Frank Martin (SCar HC) on Generational Differences

[StPaulHusker]

There is nothing wrong with kids getting participation trophies to recognize their hard work and dedication to something.

I disagree. It devalues actual accomplishments. Your reward is learning to be apart of something bigger than you, and learning to work as a team. And if you don't win it all? That's ok, because that's part of life. You don't get a reward just for showing up.

During fall developmental baseball, it's basically glorified scrimmages, and we don't keep score for games. Yet we still had a few parents upset ( that we didn't give out trophies to everyone (thankfully, not on our team).

We teach our kids to play the game the right way, learn sportsmanship, respect your teammates and opponents, and how to be gracious in victory or defeat.

It doesn't devalue anything. It recognizes that these little kids worked hard for their season. If anything it enhances their desire to come back and play again.

 

[Saunders]

There is nothing wrong with kids getting participation trophies to recognize their hard work and dedication to something.

I disagree. It devalues actual accomplishments. Your reward is learning to be apart of something bigger than you, and learning to work as a team. And if you don't win it all? That's ok, because that's part of life. You don't get a reward just for showing up.

During fall developmental baseball, it's basically glorified scrimmages, and we don't keep score for games. Yet we still had a few parents upset ( that we didn't give out trophies to everyone (thankfully, not on our team).

We teach our kids to play the game the right way, learn sportsmanship, respect your teammates and opponents, and how to be gracious in victory or defeat.

It doesn't devalue anything. It recognizes that these little kids worked hard for their season. If anything it enhances their desire to come back and play again.

The kids don't even care about the trophies for more than 30 seconds. They care more about playing with their friends and having fun. I can promise you it has zero effect on them wanting to coming back and play again. They care more about making a play than getting a trophy.

Hell, most of the time, it's the parents that care more about the trophies.

 

[StPaulHusker]

There is nothing wrong with kids getting participation trophies to recognize their hard work and dedication to something.

I disagree. It devalues actual accomplishments. Your reward is learning to be apart of something bigger than you, and learning to work as a team. And if you don't win it all? That's ok, because that's part of life. You don't get a reward just for showing up.

During fall developmental baseball, it's basically glorified scrimmages, and we don't keep score for games. Yet we still had a few parents upset ( that we didn't give out trophies to everyone (thankfully, not on our team).

We teach our kids to play the game the right way, learn sportsmanship, respect your teammates and opponents, and how to be gracious in victory or defeat.

It doesn't devalue anything. It recognizes that these little kids worked hard for their season. If anything it enhances their desire to come back and play again.

The kids don't even care about the trophies for more than 30 seconds. They care more about playing with their friends and having fun. I can promise you it has zero effect on them wanting to coming back and play again.

Hell, most of the time, it's the parents that care more about the trophies.

I can promise you that it does have a positive effect on children. Maybe not all, but it still does.

 

[Mavric]

Thought this was a pretty good point:

https://twitter.com/COACH_HIMEY/status/846117555370672132

Mav, you should really take a hard look at his advice. He is speaking towards many of our posters here at HB. We are in a "fire, fire, fire" craze world when we don't get what we want. Which is exactly what we are teaching our kids. Pretty comical and pathetic.

Not really. I jumped to the conclusion that he is putting the blame of many problems on the shoulders of parents.

I buy into that 100%.

How many of the posters here are parents?

Now, how many of you have kids that are active in sports?

Now, how many of you complain about firing your kids' coaches like you do Husker coaches?

That's what has changed. Many years ago, parents weren't out to get everyone. Now they are like a bird on a worm. For some odd reason, they think by doing that they are doing what is right for their kid. When in reality, all that is really doing is teaching their kid that if things don't go your way, you make excuses and go for other's heads. Not how the world should work.

Teach your kids that sometimes things don't go your way. Teach your kids that sometimes when you fail, you just have to work harder, learn more.

Coach Martin wasn't just talking about sports, he was talking about life in general. I used our "FIRE THAT GUY" mantra from Huskerboard, because it's what a ton of our posters do, and it's wrong. It's truly so relevant though.

Good try.

Please continue assuming you know how I feel about a wide range of subjects based on SOME of my statements about a barely-related subject. And especially keep assuming you know what I teach my kids.

 

[Saunders]

Good try.

Please continue assuming you know how I feel about a wide range of subjects based on SOME of my statements about a barely-related subject. And especially keep assuming you know what I teach my kids.

I like how he semi-called you out too.

GG Matty.

 

[NUinID]

There is nothing wrong with kids getting participation trophies to recognize their hard work and dedication to something.

I disagree. It devalues actual accomplishments. Your reward is learning to be apart of something bigger than you, and learning to work as a team. And if you don't win it all? That's ok, because that's part of life. You don't get a reward just for showing up.

During fall developmental baseball, it's basically glorified scrimmages, and we don't keep score for games. Yet we still had a few parents upset ( that we didn't give out trophies to everyone (thankfully, not on our team).

We teach our kids to play the game the right way, learn sportsmanship, respect your teammates and opponents, and how to be gracious in victory or defeat.

It doesn't devalue anything. It recognizes that these little kids worked hard for their season. If anything it enhances their desire to come back and play again.

The kids don't even care about the trophies for more than 30 seconds. They care more about playing with their friends and having fun. I can promise you it has zero effect on them wanting to coming back and play again. They care more about making a play than getting a trophy.

Hell, most of the time, it's the parents that care more about the trophies.

I would say this is pretty much true. I coached city rec TBall for 2 summers when I was in college. We had games every day from about 1-4. I had 5-8 year olds with another person. At the end of the game none of them knew who won the game. Some would ask, and if you said your team they usually went "Yeah", if they lost they said "dang". Either way they just walked away. Most parents didn't give a hats a$$ who won, but there was always a few that did. It really was amazing how much it mattered to some of them.

 

[knapplc]

The ONLY difference between today's kids and yesterday's kids is that, for the first time in history, the whole generation has instant access to information in their pocket. Boom. Done.

What's being said about Millennials was being said about Gen X, about the Baby Boomers, about kids dating back to biblical times. Read Deuteronomy 21, talking about how to deal with rebellious kids.

I know each generation likes to think they're unique and special in some way. But as much as people like to think they're different, they're still just people.

 

[Mierin]

There is nothing wrong with kids getting participation trophies to recognize their hard work and dedication to something.

I disagree. It devalues actual accomplishments. Your reward is learning to be apart of something bigger than you, and learning to work as a team. And if you don't win it all? That's ok, because that's part of life. You don't get a reward just for showing up.
During fall developmental baseball, it's basically glorified scrimmages, and we don't keep score for games. Yet we still had a few parents upset ( that we didn't give out trophies to everyone (thankfully, not on our team).

We teach our kids to play the game the right way, learn sportsmanship, respect your teammates and opponents, and how to be gracious in victory or defeat.

It doesn't devalue anything. It recognizes that these little kids worked hard for their season. If anything it enhances their desire to come back and play again.

The kids don't even care about the trophies for more than 30 seconds. They care more about playing with their friends and having fun. I can promise you it has zero effect on them wanting to coming back and play again. They care more about making a play than getting a trophy.
Hell, most of the time, it's the parents that care more about the trophies.

I would say this is pretty much true. I coached city rec TBall for 2 summers when I was in college. We had games every day from about 1-4. I had 5-8 year olds with another person. At the end of the game none of them knew who won the game. Some would ask, and if you said your team they usually went "Yeah", if they lost they said "dang". Either way they just walked away. Most parents didn't give a hats a$$ who won, but there was always a few that did. It really was amazing how much it mattered to some of them.

I distinctly remember as an 8 year old being mad that they didn't keep track of the softball score. I wanted to win the game. I also argued about it with the players on the opposing team who also wanted to know.

 

[Landlord]

It's definitely true that kids should learn that there's more value and recognition deserved for a better job done.

It's also definitely true that kids should be encouraged, honored and respected for effort and participation. I'm not talking about trophies or anything necessarily (I'm still yet to have ever seen an actual participation trophy in my life), but having adult influences reaffirming to them that there is tremendous value in the effort even if it doesn't always end with you on top. You're supposed to compliment your kids with things like, "I'm so proud of you - you worked really hard to figure that problem out" moreso than things like, "You're so smart, you're the smartest kid in your whole class."

Not the victory but the action // In the deed the glory

 

[JJ Husker]

Companies should give raises every year as long as:

a) there's inflation

b) they have as much of a profit increase that year as there is inflation

c) the employees are doing their jobs

Anything less is the equivalent to telling an employee they are doing a bad job. Inflation raises should be given unless an employee is not doing what is asked of them.

That may work at some companies but as a small business owner there are 3 things I consider and your #1 does not come into play.

1) Can the business afford to give out raises. This is much like your number 2 but it is much more simple and doesn't consider inflation or profit increase. Just if there is money available to do it.

2) How much does the company benefit by retaining an employee rather than replacing them and what is the going pay rate for possible replacements?

3) same as your's- Is the employee doing their job and making progress on correcting any deficiencies.

I realize inflation strains everyone. I'm not immune to it as an employer and I know my employees are not. But it has no bearing on if I'm able to give a pay raise. The bottom line of the business is what's important. It wouldn't do anyone any good if I gave out raises but then had to close the doors because our selling prices were so high we couldn't compete or because we went bankrupt. Can't get blood out of a turnip.

 

[JJ Husker]

There is nothing wrong with kids getting participation trophies to recognize their hard work and dedication to something.

I disagree. It devalues actual accomplishments. Your reward is learning to be apart of something bigger than you, and learning to work as a team. And if you don't win it all? That's ok, because that's part of life. You don't get a reward just for showing up.

During fall developmental baseball, it's basically glorified scrimmages, and we don't keep score for games. Yet we still had a few parents upset ( that we didn't give out trophies to everyone (thankfully, not on our team).

We teach our kids to play the game the right way, learn sportsmanship, respect your teammates and opponents, and how to be gracious in victory or defeat.

It doesn't devalue anything. It recognizes that these little kids worked hard for their season. If anything it enhances their desire to come back and play again.

The kids don't even care about the trophies for more than 30 seconds. They care more about playing with their friends and having fun. I can promise you it has zero effect on them wanting to coming back and play again. They care more about making a play than getting a trophy.

Hell, most of the time, it's the parents that care more about the trophies.

This is a fact. The kids like getting them for about 5 minutes and then it's on to other things. The parents are the ones driving the award everything bus. But I don't think giving them a trophy or award has ever devalued any sport for the kids. I think it's good to recognize kids participation but it does tend to get overblown a bit.

Both of my kids have received tons of trophies, medals etc., there are very few of them that really matter to them. My son has a few that he values; He is partial to his AAU Jr. Olympics Gold medal (also got a bronze) because he realizes it is sort of special and he had to work his tail off to get it. The other ones that have some meaning for him are simple player of the game pucks he received from his coaches. He has tons of tournament trophies and medals, many of them 1st place regional and even some national championships but I don't think they mean as much to him as the ones I mentioned. However, he does realize that some of them are totally worthless, like 12th place ribbons from some random city swim meet....but he never really liked swimming all that much. He wanted to throw a bunch of them away, I didn't have a problem with it but his mother...

 

[Saunders]

It's definitely true that kids should learn that there's more value and recognition deserved for a better job done.

It's also definitely true that kids should be encouraged, honored and respected for effort and participation. I'm not talking about trophies or anything necessarily (I'm still yet to have ever seen an actual participation trophy in my life), but having adult influences reaffirming to them that there is tremendous value in the effort even if it doesn't always end with you on top. You're supposed to compliment your kids with things like, "I'm so proud of you - you worked really hard to figure that problem out" moreso than things like, "You're so smart, you're the smartest kid in your whole class."

Not the victory but the action // In the deed the glory

I agree 100% with this. It's vastly more important to kids to hear the affirmation than get a ribbon for showing up. We coach our kids hard, but fair. We work hard to get them to understand that it's just about making a play, but doing it the right way, and having fun. We've taught them that it's ok to lose, as long as you did your very best every single play. But if you lost because you didn't try your hardest, then that's on you.

When the parents tell you that the kids ask when the next practice/game is, you know you're doing something right.

As for the trophies, I've seen it. Our 1st league did them for everything under the sun, and our current league did participation trophies for one season, then there were some staff changes, and now it's an earned thing.

 

[BigRedBuster]

You guys seriously think that 20, 30, 50, 60 years ago kids in their twenties didn't leave jobs for their own purposes or have unrealistic expectations at the work place???? Seriously????

 

[JJ Husker]

You guys seriously think that 20, 30, 50, 60 years ago kids in their twenties didn't leave jobs for their own purposes or have unrealistic expectations at the work place???? Seriously????

Who has said this?

I don't think anyone discussing this is blaming the younger generation or saying they are anything less than in generations past. But some of us have noticed a societal shift in the way people approach their jobs. Also I don't think anyone is claiming it is across the board for everyone in an age group but just more pronounced generally. Do you think things have not changed at all?

 

[greenmonkey51]

Participation awards are likely a good thing considering 3/4 of life is just showing up.