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Sportsmanship

Not running up the score is....?


  • Total voters
    30
As usual , a no vote.
I vote other.
These things are NOT black and white.
But people on all sides do tend to get "carried away".
This is one reason why we have rules and regulations.
 
It's not black and white issue...

For the younger kids, some sort of 'mercy rule' should come into effect once a team gets an unsurmountable lead...

Once in high school, the focus should be on the sportsmanship rather then the win or loss, but by that time the sportsmanship is how the teams HANDLE the score difference above and beyond the actual scores.

In the end, the goal is to have teams that compete on a 'friendly' basis... so that the players can enjoy the sport above and beyond being dependant on winning to have fun.
 
A W is a W. I see no point in running up a score simply because it is doable.
 
A W is a W. I see no point in running up a score simply because it is doable.

What is the alternative? To tell kids to stop doing their best when they are winning?

Maybe to hand the ball over to the other team and say "Hey, you suck so bad that were are going to give you a pity point."
 
What is the alternative? To tell kids to stop doing their best when they are winning? Maybe to hand the ball over to the other team and say "Hey, you suck so bad that were are going to give you a pity point."
The alternative? Pull your starters one at a time and substitute. Give the other members of the team/squad some playing time and experience.

Towards the end of the season and playoff time, it won't matter a whit if you beat a terrible team by 10 or 100 points. What will matter is having your starters healthy with plenty of gas remaining in the tank and your bench players having some game experience and confidence.

This is the approach that the best coaches/managers take. Running up a score is unproductive on many different levels.
 
The alternative? Pull your starters one at a time and substitute. Give the other members of the team/squad some playing time and experience.

Towards the end of the season and playoff time, it won't matter a whit if you beat a terrible team by 10 or 100 points. What will matter is having your starters healthy with plenty of gas remaining in the tank and your bench players having some game experience and confidence.

This is the approach that the best coaches/managers take. Running up a score is unproductive on many different levels.

I am not sure we are discussing the same thing. This was the question posed by the OP.

Assume that a youth sports team so completely outclasses its opposet that it can score at will, and while doing so, completely shut its opponent out..

Is it good or poor sportsmanship for the superior team to hold back and not run up the score?

When I was on a youth sports team, everyone got a chance to play every game anyway regardless of the score. Moms and dads are paying for their kid to get a chance to play, so there is no way any youth sports coach is going to keep anyone on the bench and stick around for long.

The question is verbatim whether or not "the superior team to hold back."

Telling kids to hold back does no one any good.
 
Because of someting that happend over the weekend...

Assume that a youth sports team so completely outclasses its opposet that it can score at will, and while doing so, completely shut its opponent out..

Is it good or poor sportsmanship for the superior team to hold back and not run up the score?

Please 'splain your answer.

The better team should put in all of its reserves at a certain point and not play its starters. If they are still smashing them, then they should politely inquire with the other coach and see if they want to continue, most coaches would be entirely cool about that.

Simply running up a score though, that is pretty classless... nothing to get angry about, if I had the losing team I would ask the other coach to put in reserves, and if they didn't, I would call the game if my team agreed.

I coach girls varsity soccer, and one game we had only nine players. I talked to the other coach and he only played ten players, since we were a better team and if they started winning by much he would drop to nine. well, we actually started winning and he put on an eleventh player to our nine and we still scored and won 4-0. This was just a few weeks ago. He was cool about it.

On a proud note, we came in 2nd in our territory this year, up from 3rd last year!!! :2razz:
 
What is the alternative? To tell kids to stop doing their best when they are winning?

Maybe to hand the ball over to the other team and say "Hey, you suck so bad that were are going to give you a pity point."

you don't tell them to stop doing their best, but instead you have them work on different skills... passing and ball control, depending on the sport. In soccer, there is a ton of other things that we work on. We were beating some teams by 9 or 10 goals with reserves in. We worked on other things instead of winning 25-0, as we could have, we won 14-0 and 16-0. We changed our keeper and put in a 4th defender and defensive sweeper and worked on defense, and that helped us in the playoffs and tournament. ;)
 
I think one of the main problems is defining what "holding back" actually is. Some people might see holding back as not having the individual players playing their best while others could see it as a coach playing the game differently than if his opponents were better, i.e. putting in 2nd or lower stringed players, calling fewer intricate plays, etc.

I think either would be correct, but see the former as bad sportsmanship, and the latter as good.

It would suck to find out that your team was stomped hard by a team that was actually giving a mediocre performance. And it really wouldn't be beneficial to the losing team because they wouldn't really be able to get a good assessment of how much more they need to learn.

I don't see a problem though with using such a game to allow normally-benched players a chance to play a real game. And it seems to me that using the more intricate plays during a game like this would just be wasted because chances are really good that other teams that you play will be much better at defending against them.
 
I didn't answer your poll question because I feel that the context of the game/situation will effect the answer.

For young kids..ie little league, etc.....Running up the score would be poor sportsmanship, imo

For almost any adult competition, I think it would not be poor sportsmanship & may actually be quite beneficial in getting a point across. (especially in any political context)
 
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Maybe some effort should be made to make the teams more even in the first place.
 
Maybe some effort should be made to make the teams more even in the first place.

Huh? If our school has a better pool of talent, you are saying what? That we should give the other team some of our players so that they can compete evenly?

Should the NBA have every team be equal? How does that even happen? There are only so many good players and coaches out there, in reality.
 
Huh? If our school has a better pool of talent, you are saying what? That we should give the other team some of our players so that they can compete evenly?

Should the NBA have every team be equal? How does that even happen? There are only so many good players and coaches out there, in reality.

The NBA are not kiddo leagues
 
The NBA are not kiddo leagues

Really? I mean, heck, Kobe was just a kid when he entered the league, others too, but that is a different point. I think that comparing the NBA to five-year old youth soccer is a perfect analogy. Well, even though the thread is about sportsmanship in general... well, I don't know. Just seems relevant somehow. Oh... how? ooh ooh I know, it has nothing to do with the actual age of participants, but with what is known as a "pool of talent" thus making all teams in any league "even" next to impossible. ;)
 
Huh? If our school has a better pool of talent, you are saying what? That we should give the other team some of our players so that they can compete evenly?

Should the NBA have every team be equal? How does that even happen? There are only so many good players and coaches out there, in reality.

There are owners/coaches/managers of professional sports franchises who have agreed that evening out talent among the teams is better for the sport.

Which, of course, is partially business-driven, but the principle still works the same way.
 
There are owners/coaches/managers of professional sports franchises who have agreed that evening out talent among the teams is better for the sport.

Which, of course, is partially business-driven, but the principle still works the same way.

But the talent isn't even in the NBA, just as it isn't even in any other sport at any other level...
and that is the whole point.
 
how would you arrange that?

Actually, the one place I could see this being arranged is a community league. Schools and professionally would be harder and not really fair. It would have to be a setting where the kids sign up and will be put on teams decided by a committee or community board or something similar after they go through some form of tryouts. This is really the only way I can think of it being a fair way to divvy up the talent of children.

Now, granted it still may not work. Any child playing may get better throughout the season or get hurt or sick. Either of these situations could offset that initial balance of talent. But that would just have to be an accepted part of the game.
 
Usually, the winning team puts in its own bench warmers to give them a chance to play.
 
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