I get a real kick out of all the amateur players that say things like, “Tournaments shouldn’t be handicapped.” Or, “If you’re not good enough – stay home.” The common theme is that if you’re not good enough you just need to practice more.
Those of you that are opposed to handicapped tournaments or even leagues, have you ever stopped to think about the fact that almost all sports in this country are handicapped in one form or another? When we start children out in youth sports what do we do? We divide them up by age. After just a few years, the better players will migrate to club sports where they will play against teams of similar caliber. As they get even older and they play team sports for their high schools what do we do? We divide them up by class. Now when someone plays on a state championship level team in one of the lower divisions, do you say to them “Well, you guys really didn’t accomplish much because you were playing in the Class B championship.”? I certainly hope not.
Even collegiate sports are handicapped by division. On and on it goes.
Professional sports aren’t handicapped though right? Wrong! Even there, you have limits on how good your favorite team can be since they are bound by salary caps.
I guess the only place left that the “No Handicapping Crowd” can point to is the other individual sports – like golf and tennis. Unfortunately for them, even there you will find different leagues and different competition levels.
So for all you anti-handicappers out there – lighten up a bit. There’s nothing wrong with handicapping. It’s everywhere in sports and it serves a very valuable purpose in our world. Without it, I’m afraid this game of ours would have died long ago.
Those of you that are opposed to handicapped tournaments or even leagues, have you ever stopped to think about the fact that almost all sports in this country are handicapped in one form or another? When we start children out in youth sports what do we do? We divide them up by age. After just a few years, the better players will migrate to club sports where they will play against teams of similar caliber. As they get even older and they play team sports for their high schools what do we do? We divide them up by class. Now when someone plays on a state championship level team in one of the lower divisions, do you say to them “Well, you guys really didn’t accomplish much because you were playing in the Class B championship.”? I certainly hope not.
Even collegiate sports are handicapped by division. On and on it goes.
Professional sports aren’t handicapped though right? Wrong! Even there, you have limits on how good your favorite team can be since they are bound by salary caps.
I guess the only place left that the “No Handicapping Crowd” can point to is the other individual sports – like golf and tennis. Unfortunately for them, even there you will find different leagues and different competition levels.
So for all you anti-handicappers out there – lighten up a bit. There’s nothing wrong with handicapping. It’s everywhere in sports and it serves a very valuable purpose in our world. Without it, I’m afraid this game of ours would have died long ago.