Outside The Classroom

Outside The Classroom

Sports have been a part of many cultures for centuries serving a multitude of purposes. In earlier years, sports were mainly used as entertainment, some rather cruel displays of competition. Yet, people assembled to watch. Today, sports still serve as a major form of entertainment but the participants are viewed quite differently. Most of today’s athletes are considered celebrities or heroes. In addition to entertainment, sports are the life line of many families, communities, cities and states. Of course, this aspect of sports is limited to the professional and collegiate levels. Sports, being a cash cow in many respects, is often disregarded or disposed of at the lower levels where it does not produce income. States, cities and schools appear to deny or fail to realize the other values of sports. Convincing, our political and educational leaders that there are some things more important than the dollar, can be an almost impossible task.

The sporting arena is a melting pot where participants of all races, sizes, religions and sexes can come together to learn and display their athletic abilities and wits. Since everyone is not what we consider a true athlete, it is important to realize that sports provides a place where kids of all ages can experience more than the thrill of competition, the celebration of victory and the agony of defeat. Sport teaches as many lessons including some of the very virtues we hope our children will process at some point in their lives. I’ve always viewed sports, particularly baseball, as an extension of life giving all who play an opportunity to experience, learn, build and display life’s realities and virtues.

Sports provide an opportunity to experience the joy of success and victory as well as the disappointment of failure and rejection while learning the value of compromise and communication necessary for success as they realize that determination and patience is needed to overcome the feeling of failure and rejection. As we build character and relationships, we become confident in our ability to compete, never forgetting to display humility, acceptance, cooperation or trust.

With an understanding that there is an economic factor involved, I still feel that we are not taking full advantage of the opportunities that sports can provide. It’s very disturbing to hear that whenever budget cuts are mentioned in our cities and schools, recreational and sport programs almost always are at the top of the list and looked upon as having no real positive impact on the development of our youth. We constantly state that our children are our future but in my opinion, we fall short of completing the task preparing them to be successful in carrying the torch of leading or competing in a demanding environment. We are making a mistake in thinking that everything needed to succeed is learned in a classroom. I do not intend to imply that sports are more or just as important as an academic education but I am suggesting that there are many valuable lessons to be learned outside the classroom; lessons that can only be learned through experience, lessons that sports will expose our children to daily. I’ve played sports baseball all my life, in fact, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t playing baseball or some other sport. The experiences, through baseball and other sports, have helped me to overcome many of life’s cruel realities: failure, rejection, prejudice and disappointments while achieving a level of success with determination, patience, acceptance, cooperation and trust. Through these same experiences, I’m better prepared to handle many of today’s opportunities and accomplishments. The most important of all the lesson learned were humility and that there is reward in failure. Without question, I can say with confidence that there is plenty to be learned outside the classroom.

Coaching

Coaching

With the weather finally appearing to be stabilizing, baseball season can be enjoyed in the comfort of warmth. Thousands of leagues with millions of kids are engaged in competition and hopefully some fun. However there is no denying that many kids will be looking to gain an edge by looking for some added coaching or instructions. Sound coaching is at a premium this time of year. Knowing the importance and demand for good coaching, it should be the responsibility of every coach and parent to provide the best instructions available. I realize that coaching at most amateur levels is a matter of choice. However, it does carry a certain degree of responsibility. After playing baseball for 30 years, amateur and professional, I did not think that anything could satisfy the competitive hunger that dwelled in me. However I’ve been involved in coaching since 1994 and find it to be very rewarding and satisfying, not to the level of playing but certainly a great substitute. As a matter of fact, with 13 years of coaching experience in addition to my playing experiences, some may consider me an expert. As this is a flattering compliment, I question if anyone is an expert when it comes to coaching. There are numerous books and videos claiming to have the answers taking the guess work out of coaching. Many of them promote generic philosophies and techniques. Based on my experience, most of them fall short of explaining sound coaching techniques.  Even as I may be considered an expert, I do not have all the answers needed to master the art of coaching nor do I claim that other information is useless. I do have some advice that may help: (1) There’re no absolutes in coaching (2) Never demand more of an athlete than is physically possible (3) Coaching style such be tailored to the level of players (4) decide whether your coaching will be instructional, development or for winning. Whatever your coaching style will be, patience will always payoff. In a sport full of ambiguous terms, getting your message across can be challenging. It would be to a coach’s advantage to use terms that are easily understood. Avoid or full explain terms like level swing or squash the bug, which is used frequently at the lower amateur levels, can lead to misinterpretations of instructions. Coaching is more than instructing. It involves giving options in techniques and mentally preparing athletes to perform.

Coaches have the task of motivating players. It is the hope of every coach that the thrill of competition is enough to motivate every athlete but this is not always the case. Most athletes are visual learners therefore are motivated by the appearance of results. It is the desire of every athlete to be the best, accepted, experience the thrill of competing and victory. The fulfillment of these is among the highest motivators, however, the lack of either can cause an athlete to lose confidence in the coaching and, eventually, the motivation to continue trusting and practicing the techniques. An important fact for any coach is to remember that the majority of athletes are result driven and it is this fact t can make it difficult to get athletes to understand and trust the process. Therefore, a relationship of trust must develop to maximize a coach’s efforts. The athlete must trust the coach even when the results are not immediate.

Since players don’t always respond to the teachings of the coach, coaches need motivation as well. They need to see some positive results of their efforts, some measure of success. For a coach, there are many variables that determine success and unfortunately, for coaches, success is measured by victories. Recognizing and managing variables such as; physical ability, mental awareness and knowledge of the game just to name a few, will increase your chance of success. Above all, you must have patience.

Limitations and Restrictions

Overcoming Limitations and Cultural Restrictions.

         After giving it some serious thought, it became clear that writing this article is something I really want to do. I came to realize that I have always been one who questioned the usual and unusual occurrences of people lives as well as my own.

       Recently, I decided that I wanted to do something as bold as write a book. This is not all that odd, since I’ve always had this fascination for writing small articles about most anything. The only problem is that my thoughts seemed so erratic that putting them in some legible order was very difficult.  This is an attempt to record, in a readable fashion, my wondering thoughts.

       How did I get to this point in life in spite of all the restrictions and limitations confronting people like myself in the early 70’s? The social and cultural limitations were enough to cause most people to call it quits. Yet! Here I am with a family, two college degrees and a career in professional sports. Don’t misunderstand me as having a sad childhood, just noting that it was a struggle.

        I was black, poor and grew up in a culture that rejected growth. Education was stressed only to maintain an already decaying community. New ideals were not welcomed which limited new opportunities. The powers were content with the way thing were. I suppose that in many cultures there is a fear of losing control among the more influential people.

      There wasn’t much diversity when it came to career choices. The two overwhelming choices were farming and the military. Both are honest and respectable jobs but does not rank high on my, when I grow up list. As a matter of fact, the talk was,” when I graduate, I’m going into the army”, which at the time was an easy choice over being a farmer’s helper.

      Small communities are great in terms of having a close relationship with family and neighbors. The down side is that everyone thinks alike. Whatever limited thinking and imagination is constantly reinforced.

     As small communities are great for raising a family, you sometimes have to weigh this against what I consider as under minding the ideology that America is the land of opportunity. Opportunity is a byproduct of creative thinking, diversity and change.

       Most small towns, at least the one I grew up in, adopted a status quo culture. Culture is important because it give a set of social rules which everyone is expected to live by. However, “The sky is the limit”, “Be all you can be”, were only figures of speech, nothing more.

      These communities give true meaning to the term; “One Horse Town”, one school, one police, one traffic light, one culture, and one way of doing things regardless of race or religion. Communities, whether large or small that adopt a status quo culture is destined to fail. Cultures that fail to promote its’ youth and new ideals prohibits the people from rising above the social and cultural limitations. With education and determination, there is hope to succeed above the expectations of your environment.