Kia Commercial hits "participation" trophies

[Gman]

I understand people that grew up playing competitive sports are passionate about it, but fear not, competition isn't going any where.

I don't think anyone is arguing that it is. Nature guarantees that there will be competition. The problem is the lack of preparation of new generations to face the reality.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I think it's healthy to have kids playing or participating in a team activity at a young age that is structured to just have fun without necessarily keeping score but kids WILL keep score nonetheless. If you have them play dodgeball, I'll bet 2:1 at least half the kids will have kept a silent mental count of how many times they got hit versus some other kid or how many times they were able to hit another kid. However, if you DO have the team participation activity, don't cheapen it with a "participation" award -- they should learn some things are done just for the fun, not with the expectation of getting anything out of it.

Anyway, I posted the video because I didn't bother watching the donkeys and hadn't seen it. Kudos to Kia.

[RMAC757]

I have to add a caveat. I played sports my entire life. I Wrestled almost year round ( folk, freestyle and Greco ) with camps every year...sometimes two a year including J Rob... from age five through my sophomore year in college. I wasn't a great wrestler. I was pretty good though and wrestled at nationals almost every year for Team Minnesota in Greco and Freestyle. I honestly hit a point after about age twelve where I didn't care about trophys anymore. Most of us didn't. We only cared about winning. Regionals, State, Nationals. It was all about the winning. Most if us had accumulated so many medals and trophys ( hard earned in a hard sport ) that our parents couldn't keep up displaying them and we would rather have Motley Crue posters up than trophys in our rooms. Again, it was all about winning in an era where trophys and medals had to be earned.

We as parents, grown ups, coaches have put such a premium on cheap metal and plastic that our kids are actually using it to validate themselves. I can't remember ever caring about that stuff and I had won dozens if not more, tourneys, titles, championships what have you. All I and my teammates cared about was winning. Standing on the top of the podium gave us a high.....not the actual award. i noticed this in high school as well. I earned 6 letters and was captain of the wrestling and football teams. I never wore my jacket. Quite a few of us never wore them. I would rather wear my Starter Jacket ( And I did go to a military school ). I usually would let some girlfriend wear it around. Again, it was all about being with my team and winning....or loosing.

A good analogy can be made with the military. In elite units you win as a team. Your only as strong as your weakest member. This breeds teamwork and brotherhood. When kids are young they need to learn to play, work as a team and then win. Most of the people we know in our daily lives weren't good at sports. They may of been awesome team members though. My thoughts on this have changed through the years being a coach and dad.