- Jun 22, 2008
- 3,438
- 48
One may grow up and continue through life believing that something is permissible simply because s/he never suffers the repercussions of doing something wrong. An example would be the police don’t strictly enforce the driving laws in their area, so drivers become a little lax in their actions and adherence to certain laws like speed limits. Only problem is, those same laws are enforced in other areas. Suddenly, the driver believes s/he’s performing in an appropriate manner and there is that pesky police officer enforcing those laws and the driver is stunned when they get a ticket. When they are the subject of that enforcement, there is often an attempt to barter one’s way out of the ticket and rationalize that they are right and the policeman was wrong. Yet, more often then not, the driver still pays the fine and often assigned punitive points to their driving record.
It is not much different in youth sports. A kid grows up and does something that is against the rules, but hey, it is only kids playing sports and doing well, so no one is going to mention the violation. The kid doesn’t know any better, so continues to perform improperly and it becomes so routine to everyone, it never gets called. Suddenly, the kid is now a young adult playing in college or championship level and the officials enforce the rules and call the violation.
Now the player and parents shocked. The official MUST be wrong because the player has been doing it this way since the age of 6 and all those officials couldn’t have been wrong. The coach comes out to argue, but never blames the official for enforcing the rule. Instead s/he makes excuses as to why it shouldn’t be enforced in this particular instance or on this player. But in the end, the penalty is applied in what is likely a very important situation.
Point is that there is no reason to not learn to play and understand the rules and to abide by them whether they are going to be enforced or not. When game, league or tournament officials decide to ignore rules of a game for whatever reason, they are not doing the players any favor.
JMHO
It is not much different in youth sports. A kid grows up and does something that is against the rules, but hey, it is only kids playing sports and doing well, so no one is going to mention the violation. The kid doesn’t know any better, so continues to perform improperly and it becomes so routine to everyone, it never gets called. Suddenly, the kid is now a young adult playing in college or championship level and the officials enforce the rules and call the violation.
Now the player and parents shocked. The official MUST be wrong because the player has been doing it this way since the age of 6 and all those officials couldn’t have been wrong. The coach comes out to argue, but never blames the official for enforcing the rule. Instead s/he makes excuses as to why it shouldn’t be enforced in this particular instance or on this player. But in the end, the penalty is applied in what is likely a very important situation.
Point is that there is no reason to not learn to play and understand the rules and to abide by them whether they are going to be enforced or not. When game, league or tournament officials decide to ignore rules of a game for whatever reason, they are not doing the players any favor.
JMHO