Champion mindset

Not everyone can be a champion.

Sadly, a world that used to be “dog-eat-dog” has lowered itself into the disgusting valley of optimism and false encouragement. It is almost laughable how some over-sensitive members of society have belittled the thought that there are losers and there are winners.

One of the most baffling and odd examples in the movement to wuss-ify our nation has started with, of course, our children. A proposition to ban dodgeball at recess in public schools has come up in many school districts across the country in the past few years.

Teachers, administrators and parents are well within their right to be concerned for the safety of their children. Lips get busted and arms get broken everyday — as a natural part of childhood.

So the U.S. should ban dodgeball because you don’t want your kid to find out that he just might not be champion material?

Well, Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly laughed at that reasoning, just like I did, when he wrote, “You mean there’s weak in the world? There’s strong? Of course there is, and dodgeball is one of the first opportunities in life to figure out which you are and how you’re going to deal with it.”

Now, to be fair, bullying happens. Some kids are gargantuan. Some are beanpoles.
It would be unrealistic to think that a few games of dodgeball haven’t led to an unfair push-and-pull of the gym class dork.

However, even the beanpole can dominate in dodgeball if he has the mind-set of a champion.

Let’s say that it’s down to the final round of dodgeball in an elementary gym class. Fifth grader Mikey, also known as “Slammer,” is on one side of the gym. Little JoJo is on the other side with his knobby knees and dirty tube socks.

Everyone stares in silence. How did that little scrawny kid make it to the end?

As Mikey thrusts the ball toward his small opponent, he thinks he has it in the bag. Little does he know, he’s dealing with a champion.

Sure, Little JoJo doesn’t have a powerful throwing arm, but he’s quick and determined. Instead of allowing himself to be hit just to sit on the side and watch someone else win like other kids in his class, he wants to be the last man standing.

Finding out his strength and playing to it, he catches each ball right before it knocks him over, defeating kids bigger than him one by one.Little JoJo’s mindset makes him a champion.

Games such as dodgeball test the weak and set the champions apart from the feeble. Parents should encourage the development of their children’s personal search for who they are, not shelter them with a false sense of safety and encouragement to give in to challenges.

The ban on dodgeball (and even tag!) is soft, to say the least. There must be losers in order to have champions, and if your child isn’t cut out to be a champion, you can beat yourself up about it and shelter them because of your own sense of failure, or you can let him find out on his own.

“Great achievers have a vision that they will succeed and sometimes even see the steps leading to their success," said Dr. Allan Snyder, director for the Centre of the Mind in Sydney.

"So, in my opinion, what makes a champion, and I mean a champion in the broadest sense, is a champion mindset. And, if you have done something great in one field, you are more capable of doing it in another.

Your champion mindset is the transferable commodity and not the skill itself. It is our mindsets that ultimately limit our expectations of ourselves and circumscribe our boundaries. It is our mindsets that determine whether or not we have the courage to challenge others and to expand our horizons.

Not everyone has this mindset, but it must be given the chance of discovery. By interrupting a child’s ability to find out his strengths and weaknesses on his own, you are not even allowing him to see if he is a champion or not."

So, to the parents and teachers babying our next generation, think about the destruction you’re causing.

The harsh reality is that not everyone is smart. Not everyone has the ability to be a doctor or lawyer. Not everyone can be an athlete. There must be weak to find the strong, slow to find the fast and dense to find the ingenious.

The circle of champions is a small one, but it’s a fight worth fighting.

Let your kid play dodgeball.


E-mail: aysymatz@indiana.edu