Parents Parents giving Financial Rewards for Young Atheletes

[gymjunkie]

This excerpt may help explain why kids who are not bribed out-perform/work harder than those who are...

REWARDS VS. ACHIEVEMENT

Rewards are no more helpful at enhancing achievement than they are at fostering good values. At least two dozen studies have shown that people expecting to receive a reward for completing a task (or for doing it successfully) simply do not perform as well as those who expect nothing (Kohn, 1993). This effect is robust for young children, older children, and adults; for males and females; for rewards of all kinds; and for tasks ranging from memorizing facts to designing collages to solving problems. In general, the more cognitive sophistication and open-ended thinking that is required for a task, the worse people tend to do when they have been led to perform that task for a reward.

There are several plausible explanations for this puzzling but remarkably consistent finding. The most compelling of these is that rewards cause people to lose interest in whatever they were rewarded for doing. This phenomenon, which has been demonstrated in scores of studies (Kohn, 1993), makes sense given that "motivation" is not a single characteristic that an individual possesses to a greater or lesser degree. Rather, intrinsic motivation (an interest in the task for its own sake) is qualitatively different from extrinsic motivation (in which completion of the task is seen chiefly as a prerequisite for obtaining something else) (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Therefore, the question educators need to ask is not how motivated their students are, but how their students are motivated.

The full article is here: Link Removed

 

[Faith]

Don't professional/elite athletes get paid according to results?

Fairly sure football (soccer ) players here get bonuses per goal. Didn't the us gymnasts get promised money for winning?

 

[momto2js]

There are 3 parent of children in my sons training group that generally watch practice because we live far enough away going home isn't a viable option. We have made the agreement that when the first of our children FINALLY gets a kip, the other two will buy lunch for the lucky parent!! I'm not sure about rewards for kids but I'm totally ok with rewards for parents.

 

[gracyomalley]

Oh,, yes, and going out for a drink/happy hour appetizers when your child finally does the trick she could do 2 years ago then "lost" with puberty has been done occ...while the kids practice - after all, all the trying not to let the kid know you are frustrated, worried, sad, mad, ready to let them quit, not ready to let them quit, etc takes a lot out of a parent!

 

[gymjunkie]

Don't professional/elite athletes get paid according to results?

Didn't the us gymnasts get promised money for winning?

Yes, and you notice the gymnasts all retire quickly after they get the payoff! None of the WAG Olympians even stick around to compete in college.

 

[htimcj]

Yes, and you notice the gymnasts all retire quickly after they get the payoff! None of the WAG Olympians even stick around to compete in college.

They CAN'T compete in college because they have been paid. Once you are an Olympian and choose to go professional ( Not all Olympians go professional and get paid) they are no long eligible to compete at the college level and there is basically nothing left for them to do competition wise.

 

[gymjunkie]

They CAN'T compete in college because they have been paid. Once you are an Olympian and choose to go professional ( Not all Olympians go professional and get paid) they are no long eligible to compete at the college level and there is basically nothing left for them to do competition wise.

Yes, I know that, but most who had maintained their amateur status up until the Olympics (and who had originally planned to compete college and/or train for a second Olympics) instead retired once money was offered. Don't get me wrong, I would take the millions too My point is their motivation to workout and get even better diminished once they got paid, which is why we don't typically see 2X Olympians in the USA as seen in other countries.

 

[Faith]

which is why we don't typically see 2X Olympians in the USA as seen in other countries.

I think in the US you don't see 2x olympians because you have such depth of talent. It's hard to train and stay injury free for 4 years, knowing there are younger athletes coming up whose bodies are fresher and have taken less of a beating.

 

[BlairBob]

I also think the stipends paid by other countries is different than a parent paying a kid. These are not young kids but elite athletes and the money helps them afford continuing in the sport.

In the US, our school-age(youth) and junior athletes actually can get a small stipend in Weightlifting. National team members get stipends as well and bare in mind that most of our Sr National team girls are 16-18. Not sure about the Jr National team.

 

[wgymmom]

DD gets an ice cream treat for certain big skills, and maybe a book or a poster she's asked for. It's not bribery, just reward.

 

[gymdog]

USAG national team has training stipends. But obviously it's still very different than some other countries like China.

 

[gymjunkie]

I think in the US you don't see 2x olympians because you have such depth of talent. It's hard to train and stay injury free for 4 years, knowing there are younger athletes coming up whose bodies are fresher and have taken less of a beating.

Yes, so many reasons... Please don't think I was trying to suggest there was only one!

 

[sce]

Yes, I know that, but most who had maintained their amateur status up until the Olympics (and who had originally planned to compete college and/or train for a second Olympics) instead retired once money was offered. Don't get me wrong, I would take the millions too My point is their motivation to workout and get even better diminished once they got paid, which is why we don't typically see 2X Olympians in the USA as seen in other countries.

This did not happen to all of them. Shannon Miller made a lot of money but stuck it out for a second Olympics. Also, it is a tough sport to continue for that long, many have peaked when they make the Olympics, and their bodies just don't have it in them to stay with it for too much longer.

 

[BlairBob]

Once you stop and take a break, it's hard to regain that focus of being "ON."

Do this stuff for 10-15 years and after a break, it's just too easy to keep it that way.

 

[LJL07]

Just wanted to comment that I picked up the book jordyn wieber's mom wrote a while back and was thumbing through it. She offered incentives for scores and getting new skills. I just thought that was funny in light of this discussion.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

We've done dairy queen blizzards as a reward when shes gotten a big skill... and shes been fighting with her bhs on beam for so long she asked me if she could get a new leotard if she got it, so I said yes. Thats pretty much the extent of it though.

 

[cbifoja]

I'll cop to doing it and say that it was totally ineffective and I won't do it again.

I buy leos because I like to buy leos. We go out to eat because she's hungry after the meet. New skills get a high five and a hug but nothing tangible.

These things might be motivating to some kids but my DD's personality makes her fixate on whatever her goal is.....but not in a good way so it isn't a strategy I employ.

 

[l.c.o]

We do ice cream for making big skills at two consecutive practices or for 'getting over' fears. But we look at it as a "celebration" not a payment.

During DD's first season (old L4), DH jokingly told her he'd get her a puppy if she took 1st in any event at state, knowing she wouldn't do it. I was unbelievably ticked for a variety of reasons. The following year, she repeated the level and asked DH for the same promise. He said 1st AA only. She missed it by just .05. She got a guinea pig for Christmas.

Currently, we have a moratorium on such promises.

 

[BlairBob]

Big skills often used to get Ice Cream from me though one girl asked for scones. I bought Erik 2 cartons when he got his kip and his mom swore he was gonna destroy it in a week. Then again, he was underweight and had a hard time eating so easy kcals (GERD issues).

One girl asked for a chocolate bar. The days she didn't get her kip, I ate it. Because chocolate.

 

[dani4]

I'm in the "celebrate successes but not as a reward that is promised ahead of time" camp. Part of my reasoning is that my kids are already little lawyers and I do not wish to open a round of negotiations about "if I do x I will get y." Obviously they are really too young for this to apply to gymnastics, but this is how I feel about everything- potty training, learning the alphabet, eating your dinner, etc. We have started to slip down the "finish your dinner if you want dessert" slope and it is painful enough. Not going there with anything else, and I'd really like to get out of the "dessert as reward for dinner" business. It's totally effed up.

I'm also an Alfie Kohn fan, although I think he comes across as too extreme sometimes. I agree with everything he says but I understand that his ideas will never be accepted in the mainstream. Even my husband has issues with his arguments against grades (he is in the education business himself), though he agrees with the anti homework sentiment for kids <10 years old.