sports. why are some people so negative towards them?

Don't get me wrong, I like to exercise and keep myself in shape. However, I hate, hate, hate, HATE, team sports. Firstly, it is the attitude of those who like them. They feel you have comitted treason if you simply express dislike for sports. Secondly, I despise the elitists who give you shit if you are bad at playing a certain sport.

These hooligans also piss me off! Seriously, people burn flags and beat each other up in the name of team sports! WTF! I have more important things to worry about than my team winning!

I grew to hate team sports in high school. It was the thing that mattered, not language arts, maths, etc. Hey, I'm sorry that I concentrated on stuff that mattered! I'm sorry I don't want to be a poor schmuck who flips burgers or bags groceries for a living! I'm sorry for using my brain in things that are essential for the real world!

Plus, I hated how seriously sports was taken in high school. If you made one error during the game, you would never hear the end of it. There was never a prize, but they acted as though they had lost their chance to get one million dollars. Also, what is with the idol worship of good athletes?
A good athlete was often popular, even if he/she was a total jackass with a horrendously low GPA. I had a high GPA; I tried to be nice to everyone; and I was beyond horrible at team sports. In spite of all this, I was quite unpopular with the majority of the student body, especially when you added my lesbianism into the mix. I was public enemy number one in some places. Before you call me a crybaby, step outside your bubble and put yourself in my shoes for a change!

Sorry for ranting, but I felt I needed to get that off my chest. Some of us just have a bad experience with sports. That's all! If you like sports, I do not care, as long as you are mature about it.

 

I was a very small kid before puberty kicked in, and I was terrible at sport until 8th grade when I grew a foot. Being small and uncoordinated, and I did feel a little left out. So again, I see your point where it could be harmful for the smaller kids if they're judged by their peers for it.

But aren't octathlon academic events and most academics equally isolating for athletic kids who are good people but not especially bright?

So they can form cliques. Unless they're encourage to get out of they're comfort zones...

Perhaps smaller kids participating in some sports, and the less educated being more exposed to higher education rather than making them focus on specific castes would be better for both and not create trivial resentment.

 

Yeah Lode, thats exactly what I'd like to see. Someway to bring these extremes of kids together in some kind of fun and functional interaction. I was a big kid but absolutely graceless and uncoordinated. I was especially scorned by coachs who saw a physical possibility but of no value. When I finally quit sports rather than continue the failure on field the coach called me every name in the book. I was worthless, chickenshit, headed for failure and prison. That sorry son of a bitch should never have been allowed near a child. He did damage to me that was absolutely uncalled for and abusive.

I don't have an answer as to how to bring kids together in both physical and mental play. I imagine there are such activities but they don't satisfy the bloodlust some coaches have. I want to see the little short kid and the giant kid playing together with respect for each other. Whatever sport that is I'll be interested in. Perhaps most of all I'd like to see coaches have respect for all kids, not just those who contribute to the glory of the coach.

 

They call those house leagues, and they significantly outnumber competitive leagues.

Also, I think you are severely overestimating the glory of coaching most youth sports.

 

a and b teams. nobody wants to play on a losing team, and no short kid want to play against a brick shithouse.

 

They're full of cheats!

 

You mean roids?

I honestly don't see roids any more dishonest than any other form of exercise. I think athletes should be informed of any negative consequences that could emerge from their use, and than be free for them to use.

We as a society demand the highest caliber from these athletes. And if their genetics and hard work don't compensate for a genetically superior athlete, why shouldn't they be free to explore other methods of taking themselves to the highest athletic caliber?

Steroids are for winners.

 

I love sports, writing at forums for sports, at newspaper..and use to train some..like bodybuilding recently...It's great!

 

I have raised 7 sons. many of them were in sports of some kind or other. I have a fair sense of what a lot of those knuckle dragger coaches were like. You coach, you like it and believe in the value it offers. Thats cool. Maybe you represent a changing mindset in coaching. Three days ago I was listening to a coach who assured his kids that they were the elite, the brave, better than the ones who didn't go out for sports. Nice wedge formation there coach...the old them and us play...fuck that mindset.

A few year ago I took a soccer coach aside to offer him some physical harm if he continued talking to the kids in his vicious, derogitory tone. He screamed and telled at those little guys like a dumbass drill sergeant. There was no joy in that game for those kids...only fear. Fuck that...its wrong. I have no doubt there are good coaches and for some kids team sport are great. What I'm saying, as well as what others are saying, is that sports and team sports are ok but not the right thing for every kid...maybe not even right for the majority of kids.

You see a subset of kids, ie; those who have an interest in what you offer. What you offer, then, may be good for those kids. In the larger group of all kids there are many who would not like or even benefit from what you have to offer. Thats cool so long as you don't try to shove it down their throats cause you "know" whats good for them. If you do that then you are failing those kids. You expose them to it, you demonstrate it's fun and value and you may win them. The loner kid who would rather hike the forest and compose poetry or do photography doesn't need what you offer. Value that kid too and you're on to something. Thats what I'm trying to say.

 

Sports aren't for everyone. Neither is academia - or art - or music - or business - or the military - or being a hippie - and so on.

Much good can be achieved by some in any of the above fields. I played some team sports when young and had my share of both high and low moments. I had one abusive phys-ed teacher/coach. I hit home runs and I struck out with the game on the line. Success and failure (but especially the latter) can be valuable teachers. (If only to help you cross off contenders on your Possible Careers List because you suck at them.)

 

Yes, all we can't successful like all other...but you must to keep training at least ride a bike, or go at gym and use orbitrek...trust me as my work is just sitting make me more problems than be more active.

 

There's a lot to be said about exploring multiple fields even if you aren't initially talanted in them.

Alll life is a skill, and hard work pays off more than natural talent.

 

This is where the parent steps in and decides what is best for their kid. I think it's bogus how many people compare team sports to core education. Every kid should have to take PE and to be honest with you, I really think it should last until the day they graduate. The "team" sports I played in PE were enough for me. I didn't have to play in front of an audience, and all the best athletes were in athletics, so I actually got to play and didn't get left on the sidelines. That kind of pressure is not a good thing for every kid, keeping them athletic and in shape is fine, but you shouldn't force them to compete in front of a damn audience. That's the number one issue I had with the idea of playing sports, I don't like the idea of making an ass of myself in front of God and everybody. PE is an excellent alternative to team sports, they still play sports, but it's not as pressured. At the end of the day, nobody gives a fuck if you won a game of dogeball in gym, but if you lose the big game against your rival school, you might never hear the end of it. There are alternatives, it doesn't have to be "team sports or nothing."

 

If competitiveness wasn't human nature there'd be no such thing as good sex.

 

If sports and physical activities were removed from schools though, many children would never have the chance to partake, which is part of what Sitka was getting at. Not only do sports outside of school cost money to join usually, but it also costs the parents gas money, uniform money, etc. Many parents likely wouldn't be able to afford this and so their child(ren) would go without.

 

On the contrary I sure don't want PE/sports out of school but in it in a healthy respectful way kind of like Kinky Ramona is saying. I just want balance between the money and infrastructure spent on sports and other academic endeavors. I don't want the kids in chemestry classes using equipment from the 60's when the jocks have the latest and greatest stuff. I'm not trying to put down sports or it's value at all.

 

I don't mind playing sports for fun, but whenever I play competitive 5-a-side football with my mates, they all turn into the biggest dicks on earth, Jekyll and Hyde to the max. They seem to take everything too seriously, complaining about every little thing that you do wrong. I'm all for competitiveness when playing sport, but sometimes people take it too seriously.

 

Let me add to that the inequity of favored sports over the others sports. Football and basketball have tons of money heaped on them compared to other sports. My youngest is an excellent wrestler, state qualifier ranked #6. The wrestling kids/families are all the time doing fundraisers for equipment, warmups, healthy food/drinks for out of town games and all their scheduling is around the needs of Basketball. Same school, same gym, same kids but basketballs wants and needs are met first. Bullshit.

My son will get a scholarship for wrestling, it's been a great disipline for him and I appreciate that. I just want fairness in all of this and respect for the kids who prefer something else to do. Where the hell is the Photography Team, the Pottery Team, the Literature Team.

 

It's all been done to death. That's the real problem. Sports in America could seriously benefit from some MODERATION. We are obsessed with sports.