At the younger levels of soccer I noticed the kids were often just waiting for their turn to get the ball, or for the ball to come their way, and it occurred to me that we’re basically trying to get them to unlearn some stuff we’d spent the first five years or so teaching them.

So true. Most parent spend lots of time to have their baby walk and talk just to tell them later to sit down and be quiet.
Just buy every player a ball. That way they don’t have to fight over it. This goes for all professional sports as well. They get paid millions and they can’t buy their own ball? Silly. And hey… sew up the hole in that basketball net too. Has nobody noticed that? Sports are silly.
We should give everyone a ball by FORCE!
Panel 2 is still tamer than the usual “Smash him! Break his legs!” That I hear at football stadia!
Yepp, I what you cited is among the lighter verbal offenses 😀
Is this for professional sports, or like 12-year-olds in this comic?
Yes
Hockey parents…. not to be scorned, esp the hockey moms….
Had a friend in high school. He got up every day at 05:30 to get to the rink (hockey goalie). He ate the right things. He never got a rest. And his dad wanted him to be a Chiropractor (professional) and to get a shot at professional hockey.
He didn’t really seem to want to get up that early every day and he seemed lukewarm.
Always felt his wanted to live through his son….
that’s because you go from playful activity to competitive sport where winning is more important than your life
the way some coaches go, losing is worse than living.
I thought the real important thing in men’s soccer / fitba was making the best dives to draw cards for the other team and exaggerated injury to justify underwhelming performance….
(The gals just get up, get back playing without the drama)
Hindsight. Gotta love it. 🤣
To me, the difference is one they are playing together and the other they aren’t. I generally don’t teach my kids to “wait their turn” when it comes to play. I teach them to play together wherever possible.
I’ve always greatly enjoyed the fact that we teach children that it is wrong to lie, only to force them into an adult world that couldn’t function if people told each other the truth all the time.
Oh God, this so much. Everything is lying.
No, that only one guard. The other guard only tells the truth.
You have one question.
What would Eldest Gruff tell me to do???
I disagree, telling the truth is the most powerful thing you can do as an adult. The best people I know dont go around lying to people about anything. Telling the truth does make you enemies, but the sort of people who’ll only be your friend if you lie for them or to them arent people you want in your foxhole when the going gets tough, because they’ll get going.
Buddy, if you think there are people who don’t lie about anything, I fear you’re a little gullible. Whether it’s white lies or lies of omission, everybody lies, because people cannot stand hearing the truth all the time. I’m not talking people who’ll only be your friend if you lie for them, that’s a contrived example. I’m talking about the dozens if not hundreds of people you know, who aren’t helped in any way by hearing everything you think of them, or vice versa. I’m talking about telling someone something positive when they’re happy with something they got, even if… Read more »
not telling somebody something that will hurt them if its true, does hurt them more than not knowing it. If they do know it, then telling them how to resolve the situation or outlook is the solution, not lying about it or around it. I dont think I’ve ever had a situation with an employer where I’ve hated their guts or didnt respect them and remained employed with them. If you dont respect your boss, then why are you working there? Why are they in charge of you if there isnt something somebody found worth respecting? If your boss will… Read more »
It’s telling that you wrote so much text arguing that you simply don’t count things as lies if you think they serve a social purpose, which entirely proves the point. Let me put this in no uncertain terms. The moment you are not honest, you are by definition lying. The fact that you need to distinguish between an ‘autistic info dump’ and some other form of truth, means that you have just classified lies as truthful because that suits you better. Whether or not something is a lie isn’t a matter of consequence, it is a matter of the statement… Read more »
Is that because people don’t want to accept responsibility for their mistakes/issues and get upset/violent when somebody elae points them out?
Not exactly, it’s because you don’t need to turn pointing out a mistake into a personal attack. Amongst lots of other things, of course.
Life. Always trying to get you to unlearn the lessons you already learned.
less so “unlearn” and more so “layered understanding”
Holy shit, someone on the internet spelled “Psych” correctly. This is truly the endtimes.
My kids (9 and 12) always make a lot of noise when going downstairs after waking up early and I always beg them “can’t you just sleep in!” knowing that in a couple of years I’ll be yelling “IT’S 11AM GET OUT OF BED YOU LAZY KIDS!” 😅
I mean it is from an outside perspective ironic. However in context one kid is playing by himself with a ball. In the other the ball is being used to play a sport.
I coached 4-10 year olds in football (soccer) for years. Teaching them to not be afraid of the ball and to kick with a purpose was always lesson 1.
So when do we get back to Analog and D-Pad? Not that I don’t enjoy these strips, but I’m really chomping at the bit to find out what happens to Lucas and Ethan next.
that applies to far too many lessons in life
Isn’t that how it goes with learning? We learn one thing, then expand on it in a way that sometimes seems counter-intuitive. I’d view it as the first panel being someone playing a solo campaign, (step two would be playing a co-op campaign), and the final panel is vs.
Isn’t soccer turn based?
Is teaching kids about context difficult?
Teaching kids the concepts of sharing, and giving way to others is important at the right age, otherwise they become poorly socialized for collaboration, and become socially ostracized by other children because they lack the social graces to be likable. This can create a negative cycle of continued negative social behavior that spirals. Its extremely important to teach children the correct social lessons in the correct order. Thankfully, we have a rough instinctual understanding of *when* this is required, but there are whole libraries written on the subject of child rearing. Additionally, men and women will have alternative instincts for… Read more »
Sure, I’ll bite.
Yes, it is literally difficult in every way.
First you teach the concept of sharing and collaboration, then you teach competition. The first is required so the shared agreement to the rules of the game are accepted. You want to play the game, and they want to play the game, you want to win, they want to win. You have to learn that collaboration must exist to have the game be played, otherwise you will not get to play the game. Properly socializing children for shared activity then allows for them to have the proper tools to process how to engage with a competitive game with Grace. Life… Read more »
I have coached my kids in 4-6 soccer. Every kid wants to run to the ball to go score, but when it’s time to defend…yeah this is the problem. “Don’t let them shoot take it from them!”
At that age, being able to even kick a ball hard and accurately enough to roll into the goal zone is a complex achievement on its own.
There is a big difference: In the first case, it is a question of consent. In the second case consent was given automatically by joining the game.