Winning or Losing-Gracefully!

I have often seen children crying at the playground or on the Sports Day. One of the reasons is lack of acceptance of failure by today’s younger generation. Nowadays games and sports are more about winning and losing rather than the child’s strengths and abilities. Games and sports have stopped being fun and enjoyment. They are all about competition. Hence, it has become essential to teach a child about healthy competition.

A sense of competition is good for the child as long as he learns to play rationally with the motive of finding his abilities. But along with competition, comes the greed to win which stops the child from being a good sportsperson. He should be taught that at the end of the day it is not about winning or losing but about how well you have played the game.

Some of the strategies to help the child develop a positive approach to sports and games are:

1. No one wins all the time: Winning and Losing is a part of every game. It has to be dealt with positively. A child should be taught that nobody always wins. Losing is a part of game and has to be taken with good spirit.
2. Learn from the mistakes: Help the child focus on the mistakes he made that lost him the game and how he can do better next time.
3. Explain rules: Explain the rules of each game/sport to the child that he needs to follow.
4. Play with different age groups: Playing with children younger or older than him will only motivate the child to deal with different situations in same game. He will learn how he could help children younger than him understand and play the game, while learning the important strategies of the game from the older ones.
5. Taking turns: Teach him how to play a fair game. Ask him to give chances and wait for his turn. Teach him to give all fellow players a fair chance at winning.
6. Point out the positives: Point out his strengths displayed in the losing game so that he can hone them for the next game.
7. Let him lose sometimes: Play games with the child, consciously trying to beat the child in a few of them so that he learns to do better and learns from your success.
8. Be a role model: Lose some games while playing against him to show him how you react positively and with assertive attitude. Teach him to be a gracious loser.
9. Give Hope: Tell the child “There is always a next time. Losing the game only sharpens you for a better game next time.”
10. Team games: Introducing the child to team games will only make the child learn how to cooperate with the team and compete with the opposing team.
11. Focus on the main purpose: Remind the child the main reason of playing a game i.e. enjoying oneself rather than worrying about winning or losing.
12. Don’t compare your children with others: A child is sometimes unable to accept his loss because he is compared by parents and is always expected to be Jack of all trades.

Winning is a great feeling but a person is a good sportsperson only if he can also sympathize with and care about the feelings of the losing team. Teach the child that bragging and boasting after winning a game is not essential. As a parent we always want our children to win but losing only teaches him to stand up for challenges in real life. With this you can always let your child play on!