The Culture Behind Competitiveness

This is an excellent piece on how creating a challenging culture of competition is essential.

http://www.swimnews.com/News/view/10078

Too Much Too Soon...Too Much Too Easy....Rewarding Mediocrity ...are all dangerous avenues to go down.

one extract is

 The club or organisation that continuously hands out big benefits for small investments suggests that they have low expectations for kids to develop their own process for achievement. An example of such a reward system might be one that hands out huge trophies for winning at the lowest levels or supports extensive travel for beginning swimmers as an incentive for minimal achievement. This kind of culture of “too much, too soon and too easy” discourages youngsters from reaching for their potential as a person and as a swimmer.

enjoy the read