http://m.startribune.com/?id=216860491

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New “Victory Games” camp is all about winning and losing and the benefits from both experiences.
Article by: Jeremy Olson , Star Tribune

Updated: July 24, 2013 - 10:16 PM

Grace Savage looked pint size as the 10-year-old leaned her shoulder into the stock of a shiny replica assault rifle.

With a calm pull of the trigger, she fired the .22-caliber weapon and sent a bullet flying inches above the target.

“OK, now this time aim a little lower,” counseled the instructor, Kurt Brouillet. “See if you can hit the 2.”

Thwack. A bullet hole appeared on the white paper target, an inch above the numeral.



Tiny girls shooting big guns isn’t the only unusual sight at the first Victory Games summer camp, created at the Sealed Mindset gun range and self-defense training facility in New Hope. In a week, campers learn shooting, archery, self-defense, knot-tying, tactical decisionmaking and compression-only CPR — and then put those skills to work in competitive games in which teams of two compete against each other to win the Victory Games.

It’s a little like “The Hunger Games,” only instead of life and death, the Victory Games is all about winning and losing and the benefits that can come from either one.

The camp is aimed at one side of a child development debate that is far from settled — whether children’s activities should promote self-esteem so children gain confidence or whether they should allow winning and losing so children instead gain perseverance.

Ex-Navy SEAL Lawrence Yatch created the camp for the first time this summer as a countercultural experience — one that places expectations and responsibilities on the campers and eschews the notion that they all should receive participation medals.

“Learning by nature depends on failure,” Yatch said. “By creating an environment where everyone wins, you’ve by nature made failure a bad thing, whereas failure should be celebrated. Perseverance should be celebrated.”

‘Not everyone is going to win’

The Victory Games concept appealed to parents of the dozen children in the first camp, including Grace’s mother, Heather Savage of Princeton, who said the competition offers valuable lessons about real life.

“Not everyone is going to win the three-legged race,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you spit on them for losing. But it doesn’t mean that nobody loses.”

Activities are diverse enough to give kids of different ages and abilities opportunities to win, and bonus points are awarded when any of the campers display sportsmanship, teamwork or leadership. The teams can then spend their points, strategically, on items to make the final contests at the end of the week easier, such as scopes for the guns they use in target shooting or lighter medicine balls to carry in relay races

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There sure is a lot of ex-navy seals in the world.

It is really sad and troubling that placing "expectations and responsibilities" on kids is now considered a "counterculture experience".

We need more camps like this.   And our country needs more "expectations and responsibilities" placed on parents and kids alike.

That camp sounds like fun.