TheBanyanTree: Cheaters

[NancyIee at aol.com]

I do agree with you that childrens' sports have gotten out of the range of  
common sense and fun.  Sports are no longer fun. I can remember walking a  
dozen blocks in a Minnesota winter, with  siblings and neighborhood kids,  with my 
skates hung around my neck by their laces, to go to the ice rink in the  
park.  There, we would lace on the skates in a warming house, or in the  snowbank 
around the edge of the rink, and . . .skate.  Half of us skated on  the 
insides of our ankles, most of us fell down a dozen times, some were good,  able to 
skate backwards a few feet.  But . . .we had fun.
 
I have a friend whose granddaughter took skating lessons in an indoor  rink.  
Grandmother has pictures of her in her recital costume, then in her  
"competition" outfit , ,the granddaughter being four at the time.  The  parents 
uprooted the family to move to a location near a training center, so the  little 
girl could attend daily lessons and practice. At age seven, the girl  competed in 
a sort of mini olympics.  The costume cost the grandmother five  hundred 
dollars.
 
At age eight, the parents found the perfect partner, a little boy whose  
family had moved there also, to give their son the "edge" of daily lessons and  
practice. Now, the parents are grooming their little girl for "singles" as well  
as "pairs" competition.  The girl gets "school" by tutor coming to the  
house. There are no school friends, no school activities. There are no skating  
friends, since all the others are "threat".
 
"She loves it so much" the grandmother told me, showing me pictures of the  
most recent event, a competition in another country, where the family traveled, 
 the grandmother helped fund (the costume costing more then the other one.) 
and  the little girl is sequestered, and practice is secret, to avoid anyone 
seeing  their routine.  The first little boy twisted his knee (at age nine) and 
he  is out of the competition now, and another little boy recruited to be 
"partner",  The little girl does not like the new boy, because he can't spin very 
fast. so  he will be discarded for another.
 
"She loves it so much."  She is aiming at the junior olympics?   Heck no. She 
already has that "won".  She is aiming at the gold by the time  she is 
fifteen.
 
Where's the fun?
 
I will always remember the crude outdoor rink at Pershing Field, because we  
had FUN.
 
NancyLee



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com