Youth Sports: Being an Individual on a Team

The definition for uniform is having one form. This seems to be an issue for my kids who like to stand out for some reason. Both my son and my daugther tend to find a small way to set themselves apart. 

For example, In baseball, my son often wears one pant leg up and one down. Last week, I had to talk him out of buying bright yellow basketball shoes for his black and red team. He eventually bought black Adidas Adizero Basketball shoes. These shoes come in three options - all black, black / red and black / green. Despite playing for a black and red team, he opted the the black and green. He said, "dad the black is for the uniform and the green stripe that doesn't match is for my personality."

My daughter is no different. She decided to put on a pair of crazy socks for one game. She wore one all red sock and one black and white striped sock. 


Her coach thought it was a hoot, so he bought the entire team crazy socks. He placed 10 completely different pairs of socks with red, black, white or grey in a bag and had each girl reached in a picked out two mismatched socks. He even wore a pair of crazy socks himself. My daughter was proud that she started this. I wonder if she likes being a trendsetter more than standing out. Time will tell.


The Main Point


Kids can be individuals while being a good teammate.