I love to see examples of great sportsmanship! Otherwise, it’s sometimes too easy to forget that a sport is a game.
There’s a great quote by former Major League Baseball player Ken Griffey, Jr.:
“I go out there and have fun. It’s a game, and that’s how I am going to treat it.”
That can be applied to many aspects of life. Enjoying every moment of sport and life will help us keep things in perspective.
And I like the Chant Chargers Volleyball Rules to Play By (find link on page to download rules). There are lots of great quotes in their rules along with some rules of sportsmanship.
Always be a good sport, no matter how the game ends.
If we lose …
• Don’t get mad! ( There’s always the next game! )
• Don’t be a whiner!
• Don’t blame it on the refs!
• Don’t blame it on your teammates!
• Don’t have a bad attitude … it’s JUST a game.
• Think about what you can to do play better or improve our game next time.
No one likes to play with a poor loser.
If you’re a good sport, more kids will want to play with you and you’ll have more fun.
If we win …
• Don’t show off
• Don’t rub the other team’s face in it
It’s fun to celebrate a victory, but don’t overdo it!
ALWAYS congratulate your opponents and your teammates for playing well.
Be an example to others. There is always someone watching and listening to you. We represent ourselves, the Lady Chargers [insert your own team or club], our family, and God. We want to be good role models for those around us!
Win With Style, Lose With Style
“Win with Style, Lose with Style” Word-Art Freebie
Showing good sportsmanship isn’t always easy. That’s probably why we all appreciate examples of great sportsmanship so much. Here are some other posts I published with examples of great sportsmanship.
Here are a couple more examples of great sportsmanship:
An example from June 2010 – “Perfect Sportsmanship – No hard feelings between pitcher and the umpire who denied him a perfect game.”
An example from this week – “Teen rowers give up medal dreams to help capsized foes” from Yahoo Sports.
Whatever our sport or challenge in life is, I hope we can all learn to win with style, lose with style.
Photo Credit: Photo by Kathy McEldowney at Flickr Creative Commons (License).
Linked with Thought-Provoking Thursday.
Love it! My son just finished up his football game. It was mostly a losing year. However, after each game we talked about “his game”. We always said, “You had a great game” and we discussed everything he did right. It makes losing with style a little easier!
Thanks, Betsy! What an awesome Zen Mama! What you did was so perfect … love it! 🙂