I do believe in finals even at this age.

Kids strive to do well and sometimes they don’t but hey they understand that if the team plays well and win then they deserve a place in the finals.  The importance should always be participation and improvement but there is also a place for finals even for the young ones.  They love it!  Kids can learn a lot from winning and losing as well as healthy competition.  It is the backbone to a lot that happens within life not just sport and if we keep sheltering them from this I fear that they will not be strong enough in other things to cope with pressure from different areas of their life.

Experiencing highs and lows is all part of growing up – the continual reluctance to allow children not to be sad and disappointed is destroying a part of the growing process.  Kids cope with a lot more than we think.  Ladders, and who comes first, second or last, who makes finals and who doesn’t is all part of healthy competition.

If you want to see unhealthy competition for kids that usually comes from the parental aspect of children’s sport.

As far as a child who is playing up in older competition goes – our association has an age policy and it is very difficult to push a child ahead unless they are absolutely too good to play in their age group and there is a team in an older competition who needs players or if we do not have a team for them to play with in their own age group.  In juniors everyone would still get equal (or close to) amount of time on court.

Dianne

Brisbane