Last week I was watching the Lahaina Girls basketball team compete against other schools in a preseason basketball tournament. The Lady Lunas dominated the tournament and won the championship game by a 53 point spread. I realized that they were such a dominating force, not because of what they had, but because of the key element that the other schools had lost.
The majority of the newest generation has lost their freedom to fail. This is evident in the sports arena in Maui. Because children expect to be given everything, they no longer feel the need to fight for it. This was first obvious when I entered middle school, and I was informed that we would not be competing because the leagues were just for fun. Because they did not want the children with less experience to feel bad about themselves, they took away scoring and competition. This loss of competition made the athletes no longer feel the need to improve themselves because they no longer had anything to fight for. Because they took away the athletes’ ability to succeed, they also took away their ability, or freedom, to fail.
In high school, they took away the athlete’s freedom to succeed yet again. It was decided that our school would not have tryouts so that every student that wanted to be on the team was able to. This turned the varsity sports into a jumble of accomplished athletes and uninterested beginners. To top off the new rule, my coach decided that he wanted to give equal playing time to all of the members of the team. This took away the hard working athlete’s right to succeed because even if one put in more time than everyone else, they were not rewarded with more playing time or harder competition.
The Lahainaluna Girls basketball team is such a powerful force because they still have the freedom that the other schools have lost. They give their girls competition from an early age, and teach them that they have to fight for what they want. By giving the girls the freedom to fail if they do not work, they have also given the girls the freedom to gain tremendous success. Anthony D’Angelo said, “In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.” The Lahaina girls have been taught this lesson, and it shows in their game. The rest of us have lost our freedom to fail, and therefore, cannot hope to achieve optimum success.
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9 comments:
Taylor, I agree that we have lost our freedom to fail. We’ve gotten soft (b/c accountability hurts). And it’s very easy to set blame on those closest to us - but, i think it's bigger than coaches, leagues & schools; it’s humanity’s downfall. If it’s showing up in modern times, then this freedom to fail happened generations ago when your coaches, league & school administrators were being brought up and impressed upon as young adults. Does this mean that your friction to the topic means that the change is already in motion (to be played out in future generations)?
BTW - Lahaianaluna is a great example! The lunas are home to one of the oldest schools in the US – their competitive traditions and expectations are deep and well entrenched in their community.
--Coach Zucco
I very much agree. When I compete in a school "tournament" I dont fell very inclined to try my hardest because therre is no score and is purely based on a time limit. I feel that it is very true that you do need the freedom or right to fail in order to suceed and progress in your sport. The examples used were good because when you explained about the Lunas I knew exactly what you were talking about. The article was also very nicely written. Nice job Taylor.
Taylor - I totally agree with your point here. I also agree with Scott that this is pervasive in our society today. As kids leave college and enter the workforce, they continue to believe that everyone should be given the same rewards in the work environment, regardless of performance. They often do the minimum work to get by and expect to be rewarded with raises and promotions. We've lost the competitive edge in the workplace as well.
So goes the endless battle between personal responsibility and well-intentioned but short-sighted policy. One has to wonder what has caused the education system to move so firmly into the later camp. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t your school private while the others are part of the public system? It might be enlightening to look at what is different about your school versus the others you compete with on a more foundational level. I’m thinking teachers unions, tenure and parental participation. If you start with a system based on little or no accountability then it should come as no surprise that the teaching (or coaching) is based on the same premise.
Taylor, this point is very easy for me to agree with. I was on your basketball team my freshman year.I was one of the unskilled subs who was placed on varsity my freshman year with absolutely no prior experience. To my surprise, the coach would put me in games when it was clear that my playing time should have been rewarded to a veteran player.I did not prove myself before being privileged with game time. I was not given the opportunity to recognize that my failure in practice should have resulted in being benched. And recognizing our failure is how we learn to recognize what success looks like. If i had been more aware of others being rewarded while I was not, it would have been easier to want to copy these players and improve my own skill.Competition is what determines your desire and drive to succeed. When we are stripped of this, we fail as individuals and an entire team. But with it, we may sometimes fail as individuals, but we can still succeed as a team.
In our effort to ensure that everyone is treated equally, we have eroded our ability to recognize and reward excellence. It is almost as if recognition of excellence is somehow unfair to the average participant. It is interesting that the phenomena exists at a school where students are required to "compete" (via a rigorous application process) to attend.
Now the question is how do we fix the problem, and what part will each of us contribute to the solution.
Your point is right on...the politically correct, socialistic, idealists in this world have had an adverse effect on our society. To succeed in this world you must be able to compete...and you can't compete without learning to deal with success AND failure.
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