Athletes and Apologies

Question for all of you to think on. What sort of environment has been created when athletes are constantly apologizing as come off the field for a substitution?

In the past few years I have been noticing more and more that when I work with players for the first time and I sub them off the field, they are always apologizing to me, even though I am meeting them with a high five and a "great work out there!" type of comment.

This has me thinking that fundamentally, as a system, something is wrong. My main job these days is not so much soccer coach, it is more hype man. I am wondering what all of you think about where this starts and why it seems to be permeating the entire space of youth sports.

I would like to suggest that we need to strongly reconsider what we are saying to our athletes, students, kids, etc., if they are always feeling like they need to apologize for playing a game.

What do we think about this one...?

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