I have seen multiple discussions online recently about dealing with win oriented child... or, as I say, dealing with a sore loser.

It was intriguing to me to see a conversation break down into two different lines:

One school of thought said it was a good thing.

That this means their athlete was an uber competitor and that they would never lose.

They cited the example of Cristiano Ronaldo and how that was his attitude as a youth player.

The other school of thought? They thought poor sportsmanship was detrimental to the long term development.

Me?

I am inclined to agree with the second school of thought (though I see the merits from the first argument.)

I agree that we want our players to be aggressive and compete, and we do not want them to be tamped down.

However, I also want players that people respect as well. That they can say: "Wow, those are great players but even better people."

When people bring up this argument saying, "I don't want to quench the player’s fight or...