Has New Zealand gone soft?

[pete376403]

Real winners Chinese style - sports agencies seek out small children who look like they may have potential. They go into state funded sporting academies where they are 'developed" for a particular discipline, with very little emphasis on anything else. Children who fail to "make the cut" are ruthlessly weeded out. They get dumped, and having had virtually no education in anything other then their selected sport, they are effectively unemployable.
The ones who do perform are groomed further for sporting prowess, and compete until such time as they no longer are winners. At that point they also get dumped. Apparently every Chinese olympic medal has cost the country several million dollars.
Sounds like a real good scheme and one NZ should aspire to. (Tui)

[Her_C4]

........ I told him no The most important thing was the desire,the need to win was most important.
He really struggled with that concept.

It seems just doing your best is really being drummed into our kids by teachers.
Winning isn't important.
Am I just cynical or are we teaching our kids to take the easy option?

errrrm the teachers? The grounding of these concepts comes from home - not school. Where is the parents responsibility? Why is this the first time that you have had this conversation with baby bikie??

[McJim]

If you want to be the best of the best of the best you need a better masking agent than the last guy coz ALL the top athletes must be doping by now. The world records couldn't be beaten otherwise

Anyway - it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking apart of the opposition.

[Motu]

I've never had the desire to win or be the best at anything....gosh,maybe I'll never amount to anything....should I end it all now? Just do what you want to do,enjoy the view along the way.

[JimO]

No arguments here re training. But Im seeing kids giving up because its become "too hard"

well my boys have a win at all costs attitude, both play rep hockey,school 1st 11 hockey, club hockey, senior soccer, go hard out all the time not rough play but hard full on 100% dont give up attitude.

[98tls]

Off topic maybe but reading this thread reminded me of my early years at Medbury in Ch-Ch which was a prep school etc.For me anyway it was a great place to be as i was pretty good (for a 7 year old) at rugby/cricket ,as i was a border sport was what you did everyday when class was over.I can vividly remember the poor buggers that had no sporting skills,looking back it was pretty damn cruel what went on,many memories of one or another teacher screaming at some fat kid,oddly enough the school motto was "play the game".

[Trudes]

I was never encouraged to do anything as a kid, in fact I believe that I was actually discouraged from getting involved in "extracurricular" activities because my parents didn't have time to take me to practices/meets/shows etc, so hence I had no interests as a kid apart from horses (which was discouraged also until I was old enough to sort out getting rides to and from horsey things I wanted to go to), and was never any good at anything and have no competitive drive although I do like to participate.
Anyway, what is my point? If the kid shows an interest in something they should be given the opportunity to decide how far they want to take it (within reason) with encouragement and help from their folks. It's important for kids to participate in all sorts of things and realise that you can't win them all, but it's good to try and to be a good sport.

[Flatcap]

Off topic maybe but reading this thread reminded me of my early years at Medbury in Ch-Ch which was a prep school etc.For me anyway it was a great place to be as i was pretty good (for a 7 year old) at rugby/cricket ,as i was a border sport was what you did everyday when class was over.I can vividly remember the poor buggers that had no sporting skills,looking back it was pretty damn cruel what went on,many memories of one or another teacher screaming at some fat kid,oddly enough the school motto was "play the game".

That's terrible! The teachers should have made you all play at the level of the fat bastard to grow his self esteem!!!!

[McJim]

The whole "Drive to succeed om the sportsfield" has made me a bitter and twisted fucker in many ways. I was always the smallest kid in the year until I was about 14 (by which time everyone had decided who was good and bad at sports) Then I grew about 6 inches in one summer and bacame useful at long distance running, rugby, cycling, triathlon etc. to the point where I started to get picked for stuff (best achivement was winning a triathlon for under eighteens when I was 14 years old). Then one day I woke up, remembered what a bunch od c*nts they had been to me when I was no use and told them to shove it and took up music instead. I'm actually quite a useful trumpet player now.

[jafar]

The whole "Drive to succeed om the sportsfield" has made me a bitter and twisted fucker in many ways. I'm actually quite a useful trumpet player now.

I'm sorry , your point was ???????

[Trudes]

I'm sorry , your point was ???????

Kids are cruel and he likes to play with his horn to make him feel better.

[Dave Lobster]

I'm sorry , your point was ???????

People who are good at sport are c*nts.

[MadDuck]

Kids are cruel and he likes to play with his horn to make him feel better.

In a dark closet

[svr]

Epic story McJim, i cried, i laughed, etc...

Anyways the point is that to `build' a champion athlete in todays world is not `the honest hard work and attitude' type image that the olympics try to portray. Its the sacrifice of the normal development of many, many kids.

Sacrificing everyones fun in PE from age 5-15 just so one little johnny gets to top 5 in NZ probably aint worth it...
Better off with everyone enjoying sport and learning that life is good?

[avgas]

where have all the heroes gone?
that is the real question at the matter here.
think about who you wanted to be when you were young - who were the people you aspired to?
All we have these days are overpaid rugby/rowing whiners.
Yet the king brothers, the Millen family......and countless others who are great kiwis get how much press time?
We are even top of the world for computer games - ahead of China, Japan, Korea and USA....all of whome pay their competitors.
Allot more than bodies were buried with Sir Peter Blake, Sir Edmund Hilary and John Britten