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Participation Trophies Are Bad!
The biggest argument against participation trophies is that handing them out is a form of overprotection for our children. In other words, we hand out trophies to kids, no matter how poorly they performed, so they don’t feel bad about losing. Kids never get the chance to experience failure or to learn from it. They grow up feeling entitled to rewards for simply showing up. Dan Gould, a sports psychologist, stated in a 2017 Spartan News Room article, “For rewards to work, they need to be earned. If you’re trying to increase a kid’s motivation, emphasize health or emphasize how fun it is to move or play ball.”

Encouraging children through the everyday benefits of sports shows them that playing sports can be rewarding outside of receiving an actual award. They will gain internal motivation to show up and do well by learning how much enjoyment they can experience from playing with their friends. Another argument against participation trophies is that they can backfire and cause kids to not try as hard because they will come to expect an award no matter what they do. This attitude can then affect the kids that truly do work hard and win because they see their efforts being devalued as everyone around them receives the same award just for being on the field. It can also affect the kids receiving the participation trophies because, in some cases, the children don’t recognize participation trophies as true awards. In a study by Hilary Levey, one of the children she interviewed only counted the trophies in his collection that represented a placeholder (1st, 2nd, or 3rd), not just for participation. To recap, the “participation trophies are bad” side of the debate states that participation trophies can stunt our children’s internal motivation, devalue the true winners in a competition, and are overall a symptom of today’s overprotective parenting standards.

One thing we can say for certain is that, in participation trophy studies from both sides of the argument, such trophies lose their effectiveness as kids get older. Around the ages of 8-12 is when kids start to have mixed feelings about participation trophies; by this time they understand how to play the game and that the primary objective is to help your team win. When they see everyone, losers included, receiving trophies, it can leave a kid feeling frustrated. For the little ones who are just starting out, however, participation trophies can work wonders. Youth sports are probably the first time kids have had the opportunity to earn a trophy, and rewarding them for their efforts helps build upon their excitement for the game. It also encourages them to return to the team next season. The most important takeaway is that participation trophy should be used to reward their hard work, dedication, and positive attitude as a player.

This situation begs a question: What should the purpose of youth sports be? Are they all about fielding the best team possible and giving one’s team the best chance of winning? Or are they all about learning and teaching young kids how to play the game, get along with each other and have fun? To me, these incidents highlight one of the main things wrong with youth sports in this country. We are too focused on the outcome. We are too concerned with winning. In the process, we are robbing our kids of valuable learning experiences that could ultimately enhance their lives and make them better people. By making these insignificant games and tournaments too important, we are also putting them under unnecessary competitive pressure, pressure which not only kills their joy of participation but also interferes with their ability to perform at the highest level. Coaches who make the won-loss outcome their main focus selfishly corrupt the youth sports experience for these kids.

The over-inflated importance of winning is an adult thing, NOT a kid thing. The main problem with this is that it teaches kids the wrong things about sports and the learning process. The bottom line is that no one, NO ONE can learn without making mistakes and failing. Mistakes and failures provide us with valuable feedback on what we did wrong and what we need to change for next time. Without making enough mistakes, you can never go from beginner to expert. Unfortunately what this coach taught the 10-year-old, as well as the rest of his team, is that mistakes are unacceptable and will get you benched. He also taught his young players that what is most important to him, the supervising adult is winning, NOT how much fun the kids have or whether they learn the right things or not. To me this is criminal. He is NOT coaching a Division I college team. He is not working with professional athletes. He is, instead working with vulnerable and impressionable 10-year-olds who need to be in a healthy learning environment in order to best learn and develop. What’s a healthy learning environment? It’s an emotional and physical space created by the supervising adults, coaches, and parents, where kids feel safe to take risks, make mistakes and fail without fear of embarrassment or humiliation. Without this kind of environment, it’s impossible for kids to relax, take risks, learn the game, and ultimately, excel.