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From Sport Skills to Life Skills
How often are students who
turn out for sports abandoned to the abyss of anonymity and forgotten.
My mind wanders back to when I was teaching at Louisiana Tech University.
It was mid-summer and the bus was full of "at risk" middle-school
students. Like most long bus rides in the summer it was hot
and boring, but the bus driver was great and we arrive at the lake
a bit early .
During the lunch break, the kids spread out on the
beach while I sat in the shade at the picnic table with the bus
driver. "Joe" was an affable man with dark brown
skin with a gigantic championship ring. I tried not to stare,
but my eyes kept going back to the ring. Finally the cat in
me leapt out, "Wow!", I stammered, "that is a cool
ring. Where did you get that...?" Without much
todo, "Joe" removed the ring and handed it to me.
Much to my astonishment it was an NFL Championship ring. "Wow!",
I exclaimed as if I was sitting across from Jim Brown.
With a little prompting "Joe" told a story
of a career in the NFL as a defensive lineman. I listened
with childish imagination. The "WOW!" in my eyes
were not reflected in his... there was a sadness, a loneliness,
and longing for camaraderie. He became weary of the reaccounting
and grew silent. He just sat there smoking his cigarette,
looking across the lake, and drinking his Coke. There was
an unspoken "...now look at me... a bus driver for kids.
I didn't know what to say as melancholy dripped from the table onto
the sand. I stood and sputtered a puckish "Well better
look after the kids..." As I wandered down to the beach....
I wondered how many participants are "hooked" from the
stage of the performing athletics/sports and tossed into a back
alley of life. Where are the transition programs that bridges
athletics to "real" life.
Thankfully, today there are such programs in place
for professional athletes, collegiate athletes, but the programs
have yet to implemented at the high school and middle school level.
What are these programs and what is the content? The NCAA
has a CHAMPS
Life Skills program that focuses on:
- Support efforts of every student-athlete toward
intellectual development and graduation.
- Use athletics as preparation for success in life.
- Meet the changing needs of student-athletes.
- Promote respect for diversity among student-athletes.
- Enhance interpersonal relationships in the lives
of student-athletes.
- Assist student-athletes in building positive
self-esteem.
- Enable student-athletes to make meaningful contributions
to their communities.
- Promote ownership by the student-athletes of
their academic, athletic, personal and social responsibilities.
- Enhance partnerships between the NCAA, member
institutions and their communities for the purpose of education.
- Encourage the development of leadership skills.
Virginia Commonwealth University's Psychology Department has developed
a Life Skills Center headed
by Dr. Steven Danish (888.572.1572)
The focus of the program is designed to help elementary, middle,
and high school students learn to set goals using activities and
sports as metaphor to achieve. Call the center and get the
materials. Let us help students who have chosen sports as
an identity to comprehend the life lessons they are learning through
participation in sports.
Robert W. McGowan, Ph.D.
Coaching & Sports Section Editor
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"University presidents
believe their real job is to preserve and create environments
where new knowledge can be discovered, knowledge that makes life
richer, more rewarding, and, as in the case of the genome project,
more livable. But often, the public at large sees the university
differently. For them, the most visible and vital role played
by institutions such as IU is as a sponsor of athletic teams."
Remarks to the national press club
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National Youth Sports Programs (NYSP) takes pride in teaching
children that the fundamentals of life are more important than any
game. Participants are taught the dangers of substance abuse and
provided with nutritional education. Within the required minimum
of 15 hours of educational programming an emphasis is given to career
planning and education. Students get a first-hand look at the facilities
and opportunities offered by higher education. Access to the resources
of a university and personal contact with institutional and community
leaders can give children a chance to set goals and nurture educational
aspirations for their future.
NYSP's dedication to improving students' academic aptitude was enhanced
with the addition of the math/sciences program at some sites. The
educational requirements focus on the students' understanding of
math and science with the benefit of summer reinforcement of classroom
lessons with a creative twist. The program, which is offered at
selected sites, uses a fun and hands-on curriculum to challenge
participants to hone fundamental skills. The math/sciences program
was included at 124 sites in 2002.
Looking to the future needs of students, NYSP has implemented a
senior-phase program to focus on the needs of the 13-16 year old
participant. Placing an emphasis on achieving higher-level education
and test taking skills, 25 sites are being used to evaluate teaching
methods and needs for launching the concept nationally. NYSP enhances
participants' chances of achieving higher educational standards
by helping students prepare for the rigors of standardized-testing
methods and reinforcing reading, writing and computer skills.
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| If you have ideas, comments, letters
to share, or questions about particular topics, please email
one of the following Coaching Section Editors: |
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| Coaching, Sportsmanship and Ethics |
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In a lecture sprinkled liberally with humor, John Feinstein condemned
the current college sports scene focus as warped, with too much
emphasis being placed on the proverbial bottom line and not enough
placed on academics, referring twice to the term student-athlete
as an oxymoron.
But although Feinstein had little trouble bemoaning the ills that
afflict collegiate athletics, he was reluctant to provide a solution.
Feinstein cited several solutions, but was
not convinced that one or any would even be implemented. Among those
programs, Feinstein suggested that the paying of athletes.
"(One) thing that I’ve always believed should be done is that
the athletes should be paid, but not the way you think," Feinstein
said. Click here
to read the complete report.
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| Survey by Ken Anderson - Gonzaga - Athletics and Academics
Information relating to the broad topic of academics and
athletics with the intent of potentially identifying some best practices
"...student athletes have to know what each professor for
each course is expecting from the student. So if a professor has
a zero tolerance on attendance the student-athlete has to fit his/her
schedule around the course. That usually means there may be some
missed practices. However, for games where the student-athlete is
representing the University we will intercede and make the absent
excuse through the administration. If the student-athlete is really
in trouble in the course though we may have to have the athlete
stay home also. It all revolves on what is best for both the student-athlete
and professor. There sometimes is negotiation. I tell all of our
athletes they should have a good talking relationship with their
professors. I also tell them to hand in work ahead time if they
will miss because of a game."
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Youth Education Through Sports
Imagine the thrill of traveling to the site of the
NCAA championship in your favorite sport, meeting coaches and student-athletes
who have spent the season competing for the title, and learning
from them how to excel both on and off the field. That's what the
NCAA's Youth Education through Sports (YES) clinics are all about.
The NCAA provides financial support for NYSC youth
programming. The NCAA also contracts with NYSC for NYSC staff to
organize and conduct Youth Education through Sports (YES) Clinics,
which are offered at various NCAA championship sites. YES is a registered
trademark of the NCAA.
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HUMOR
Two NBA players caught with marijuana...
Let me get this straight. Two players. On the BLAZErs. Who are in
the NBA. Were caught with pot. This has got to be some sort of police
corruption.
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An Extremely Loyal Fan
There was a Packers fan with a really crappy seat at Lambeau. Looking
with his binoculars, he spotted an empty seat on the 50-yard line.
Thinking to himself "what a waste" he made his way down
to the empty seat.
When he arrived at the seat, he asked the man sitting next to it,
"Is this seat taken?" The man replied, "This was
my wife's seat. She passed away. She was a big Packers fan."
The other man replied,"I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. May
I ask why you didn't give the ticket to a friend or a relative?"
The man replied, "They're all at the funeral."
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Clemson recruit "John Jones", who was ineligible
as a freshman because of academic requirements: "I play football.
I'm not trying to be a professor. The tests don't seem to make sense
to me, measuring your brain on stuff I haven't been through in school."
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Where do old bowling balls end up?
In the gutter!
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SUPER : A Sports-Based Life Skills Program
Steven J. Danish, Tanya Taylor, Lisa Harmon
Increasingly, sport participation has become
a non-school activity. With all the pressures on schools to improve
the academic performance of its students, sport and physical education
have become targets of elimination. Intramural sports, and for that
matter, physical education has almost been eliminated at most secondary
schools. School-based sports have been reduced for all but the
most talented student athletes.
Perhaps these cutbacks are a result of the inability of those
who support sport to make the case and ensure that sport is designed
to promote adolescent social and personal development as well as
provide opportunities for fun and exercise. SUPER was developed
with the specific intent of teaching both sport skills and life
skills as a means of enhancing participants' athletic and personal
development.
SUPER (Sports United to Promote
Education and Recreation) is a sports-based life skills program
developed by the Life Skills Center at Virginia Commonwealth University
designed for middle and high school-aged adolescents.
SUPER is taught like sports clinics
with participants involved in three sets of activities: learning
the physical skills related to a specific sport; learning life skills
related to sports in general; and playing the sport. Each clinic runs approximately two hours with the life and
sport skill instruction being taught for about 30-40 minutes each. We have developed 17 life skill modules. They are: Developing a Team, Dare to Dream,
Setting Goals--Part 1, Setting Goals--Part 2, Setting Your Goal,
Making a Goal Ladder (A Plan), Identifying and Overcoming Roadblocks,
Seeking Help from Others, Using Positive Self Talk, Learning to
Relax, Managing Emotions, Developing a Healthy Lifestyle, Appreciating
Differences, Developing Confidence and Courage, Setting Personal
Performance Goals and Goal Setting for Life.
The first seven modules are taught as a group and in order.
The other 10 modules can be taught in any order and/or can be omitted
depending on the time available. Other modules are being developed,
including a parent and coach component. SUPER is not sport specific and has been
taught in conjunction with a variety of individual and team sports.
How are life skills learned? They
are not learned through mere participation--no ball or venue has
ever taught life skills. They are not learned by hearing lectures
from well-known athletes about the dangers of certain behaviors
or the value of other behaviors--we remember only about 10% of what
we are told. Life skills
must be purposely planned and taught. They cannot be caught. Remember
the Chinese proverb--I listen-- and forget, I see-- and remember, I do-- and
understand
For more information contact Dr. Steven Danish (888.572.1572)
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