Should Everyone Get Backwards Necessary For Youth Athletes?

Improved Essays
Should everyone get a trophy? According to the "Trophies for All" policy, youth athletes are being awarded with participation trophies. People don't get something in "real life" for showing up, participating, and "doing your best." Giving awards for showing up and doing what is required is meaningless and sends the wrong message. The more trophies you give out the less each one means. In spite of all this many believe participation trophies are good and necessary to build self confidence. Regardless participation trophies are unnecessary. People don't get awards in "real life" for showing up, participating and "trying your best." It's completely unrealistic and should not beset as an example for youth. However, many would disagree. Many would argue that there is nothing wrong with giving youth athletes trophies saying good job you came and you tried your best. This is wrong because it sends the wrong message. …show more content…
It tells youth athletes that it's okay to stop trying to get better at the sport you play. Yes, it is true that not everyone can be a "star athlete" however, that does not mean that you should stop trying to be the best you can be , to improve the way you play."The idea is to motivate kids to play sports and have fun." Author of the book " Top Dog: The Science Of Winning and Losing" stated that " the benefit of competition isn't actually winning. The benefit is improving. When you're constantly giving a kid a trophy for everything they're doing, you're saying, I don't care about improvement. I don't care that you're learning from your mistakes. All we expect is that you're always a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    What would life be like if everyone got an award for simply showing up to work, school, and sports? Based on the "Trophies for All" policy every youth athlete gets a trophy for simply coming to games and practices. Participation trophies do not prepare these future adults to live and work in the real world. These youth athletes also need to know that you have to work hard to get what you want. And finally, youth athletes need to know that not everyone is a winner.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Vivian Diller’s article, “Do We All Deserve Gold? Setting Kids Up To Fail” and Lisa Heffernan’s article, “In defense of participation trophies: Why they really do teach the right values” both authors disagree on many different things about participation trophies. The one disagreement that drives these authors the furthest apart is kids being given trophies for just participating or giving trophies to those who only win and what the value of this holds for the kids. Lisa Heffernan states that giving “participation trophies remind young kids that they are part of something, and may help build enthusiasm to return for another season” in her article “In defense of participation trophies: Why they really do teach the right values” (In Defense).…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Corey Turner remembers collecting participation trophies from the YMCA soccer program he was involved in as a young athlete. These trophies are now sitting in a dusty box somewhere in his parent's basement. This leads him to question whether or not young athletes should receive trophies for just showing up. Corey Turner is not alone, people across the nation have debated this issue for as long as youth sports have been in existence. I believe that kids should not get trophies for participating because kids should learn life lessons from both wins and losses and participation trophies do more harm than good.…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Opponents defend by saying that participation trophies should be handed out. Coaches and parents say it makes the kids happy and proud that they accomplished this. “it is a recognition of time that went into the season”(Kelima)What she is saying is it pays off for all the hard work the kids put in. It makes…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    There has been a long discussion in society on weather or not kids should receive participation trophies. The people that disagree with giving kids participation trophy's say that giving kids participation trophy's will hurt them later in life by not teaching them the values of hard work. However the people that agree with giving kids participation trophy's say that they can make kids feel good and raise there self esteem. I agree with not giving participation trophy's because the value of hard work is very important.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Participation Trophys

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In today's society, every kid that plays a sport gets a trophy for just showing up and that is not right. There is more meaning behind a trophy for a kid than what most people think. Getting a first place trophy is a better feeling than getting a participation trophy. Kids should be able to go home and celebrate their first place trophies and realize they accomplished something rather than getting a participation trophy for just being out there.…

    • 350 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Should everyone get a trophy? According to the "Trophies for all" policy, youth athletes are being awarded with participation trophies. Trying certainly matters, but when it comes down to it, the point of playing sports much like any other game is to win so why reward anything less? Not everyone is a winner. Participation trophies are not the best use of teams money.…

    • 409 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Should Kids Get Participation Trophies Clumsily fielding the ball, the young boy throws the ball to the wrong base and gives up a run that lost the game for them. The boy had only gone to six of the practices. He didn’t care that he’d lost the game for the team because he knows he was going to get a medal or a trophy. Some people believe participation trophies and medals are good for kids. On the either side, some believe participation trophies and medals are bad for kids.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In The Great Trophy Debate: Do We Need Participation Awards? by John O'Sullivan it says, "The $2000-$3000 we spent every year on awards could have put dozens of kids on the field, and/or dozens of coaches through some quality coaching education. " The few thousand dollars that is spent on making the awards could be spent on better and more useful things. Youth athletes might need better uniforms or more sports equipment to train with but the funds for these things are going towards awards. In life, if you don't earn something, you probably won't be rewarded.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If everybody gets a trophy it can take away the pride of having a trophy. Rewarding every effort with trophies does not prepare children for adult life. In order to receive a trophy, an athlete should prepare and perform above average at an event or at the end of a season. When athletes receive awards for simply showing up at practice and participating in games it sends the wrong message that kids don’t have to try their best to receive a trophy.…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The majority of children participate In many extracurricular activities such as soccer, baseball, and dance. At the end of the season, every team has its annual awards night and where the star players would be recognized for their outstanding achievements. Everyone else on the team receives the “glad you tried but you aren 't good enough” trophy. Many children, including myself, fall into this category. As naive little children, many kids do not understand that this is the situation.…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In many youth sports, participation trophies are given to every child. Basically if the kid shows up they get a trophy even if they do nothing and put no effort into playing their game. In today’s society people give children too many trophies. When a child is given too many trophies when they do not actually earn it, it can actually lower their motivation and shield them from the realities of life. When a kid is given the same trophy as everyone else it lowers their motivation.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These kids are still accepting one, even though they did not work or put effort into it. “You shouldn’t need a trophy to encourage them to play sports, just like you do not give them one to go play in the yard with their friends.” (JOHN O'SULLIVAN ) With kids they do not need a participation trophy to tell them how good of an athlete that they truly are, having one is just a reminder that they did not…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For those interested in improving kids perseverance, hard work, and resilience in events or competitions, you should say goodbye to participation trophies. James Harrison and journalist, Nancy Armour agree that participation awards aren't the way to go. Stating that they are blocking kids from the future of harsh realities and discourages the motivation to try their best and persevere. I agree wholeheartedly. I believe participation awards are a waste of time and more importantly discouraging kids from learning the true meaning of sportsmanship.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Does Every Kid Deserve a Trophy? Trophies used to be unique awards. They used to be given to children who achieved exceptional accomplishments at special occasions. Nowadays, trophies are given to every child for only participation on sport or extracurricular activities.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays