A trophy the way it should be.

[Wish]

Now that's how ya keep kids in the sport. Givem something to be proud of and worth displaying. Well done.

 

[J3]

That kid is an animal.....and skied his tail off to win that trophy! I can't remember how many matchups he went through, but it was at least 4 or 5, and that was after skiing 2 rounds. He crushed us old guys!

 

The Broho gang really know how to make tournament skiing fun. And when the event was done they were all over my promo boat with rags, wax, and interior cleaner.

[LLUSA]

Anybody remember the name of the trophy company that was affiliated with USAWS and made slalom jump or trick trophies? Believe they were on the east coast

[ski6jones]

That's some serious hardware. Congrats to him.

 

Is that his actual ski? If my ski was that much longer than I am tall I'd be on a 90" slalom ski.

[Mateo_Vargas]

@LLUSA might be Dinn Bros

[MichaelGoodman]

Has Dave signed him yet?

[Onside135]

Is that @GOODESkier's kid?

[ForrestGump]

Now THAT is what I've been talking about since I left the sport. I watch the new kids in BMX get trophies week after week and their parents tell me they will go so far as to go home and sleep with it. More tournaments need to find a way to do this.

[Wish]

I was near a dance school for kids the other day and watched 2 of the instructers haul a half a dozen huge a$$ trophys across the parking lot. Thought their little dance troop won something big...till I saw them chuck all of them into a dumpster. Now if they have so many they can toss them out, I'm thinkn they can't be too out of reach for tournaments.

 

It was small but had a heck of an impact on my daughter...course the boys helped with that. After that all she could see was her name on a ranking list....boring.. and dropped out at 13. Sad.

 

 

 

[jjackkrash]

@BoneHead nailed it.

[Horton]

 

[ntx]

As a parent with a child that played many sports at a high level, it got to the point that they are meaningless. Basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, and skiing. Few for participation, some for championships. Over the years, it got to the point that the important ones had no value. Regional and national medals left in the bottom of ski bags. Never removed or displayed because there were so many other ones. Really sad. I have several huge boxes of them in the attic. You hope some day they will want the important ones, but know that national medals will end up in the trash.

 

I remember many many years ago at a regional. A very high level boys3 skier that had just won overall with a big trophy. As he was walking back to the parking lot with it, a vendor commented about it. The kid stopped and said "I will trade it to you for a snow cone" not believing what I heard, I watched as the vendor gave the kid a snow cone in trade. The kid walked to his parents car with only the snow cone. I did not stay around to hear what the conversation was after that.

 

Lets give meaningful awards and not just awards

[Wish]

Would love to hear @Luzz weigh in on this.

[Luzz]

@wish, I will try my best to weigh in without offending anyone, though that's always likely to happen if one is to think seriously about delicate topics.

 

I'll start by thinking about this in a behaviorist perspective. The trophy is a reward if and only if it makes the behavior more likely to occur. Which begs the question of what the behavior is. If it is winning, well, that's not very likely to re-occur by virtue of giving a trophy. If it is skiing in general (so, ski more), then it becomes more complicated as the trophy would have to be aligned with the sources of motivation for the skiing:

If the young skier is skiing for parental recognition, and parents value the trophy, then giving trophies seem like a good strategy, provided parents recognize the young skier even when there is no trophy (whether because the skier didn't win or the tournament organizers did not provide a trophy). But I think is self-evident how this can spiral down quickly.

If the young skiers is skiing for results, then a trophy is a confirmation that you in fact obtained a result that was better than everyone else's on that day. It will certainly provide a rush of positive emotion, but very short-lasting. Sometimes, as short as noticing another source of positive emotion, like a snow cone. Besides, in sports and any quantifiable activity, the results are there way before a trophy is given, so I am not so sure that a kid needs that to be more likely to ski.

If the young skier is skiing because it is fun/enjoyable, then the trophy may or may not increase the likelihood of the kid skiing. If it is interpreted as a recognition of the achievement obtained while having fun, than it may reinforce a good pattern, namely "If I have fun, then I ski well AND I may get recognized".

 

Pertinent to my last point, I think a more cognitive or existential approach can shed some light. That is, "what does the trophy mean"? I think the range of potential meanings that the trophy has for a young athlete is drastically smaller than that of an older, more experienced athlete. Of course, this would have to be contextualized within different sports, so an 18yo gymnastics is as old and experienced (if not more) as a 30yo slalom skier. This is because the more experienced athlete has had more engagement with the activity, and consequently more ways to understand it, for the good and for the bad. Therefore, the range of potential meanings increases, and because a trophy indicates that this athlete was better than anyone else, it should bring good ones. So, for instance, a 30yo slalom skier who wins the World Championships could think of the sacrifices that his/her parents made to make the right training/equipment/traveling/etc possible. The trophy here brings appreciation, and I honestly cannot see anything wrong with that. A young, pre-adolescent or early adolescent athlete not only lacks the experiential baggage to make such connections, but also, from a straightforward developmental perspective, lacks the cognitive ability to do so.

 

My thinking seems to suggest that trophies would signify and therefore bring more long-lasting, positive consequences to older (non-junior) skiers. The pictures posted in this thread seem to suggest that I am wrong, as those kids look as happy as we would all want to be. It'd be interesting to see a video of the hours or even minutes after that.

 

Finally, let's just say that a lot of kids ski for parental recognition, which is completely plausible (as long as it doesn't last beyond adolescence). There are much more effective ways to show parental recognition than to smile back after a kid received a trophy. One of these would be spending time with the kid, which is the ultimate way to recognize something, meaning being there and paying attention. This is a very strong reward for children! The challenge is bringing them to get ice-cream even when, despite their best effort, they did not perform nearly as well as they (skier or parent) would have liked.

[Wish]

@Luzz thanks. Very insightful. While I think my daughter appreciated that trophy, I do not think it had any lasting impact and was very short lived. My wife was the smart one and repeatedly told me not to push skiing. I didn't. I think she stayed in skiing longer because of that and still skis occasionally. The other thing I think played an even bigger role was lack of other kids on our lake skiing (ok none). Even when other kids came over to learn to ski..there were many, I think she did not want to one up them by skiing the course. While I thought it would be an incentive with kids around, it was less. School team sports is where she thrived. It was all about doing it "for the team" like not quitting despite a horrible coach and talking others into not quitting. Even singles archery was more to her liking do to a team approach. Even though she was usually selected to shoot singles, the team got the points benefit of a one shooter vs one shooter win. Can you comment on this. Team aspect for incentive for youth vs being in what we have as a single ski against your own best structure in water ski tournaments. Most single sport entities in some way have points going to the team in youth sports in schools. Is there a correlation between drop out rate with teams vs singles sports for youth?

[RichardDoane]

 

We did little souvenirs for our first time tournament skiers.

[Horton]

This weekend

 

[pcmcon729]

Trophies are a great form of, "Reward and Recognition". Especially for young, beginner level skiers or those new to tournaments. I was a half way decent skier in the 90's and early 2000's, and yes, they started to just fill up boxes. But, I can tell a story about every one of them. Besides, I found a better use for them. I have a large number of nephews and nieces. I taught every one of them to ski. The first time they successfully skied behind the boat, completely without a boom, skis connected, or other assist, they were handsomely rewarded with one of my old trophies. Most of them are now in their late teens and early 20's, and they still talk about it. With my daughter, each breakthrough, (one ski, deep water start, completion of course) I add a new brass plaque to her big trophy. Ask her if she will ever part with that fine piece of hardware....

[jjackkrash]

My boy loves earning hardware. New karate belt, scout badges, trophy's, you name it. I have not really stopped to analyze the psychology of it all, I just enjoy seeing his face and how proud he looks when he earns a new badge, trophy or award. And the snow-cone story seems foreign to me; that is not my experience with my boy at all.

[ALPJr]

@Horton they are nice

[savaiusini]

As the skier who made it to the final head to head round with Jayden, I can easily say this kid loves the sport and more than anything, loves skiing with his dad @GOODESkier who is also a die-hard. I'm hoping for a rematch in the final next year. ;)