It has been suggested that if success means nothing to a child, not cheating and sacrificing victory is easy. Placing importance on success, however, and giving the young athlete the opportunity to sacrifice victory in order to play by the rules teaches a valuable sportsmanship lesson. Thus, for moral or sportsmanship decisions to be meaningful for the young athletes, some emphasis must be placed on winning. When too great of an emphasis is placed on winning, however, it becomes the only objective and sportsmanship is often forgotten. Although sveral procedures have been outlined for developing sportsmanship in young athletes, it is unrealistic to think that coaches will always be successful in attaining this objective.
Socialization is an imperfect process.
Thus, despite the concientious efforts of adult leaders, young athletes may not develop good sportsmanship. Attititude development and change often requires a considerable length of time. Thus, coaches and other adult leaders should realize that not every child they teach will develop good sportsmanship. Adult leaders can and do have an enormous effect on some children, but it is not always apparent which children they are influencing. For this reason adult leaders should structure practices and games to allow children the greatest opportunity to learn good sportsmanship.