Which is more important winning or participation?

brotherbear(54)

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I recently did some practical teaching and I was fortunate to be at a school where athletics are very popular. One Saturday we had the yearly athletics meeting between the three teams of the school. There was a lot of competing and judgments from the other teams if the other team scored.

All the athletes took part in as many events as possible. If only to score more points for their team. In the end the team with the most points won the day.

I enjoyed it thoroughly to be part of the "teachers" on that specific day and for the first time I had the opportunity to look at the parents from a different angle.

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There were a lot of support from the parent's side as they were cheering their kids but what I noticed was the fact that these parents were only worried about their own kids winning and they did not care about any others. For them winning was the ultimate.

I honestly think that the parents could learn something from their kids that day. They participated to support their teams and they didn't care about winning because the participation counted more for them.

Which is more important? Winning or participation?

For me participation and support is far more important than winning. I think that it is important for parents not to force a child to participate in a sport just for the sake of winning. This puts unnecessary pressure on a child and can lead to stress and anxiety. The child could feel that he disappoints the parent if he does not win and that could damage his self image. It could have a greater effect where the child is so scared to participate because he is so insecure and scared of losing that he doesn't want to participate in any sport.

To prevent this from happening ,we need the support of the parent without pushing a child into a direction. Even though it is a child, he or she still has the right to decide what they want to achieve in life. Just because the parent did not achieve something on the athletics or sport-field doesn't mean that the child wants to follow in the footsteps of the parent.