Aggression In Sports

[NinJaBob]

Ben is 7 and likes playing organized sports. He has been playing soccer since he could walk. he has been running cross country for a couple of seasons now. he likes basketball as well and will hopefully be joining his first organized team this winter.

anyway soccer is his favorite sport. the problem is that Ben is very polite. if someone falls he stops to help them up. if the opposing team has the ball he wont try to steal it because that would be rude. the list goes on. whil he does have skill, speed, endurance and a good understanding of the game he lacks a fire in his belly.

i try to teach him that stealing the ball is part of the game and i try to get hi' reved up but it doesnt work. or at least it hadnt until recently.

last weekend during the game it was like he flipped a switch. it was hjs tun to play defense and he was just kind of standing there bored because the ball was all the way down by the opposing teams goal then this kid on the opposing team got a break away. the rest of our team was way behind him. normally this means automatic goal as Ben woul gingerlly move out of the way as to not deny a fellow human being their shot at glory.

he did move. he moved right twoard the kid, cutting down the angle. the other kid let ball get a little too far ahead of him so Ben kicked it away. then the kid kinda ran into Ben and fell down. Ben didn't even look at him he just sorta jumped over the kid.

for the rest of the game Ben was their worst nightmare. if a ball crossed the little white line he was all over it like white on rice. he didnt score a goal but neither did anyone from the other team.

so i was all proud of him. later that evening i was playing an online game and using ventrillo. if you dont know, vent is a program that you can use that allows multiple people to be in one voice chat room. my online friends and i play the game together an converse about game strategy as well as personal stuff. so i am telling my friends about what happened and this one lady jumped on my case about how i should be ashamed for teaching my son to be mean. according to her aggression on the field leads to aggression off the field.

i think thats it's ok to do whatever it takes to win as long as it fits the confines of the law and the rules of the game. i also believe in sportsmanship. after the whistle blows and the play is dead if someone from the opposing team is down then sure go ahead and help him up.

thoughts?

[TabascoNatalie]

i'm not much into soccer, though in Europe it is called FOOTBALL and now we're watching The World Cup.
In football, it means quite good if you don't scare any goals (and don't let the rivals to score any as well). when there are too many goals, then it is not well.
i guess it depends on what are the rules and general manners of playing sports in your place.

sports is about winning, and you are absolutely right.
if it was children playing with their younger siblings -- then maybe it would be nice to let them score as well

[IADad]

Well sure, sport is all about agression. It's aggression within the rules of the given sport. In soccer you can only mover the ball, take it away from your opponent, score and prevent them from scoring, you can't rip their head off.

So, is it teaching aggression or teaching controlling aggression? You could argue that we are aggressive by nature and sport helps us control that appropriately.

I see nothing wrong with aggression within the rules of any given sport. It's when someone does something outside the rules, something un-sportsmanlike that shows disregard for your opponent, disregard for society(in the context of the sport.)

play on Ben.

[IADad]

oh, and I hope you have a computer back and didn't tpe that all on a Wii console....

[Hartz75]

I ma not into sports at all and neither is my hubby, but I think what you did was correct. It is great that you have a very polite son but sports are sports, he was not being rude or mean, he was playing the game the way it was meant to be palyed. IF he was being harsh and hitting people or yelling obsenities or starting fights then I would be telling him that is wrong. All he did was play the way the game was meant to be played. Good for him

[Jeremy+3]

In football if you knock someone over you are supposed to stop, normally putting your hands in the air to signal you aren't at fault, whether you are or not! Someone in defense shouldn't be scoring.

Jackson plays rugby (union) for Durham uni, before that he played for Kesteven RFC, I did as well until two years ago. While it is full contact you do not use aggression, but it is not acceptable to do anything to get the ball, you don't contact to hurt. If you do hurt someone, it is good sportsman ship to help that person up and wait until the ref has given the nod to the game, or walk with them until they are taken off the pitch.

What sort of training to they tend to do? I ask because training in football is normally quite aggressive, because if we are used to being aggressive with our team mates, we are more likely to challenge other teams during games.

[Xero]

I don't think he hurt anybody Jeremy, he just kicked the ball out of the kid's way and the kid fell. The only concern was that he didn't help him up like he usually does I think.

I completely agree with IADad's post. Don't worry about what that lady said, just remember somebody always thinks they can do it better than you can.

[NinJaBob]

i only played soccer for a couple of seasons as a child and then it conflicted with football so i quit but i remember the emotion that i played with. the other guy had the ball an it was my job to take it from him. it was some measure of aggression that aided me in doing that. i cant think of too many sports where aggression doesnt come into play just a little.


the game is on the line. if there are 2 defencemen between you and an open net. you can go left or right. one way is a timid looking guy with 1 shoe untied with fear in his eyes and the other way is a fellow wearing a snear moving tword you with a confident gate which way do you go?

[NinJaBob]

i think that jeremy you may have misinterpreted aggression as anger or hatred. i dont teach my son to hurt others or to be insensative to someone who gets hurt by accident but i do teach him that when it comes down to sport that it is ok to take the ball from them because that is the name of the game.

i played a lot of organized sports growing up but my favorite was American football. i played offense an defense but mostly played defensive tackle or middle linebacker. both positions require a certain level of aggression. while it was my goal to impose my will on my opponents andit was often my job to push people around and lord willing throw my body into a quarterback at full speed it was never ny intention to hurt anyone but what i did just couldnt have been done without some emotion.

i didnt take that aggression home with me. i brought with me from home and usually left it all on the field.

also i dont believe for a second that rugby players dont play with aggression.

yes i know that defensemen arent supposed to score goals. i wad merely stating that in lieu of having the opportunity of scoring a goal he put on a defensive clinic. i dont care if he never scores another goal as long as he goes out on the field and gives 110% like he did last saturday.

[IADad]

Originally Posted by Jeremy+3

Someone in defense shouldn't be scoring.

he's seven, probably playing 5 on 5, "positions" are a bit more "flexible."

I think part of the discussion here is what exactly agression means. I agree with Phil that a certain "aggressiveness" is needed to compete adequately.

The only sport I can think of with out much of any aggression is golf, you're really playing against the course not your oppponent, there's nothing you do legally against another player (other than to put yourself so far ahead that they must take ridiculous chances trying to catch you, which, I guess is maybe passive aggressive...;-)