Were you picked first or last for the sports team?

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]
i think the defeatist/everyone gets a trophy attitude bothers me b/c so much of what separates kids athletically until college is pure effort and fitness.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not true in my experience - I played basketball and baseball in high school and there were some kids that went onto play D-1 who I couldn't touch. In fact the talent gap was more noticeable / difficult to overcome because it's not like most high schools have great training regimens that could really help someone offset a talent deficit.

That being said I agree with your main point: picking is fine, there's no perfect way to do it. Also I think playing sports is a great way to socialize a kid, and you learn some tough lessons along the way.

FWIW - it's a much worse feeling, imo, to [censored] up on the field and let your team down, then getting picked last.

-Al

[mmbt0ne]

I used to get picked relatively low, but was always at least good at every sport so I managed to work my way up. The only sport I was really good at was basketball, but that rarely got picked by captains, rather by freethrows, or "you got 5?"

I think I would like to get that athletic ability back. It was a lot of fun to be able to go play any sport and not look like a putz.

[tdarko]

Al- Good post.

There were some that could try all they wanted w/ me at certain sports but it just wasn't/isn't going to do any good. Also, there are certain levels of this, if I were to go 1 on 1 against Kobe there isn't any amount of effort that could make up for the lack of athleticism and skill. Like you said the gaps are too great.

I happen to think the picking is fine though I can see where Adsman is coming from. But you're right there isn't any perfect way to do it, b/c I remember being in P.E. w/ those goofy "everything is fair" coaches that would 1-2-1-2-1-2 everyone and all the 1's on one side and all the 2's on the other and then we would play whatever. F that, I am competitive and if I got stuck w/ cupcake Carla and the pie faced kid that chews on his arm all day I was pissed.

I had a Sociology of Sport class that taught us it is better to have even teams than to have one team blow-out the other and drafting (normally) creates the best opportunity to make the most even teams. Basically it is better to be picked last and play in a competitive game than to be shoved on a team and get killed.

[BreakfastBurrito]

Am I the only one who hopes this system never gets phased out? IMO, little things like this are how kids learn to deal with life. It's not always fair and everyone's not equal.

If you're getting picked first, good for you, but everyone's gunning for you. If you're getting picked last, you better work harder and try to get better. To those who got picked last or near last, how crippling an emotional blow was it? Do you think it would have aided your development not to have had to deal with that experience?

[diddyeinstein]

My athletic ability has gotten older as I have aged, so when picking teams was still en vogue I was generally one of the last to be picked [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Normally we just flip discs in Ultimate but a couple of weeks ago we picked teams and I was the 2nd pick. That was cool.

[kipin]

Basketball - Among the first (Tall dude who could play defense pretty well)

Football - Among the first

Kickball - First

Dodgeball - Last (LOL who wants a giant target on their team [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] )

Volleyball - Somewhere in the middle

Those are the only sports I can really remember. Being captain was also pretty awesome since you were basically the controller of some kid's mood for the rest of the day.

[Milo]

I was usually last, unless there were girls to be picked. In that case, I generally went after all the boys and the most athletic girl or two. The one exception was a relay race. I had blazing speed, and was always the fastest one or two kids, but ZERO coordination.

Oh yeah, and I kicked ass at "spelling baseball." Batted cleanup and hit a home run word every time.

[Jon1000]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i think the defeatist/everyone gets a trophy attitude bothers me b/c so much of what separates kids athletically until college is pure effort and fitness.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not true in my experience - I played basketball and baseball in high school and there were some kids that went onto play D-1 who I couldn't touch. In fact the talent gap was more noticeable / difficult to overcome because it's not like most high schools have great training regimens that could really help someone offset a talent deficit.

That being said I agree with your main point: picking is fine, there's no perfect way to do it. Also I think playing sports is a great way to socialize a kid, and you learn some tough lessons along the way.

FWIW - it's a much worse feeling, imo, to [censored] up on the field and let your team down, then getting picked last.

-Al

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, my statement was probably too broad as effort alone doesn't apply to tennis or golf or baseball or a host of other sports and experiences may vary drastically. However, I did play soccer on a high school team which produced 6-9 division I-III starters, 4 of them frosh year starters. Between the best and the average, there was certainly an appreciable difference, but at least in our league, one player could rarely dominate a game, and often times some scrub would shut down one of our stars in practice or a game. A number of the D III guys never went to the summer soccer clinics or even played at the club level in school.

For the most part, I don't think there's a kid you could give me in let's say 6th grade who couldnt start on his varsity soccer, football, lacrosse team by his upperclassman years if he was willing to play in season and just try really hard. Most of my high school sports programs were pretty good, but as an example there were several kids who ran track freshman year b/c they couldn't play a ball sport very well and wound up running in college. I just think for the most part, physical differences between kids until about the college mark are pretty small, and in sports where one player can't easily dominate, there is more than enough room to compete.

[tdarko]

Jon- Where are you from?

[Triumph36]

picked near last, but was almost invariably not last.