August
11-12-13, 07:59 PM
A friend just turned me on to him and I haven't read much of his stuff yet but he speaks with absolute truth here:
Well, it’s the Youth Craze that’s sweeping the nation: Silent Saturday.
Yup, that’s what they called it in the New York Times: a chance for kids playing in soccer leagues to do so without all of the annoying cheering and rooting and encouragement from parents on the sidelines, and in some cases, even the coaches have to keep it buttoned so that they don’t put too much pressure on the kids by, you know, reminding them to fall back when the other team has the ball… stuff like that.
I’ve actually been to one of these Silent Saturday games. It’d be a stretch to say the kids were miserable – they weren’t. They were just confused. They looked to coaches who couldn’t coach; they scored a goal, let’s say, and watched their parents leap to their feet, lean forward, and almost literally put their hand over their mouths to stop from shouting “Way to go Jordan!” which I suppose could have been damaging to the ego of any kids out there not named Jordan.
I’ll tell you what else was forbidden on that Silent Saturday: Parents were not only not allowed to cheer the kid who got the goal – they were also not allowed to comfort and reassure the kid who had to be the goalie.
It was Silent Saturday, all right. It was Solemn Saturday, is what it was. It looked to be about as much fun as silently staying home and taking a nap – both for the kids and the soccer moms, and dads, who had parted with their money and their precious free time to get their children out for team sports.
Look, the people who came up with this stuff are not bad people. But what things like Silent Saturday have really done is to rob these children of something very, very precious: because the main reason to enroll your child in team sports is so that they can learn how to lose.
https://www.billwhittle.com/afterburner/silent-saturday
Well, it’s the Youth Craze that’s sweeping the nation: Silent Saturday.
Yup, that’s what they called it in the New York Times: a chance for kids playing in soccer leagues to do so without all of the annoying cheering and rooting and encouragement from parents on the sidelines, and in some cases, even the coaches have to keep it buttoned so that they don’t put too much pressure on the kids by, you know, reminding them to fall back when the other team has the ball… stuff like that.
I’ve actually been to one of these Silent Saturday games. It’d be a stretch to say the kids were miserable – they weren’t. They were just confused. They looked to coaches who couldn’t coach; they scored a goal, let’s say, and watched their parents leap to their feet, lean forward, and almost literally put their hand over their mouths to stop from shouting “Way to go Jordan!” which I suppose could have been damaging to the ego of any kids out there not named Jordan.
I’ll tell you what else was forbidden on that Silent Saturday: Parents were not only not allowed to cheer the kid who got the goal – they were also not allowed to comfort and reassure the kid who had to be the goalie.
It was Silent Saturday, all right. It was Solemn Saturday, is what it was. It looked to be about as much fun as silently staying home and taking a nap – both for the kids and the soccer moms, and dads, who had parted with their money and their precious free time to get their children out for team sports.
Look, the people who came up with this stuff are not bad people. But what things like Silent Saturday have really done is to rob these children of something very, very precious: because the main reason to enroll your child in team sports is so that they can learn how to lose.
https://www.billwhittle.com/afterburner/silent-saturday