwell’s America. Social commentators continue to express concern about the coarsening of contemporary culture. That trend reveals itself as a lack of sportsmanship by coaches, athletes and spectators at sporting events. Although unsportsmanlike conduct is not new, it does seem that appropriate standards of behavior were less ambiguous to previous generations.  

Why do we tolerate trash-talking, taunting and baiting of opponents by young athletes? Are we unwittingly acquiescing to an adversarial “in your face” attitude? Emboldened by the cover of the crowd, some fans revel in hurling crude comments and abusive attempts at humor toward players, officials and each other. 

Ironically, some adults expect organized sports to help develop good character in their children while they themselves demonstrate insidious incivility and lack of self-control on the sidelines. Are they unaware that their crass conduct undermines the credibility of the claim that sports competition is a classroom for responsible citizenship? 

Is good sportsmanship becoming an endangered ethic of a bygone era? 

Doyle believes that balance and perspective come from constructing a values-based sports parenting philosophy. He advises parents to adopt an anchors/aspirations approach to child rearing. 

“My anchor/aspiration approach to child rearing is simple. It proposes that aspirational goals such as excellence in sports or the arts are wonderful—they ennoble our lives. But the aspirations must be fortified by two anchors—character development and training the mind—or serious problems can develop. The objective is not to suppress a child’s desire to excel but rather to support the desire by making sure that the two anchors are safely moored. Failure to demand consistent effort toward achieving proficiency in the anchor qualities is very detrimental to a youngster’s long-term development. Aspirational sports goals should never be mistaken as substitutes for, or interchangeable with, the anchor values.”

The Honorable Competitor

Can opponents clash in a competitive contest and demonstrate mutual respect while challenging one another to be and do their best? Doyle suggests that they can indeed if they are taught the true meaning of honorable competition.

“Teach your young athlete that the word competition comes from the Latin word competere, which means to strive together, not against each other. Respect is an important part of this concept. Impress upon your young athlete that the honorable competitor respects opponents and, when an opponent tries hard and plays fairly, one often ends up both respecting and admiring the opponent.” 

If we want sports and extracurricular activities to contribute to the good character of our children, then we must have a predetermined values-based parenting philosophy that we require our children adhere to both on and off the field. Doyle emphasizes, “Parents should punish their children for unsportsmanlike conduct, whether officials do or not. Parents who fail to discipline a young athlete often rationalize their failure with excuses such as the umpires are unfair or the other team plays dirty. Dads and moms must let their athlete know that misconduct will result in home discipline. Parents who ignore problems send the message that misconduct is acceptable. If you fail to actively and consistently teach your child the right values, you are, by default, leaving your child open to learning the wrong values. Harmful values include a win-at-any-cost mentality, outright cheating, arrogance, selfishness, acts of aggression and taking shortcuts to get ahead.” 

Parents seeking to promote the positive and neutralize the negative components of the contemporary competitive sports scene will benefit from the practical advice in Doyle’s The Encyclopedia of Sport Parenting. 

Parents seeking a code of conduct—a core set of virtues for formulating their parenting philosophy—need look no further than the Judeo-Christian ethic. Its golden rule provides a solid basis for a principled philosophy, good sportsmanship and quality of character. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! This one brief statement promotes balance and perspective, expounds empathy, reveals the secret to graceful winning or dealing with disappointment, and champions the cause for class and character. 

TOM FITZPATRICK