Camillus NY - Hot on the heels of cross country, Winter Track is back. After the success of Jim Vermeulen's XC Journal in the fall, we've asked again for him to provide some news and notes once a month this winter. Think of these as the thoughts that cross the mind of your average coach. Up from Section 3, we present you with "Thoughts From Three."
Squirrels In A Box:
Thoughts About 'Fun' in Our Sport
Coach Delsole started it. Following one bout of a Friday workout, our runners were standing around the outdoor basketball courts taking water. The modified runners were nearby, performing drills on the adjacent playing fields. Some of those neophyte runners were advancing through their drills with arms flapping crazily all over the place, while others lurched down the line, feet slapping on the grass like puppets with a broken string. All, it seemed by the level of noise, were having a ball. Coach eyed them and smiled. "Just like squirrels in a bag," he said to no one in particular. "But look out when you open the bag."
Everyone, of course, knows the clichés:
- "Fun is the point of the game."
- "It's got to be fun."
- "We just want them to go out there and have fun."
- "It won't last if it's not fun."
The articles accumulate in the magazines and on web sites, warning us how kids have lost the opportunity to have 'fun' in sports because of the over-organizing, the rabid coaching and the premature professionalizing of sports for young people. There is much to agree with in this new sub-genre of youth sports literature, but the question that always goes unanswered is this: what do you mean by fun?
Monday we found ourselves at Three Corners, the runners taking a pause after threshold training before setting back out on some general conditioning miles. It's unclear who instigated the topic, but Hunter had put the weekend to good use in contemplating that dilemma of managing squirrels in a bag. He hadn't even been to practice Friday, hearing the analogy second-hand from a teammate and then running with it. With a smirk he announced to Coach Delsole that he had solved the problem. I didn't even know there was a problem. Or whether, if so, this particular problem begged a solution. And who really cared, anyway, about extending that analogy beyond its original intent?
But, Hunter insisted, "I've got it figured out, coach."
Webster is of limited use regarding 'fun.' DW tells us that the noun fun has varied meanings:
- Someone or something that is amusing or enjoyable
- An enjoyable experience or person
- An enjoyable or amusing time
- The feeling of being amused or entertained
Coach Delsole telling his corny (though time-tested) jokes certainly falls into several of those categories. I don't do as well. By that reckoning, as a coach I'm not much 'fun' unless you count dry humor and strained analogies. Apply the accepted definitions, in fact, and there's a lot about distance training and racing that isn't all that 'fun.' Stop by a tough cross-country practice some afternoon. The ratio of 'fun' to not-so-fun tips pretty heavily toward the latter. But if fun is so essential, so mandatory to a success running experience, then why isn't there more of it? This makes you wonder how so many athletes can muster the resolve to return day after day to such a fun-challenged sport.
We were back on the basketball court the next day. Will, at some point, had decided the military term 'grinder' fit better than basketball court. For him, a b-ball player, court means indoor wood, not unlevel outdoor macadam. I tend to agree. Anyway, the runners had finished wall drills and were lining up for their rhythm exercises. But I'd noticed something upon pulling in for practice earlier. Partway up the hill behind the grinder, right on the boundary of grass and trees, sat a cardboard box.
I was having an argument with my imaginary friend the other day. My imaginary friend is always willing to serve a convenient stand-in for other coaches, athletes and sometimes even parents. Surprisingly, I don't always win those arguments, and my most recent went something like this:
Imaginary friend: Coach, you know the runners are unhappy with some of your remarks after yesterday's meet.
Me: Probably the part where I said they lost because of a lack of will, right?
Imaginary friend: Well yes. You know, they're just kids and they're trying their best.
Me: I agree with you on that first part, and I can explain what…
Imaginary friend: Yeah, if you don't mind me saying, comments like that can take the fun right out of the sport for them. I think you have to stay positive with these kids. They have to feel good about themselves. That's how you get their best efforts.
Me: Oh, I see. So instead of telling them they didn't get out strong enough like I warned them to, I should have emphasized how hard they worked trying to catch up in the third mile?
Imaginary friend: That certainly would have helped build their self-esteem. We don't want them to take all this too seriously you know. It's just sports.
Me: O.K., yes. So if something goes wrong in a race, the first thing is to ensure that the runner doesn't feel too bad about it so we keep the sport fun. Do I have that right?
Imaginary friend: Thanks for being so open-minded coach!
By the third drill, two of the freshman couldn't stand it any longer. Hunter had let on there was something in that box on the hill, and it was the something he'd worked so hard figuring out for Coach (even though Coach never asked him to).
"We want to go check," they told me urgently.
"No," I said, immediately deciding to throw in with Hunter. "Get back in line. We're doing drills."
Go watch youth-sports anything. The best coaches are geniuses at weaving skill development and a sense of the game into the activity, whether practices or games. The less adept strut in mortal fear of their charges not 'having fun,' as though the primary reason for showing up was just that--and if a T-ball or soccer practice/game also broke out so much the better. Those coaches don't trust a sport enough to teach the physical masteries that so claim the enthusiasms and dreams of its young practitioners. They don't understand that the 'fun' of sports is built in, not added on. And they don't get it that you never need to schedule 'fun.' Most of the time with young people, you just have to let it happen.
I was chatting with Coach Delsole about one element of the days training when I looked up to see the two freshmen had disobeyed. Probably egged on by team members, they'd broken ranks from the drill line and were headed up the grass hill toward the box. They were on a mission, a matter of deep curiosity that had only one solution. If Hunter had solved squirrels in a bag with squirrels in a box, that must, they'd decided, be verified. Both slowed as they cautiously approached the box. Our drills practice had come to a halt as everyone turned to watch the show. One of the freshmen semi-cowered behind the other as the bolder of the two first tapped the box with a foot. Nothing. So she reared her leg back….
It's not the notion but the nomenclature that's at fault. Having 'fun' with an activity is not the same as finding an activity 'rewarding' or 'worthwhile,' terms typically used to taut sports participation. 'Fun' connotes feelings; the others suggest some element of cognitive growth beyond the changeable moment. The effect of the first is transitory and dependent on exterior factors, while those others are more often based internally and capable of sustained effect. You can argue that 'fun' in youth sports is over-rated. That may be true but only if we think of the strongest, most critical engagement factor of sport being "an enjoyable or amusing time." We don't. But if the 'fun' comes from the learning, the self-mastery and the lasting lessons of effort, then most coaches will have no problem with arranging a lot of that rewarding and worthwhile kind of 'fun' in their practice week.
The leg flew forward, crashing against the cardboard box, lifting it into the air where, rotating, its flaps burst open to reveal the empty contents. Hoots and howls of laughter erupted from the team members below. They applauded as the freshmen sheepishly descended the hill and took their places in line.
Then we went on with our work…..