Sports and the search for truth

This article from Philip Ella Juico says some things about kids and sports that, unfortunately, 1) very much need to be said, and 2) you hardly ever hear.

Here, he talks about kids and cheating:

Children and youth are not born with the instinct to cheat. If you take the trouble to watch children play by themselves or even a pick-up game of street basketball, you will see that the kids are very conscious of playing by the rules, as they know them.

They do not need a referee. Cheating begins to occur when adults start to meddle by imposing their personal beliefs and values. The most damaging value that adults bring into the consciousness of children is that winning is the most desirable reason for playing.

Here, about trophies:

However, let me quote the Dr. Rainer Martens, a noted sports psychologist who wrote in his book Joy and Sadness in Children’s Sports, “Research suggests that under certain conditions, the use of extrinsic rewards (money, ribbons, trophies) may undermine the intrinsic motivation of play. For most children, it is the intrinsic rewards that initially attract them to sports.”

And this, about sports and war:

...we are told that some coaches “teach” their players to “hate” their opponents in order to “put them in the proper frame of mind” and put them on “war footing.” While it may get the player all pumped up, unfortunately, such an attitude could lead to violence. And when you speak of going into war footing, one has to realize that violence is the essence of war.

OK. OK. This isn't you're usual light-hearted fun fare to which I seem to have so willingly dedicated my life and blogs. But, you know, we people of play take our games quite seriously. And we just really (and I mean really) hate to see how easily all those well-intentioned coaches and physical education instructors and parents forget why. I guess it's part of the silliness of it all.