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Attitude Adjustment

June 3, 2014

One of the privileges of my job is the opportunity to speak at uplifting season-ending or year-ending events of MHSAA member schools. No matter how busy or burdensome the day has been, these evening assignments always improve my attitude. They sharpen my vision of the core values of school sports and deepen my commitment to the cause of educational athletics.

This was the case when I accepted a last-minute invitation to address senior athletes, parents and staff on a Monday evening in May at a Class A school near Lake Michigan. I was there to address this audience; but the best part of the evening for me was to hear administrators, coaches and boosters talk about student-athletes and observe parents soaking up the moments and messages.

This school gave special recognition to three seniors who participated in all 12 seasons of their high school experience. The school honored 49 students who had earned four or more high school letters, including 22 who had earned six or more. Clearly, there is an important place for the multi-sport student at this school, and this school places a high value on the multi-sport experience.

Twelve students (ten girls and two boys) will be receiving some type of financial aid to college with the expectation that they will play intercollegiate athletics, but only one of those is to a Division I university; and that’s for women’s track & field. She’s the school’s record holder in both the shot put and discus, but she looks more like a ballerina.

That’s part of the joy of these events . . . seeing the different ways our high school student-athletes are packaged. I always smile when, for example, the 112-pound wrestler, six-foot volleyball player and rail-thin golfer are called up to receive the same award; and I’m always charmed when a coach calls his petite softball player a “bulldog.”

My commitment to providing a diverse, values-driven athletic program in a school setting – with opportunities for the tall, short, slender and stout – has never been greater, encouraged once again by sharing an evening with those who are the heart and soul of school sports.

Practice Makes Perfect?

May 19, 2013

For years, leaders of educational athletics have been critical of sports specialization, citing the physical, emotional and financial price that is often paid by young people and their families as young athletes (or their parents) chase unrealistic dreams.  The weight of evidence I’ve seen has made me conclude that sports specialization is good for some, but a multi-sport experience is better for most young people.

Recently I’ve read about a new challenge to the sports specialization myth.  It’s called “interleaving.”  It posits that “mixing things up” is a better way to train; that brains and muscles get a better workout by mixing tasks.

This is getting national attention at thedanplan.com which chronicles a 30-something commercial photographer, Dan McLaughlin, who quit his job in Oregon with the goal of becoming a top-level professional golfer.  He had read in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers that 10,000 hours of practice would gain him international expertise.

Along the way on this quixotic journey, Dan McLaughlin not only has been testing the 10,000-hour theory, he’s been testing interleaving – mixing lengths of putts during putting practice, mixing different types of shots on the driving range, etc.

Time magazine reported in April that this has the attention of UCLA’s Learning and Forgetting Lab which is testing the Florida State University theory popularized by Gladwell, and is searching for “the biological sweet spot.”

FYI:  McLaughlin has not yet qualified for the PGA tour.  But on the other hand, he still has about 4,000 practice hours to go.