Fitness and Community: The Unspoken Truth

Why don’t kids exerrcise anymore?  People ask this question all the time.  The answer is quite a bit more complex than just:  “They play video games all the time”. 

I will just concentrate on one factor here in this post:  Sense of community. 

When I was growing up (in a neighborhood that some would consider a “bad” neighborhood), the basketball court a few blocks away was packed.  We would go to the barber shop across the street to get sodas while we were waiting for “next”.  (Shout out to Shell Road!  Who’s wit’ me?)

Now, I should mention that while I have become an incredibly capable athlete as an adult, back then…I sucked!  Bad! 

But I played out there, sometimes for 3-4 hours on Saturdays after I finished raking leaves (yes, looking back my Dad reminds me a lot of Furious Styles).   Some of the guys out there were into some shady stuff.  Some of them were just regular dudes.  But we all played ball together.  Furthermore, kids participated in programs at the community center every day, and rode their bikes all over the neighborhood.  We were always knocking on doors, saying “is Dude home” (yes I had a friend we just called “Dude”).

I miss it.  I even miss the fights that would break out sometimes over foul calls. 

Now we are in a space where the world has gotten too dangerous to just let our kids roam. 

Does that mean that we must lose our sense of community?  No, but you and you, and yes, you in the blue shirt (that’s right, being a blogger I can see you at your computer)…must get involved.

How, you ask?  Participate at your local recreational center.  Become the parent that gets kids in the neighborhood together for a game of basketball, football, tag, frisbee, a hike. 

Support play.  Are you going to attend the Exuberant Animal event November 7-8, 2009 in Baltimore?   www.exuberantanimal.com/events. 

This is an organization that is trying to reestablish the sense of play and community in exercise.  But Exuberant Animal can’t do this without your help.  You must get involved and put your money where your mouth is.  Become that parent or community member who is a play leader. 

Are you a coach or trainer?  Make sure you understand the connection betweeen play and child development by joining the International Youth Conditioning Association.  www.iyca.org. 

Does getting involved cost money?  You’re doggone right it does.  But we can’t continue to talk  about how great capitalism is (and it can be), but complain that “no one is doing anything about these problems”.  Guess what, in a capitalistic society, our money speaks volumes about our values.  Where are yours?  Big house, nice car?  Or community, education, and play?  Decide.  I would, as always, love to hear your thoughts, including those to the contrary.

Ego-Driven Advice to Children

Sometimes we educators forget that we can be fallible.  My how when we have “tons of experience” doing something, or even worse, if we have been a subject of adulation…Or how when we have rationalized our own behavior to make ourselves feel better about our choices….

We give incredibly, pathologically bad advice.

One extreme such case recently, is when one of the teenagers I work with, a budding opera singer, told me that her voice coach recommended she take Zanex, because “all singers should”.  The “coach’s” logic was that since singers are “all” emotional, that Zanex would calm them down.

So, let’s review:  Recommend a potentially addictive pharmaceutical meant to mask severe emotional symptoms so that they might be calm for a performance on stage.

Never mind that it is essential that performers be able tap INTO emotion when on stage (I know this because I used to act).  Never mind that she is not a physician.

This is a teenager that is looking to you for advice.  Looking to you for guidance.  And you teach her your own hangups.  Rationalize this with your own ego.  Get a grip!

Luckily, this is a pretty well grounded young lady.  She laughed at the instructor.  I only have one problem:  Her mother didn’t rip the lady a new one.  She has probably given this advice to more impressionable girls.

So, what I ask is the following:

If you are an educator:

Have you developed the essential ability to put your own ego aside when teaching?  Have you gotten to the place where the wel-being of children is more important than exalting your own self?

If you are a parent or guardian:

Are you standing up for your kids?  Or are you “letting things go” to avoid “drama”?

In my view, there is only one question to answer as an educator or parent:  How is this helping the child?

Why we MUST Let Children Make Mistakes

I often hear educators, trainers, parents, and coaches talk about “teaching” children the right way, the correct technique.  Don’t get it twisted here, certainly there are things we learn with each generation, we need not reinvent the wheel.  But if we viewed things more dynamically (the way they actually exist) instead of as if things are rigid; we may realize that a little more freedom must be afforded to the learner in order to achieve understanding, which is more lasting than doing.

We instill (earlier with each generation it would seem) a fear of failure so intense that children are afraid to try anything new.  We basically treat them the same way we treat people in government management:  Make a mistake and you’re toast.

Much as it does with the government manager, it renders the child for all intent and purpose unable to find innovative solutions, unable to express the natural creativity that has been such a hallmark of all the good things about humanity.

We only seem to allow mistakes from those we deem early on to be supremely talented or special.  They can do no wrong.  Everyone else should just do exactly as they are told.   Well, what that serves to do, truly, is to narrow our possibilities.   We miss things we could have had because we pidgeon-hole everyone early.

That’s why now that I have been a scientist and a supervisor in parks and recreation, I love sharing with people that I was originally going to become an actor.  You see, my parents allowed me to make mistakes.  Now that I work across the fields of child development, physical education, youth sports, and parks / recreation, I have a deeper understanding having seen the world around me from many different angles.

If my parents and teachers and friends had not supported this, there would be no way I could have had the (sometimes innovative, sometimes inane) ideas that I have now.   I have been allowed mistakes.  My fear is that I couldn’t really exist now as a teenager.  There is so much pressure and competition now that everyone “coaches” children to do things exactly the right way.  And that is so wrong.

As always, what do you think?

What does the word “fitness” mean?

I have done extensive work in the fitness field, and one of the things that I find the most striking is that there seems to be a misunderstanding of what the word “fitness” actually means – Go figure!

Let’s explore the first 2 definitions of the word fitness, as the third definition has more to do with reproduction.

fit·ness -

1. The state or condition of being fit; suitability or appropriateness.

2. Good health or physical condition, especially as the result of exercise and proper nutrition.

Let’s talk about the words “suitability” or “appropriateness”, and the word “human”, because that’s what we are.

Is it “suitable” or “appropriate” for a child to try to build goo-gobs of muscle?  Does this really make them “fit” for the environment that they live in?

Is it “suitable” to have so much muscle mass that one can barely reach for an object, or grab something from one’s pocket ? Read more on this phenomenon in an essay by my good friend Frank Forencich

Isn’t fitness about existing effectively in one’s natural environment?

Let’s talk about what fitness is with regard to the second definition, “good health and physical condition”:

Is it efficient movement patterns?

Is it the efficiency of the cardiovascular system?

Is it muscular strength and endurance?

Is it a properly functioning immune system?  digestive system?

Is it speed?

Is it balance?

Is it flexibility?

Look at the above.  Are you tempted to pick all of them?  Me too!  WE have concentrated on the things that say “how much” and “how far” for so long.  I wonder why…my guess is that those types of things speak to the ego.  The ego always wants to measure.

In effect then, what fitness has meant for children all these years has merely been an extension of our adult egos.

What are some of your ideas for getting us all thinking about the original meaning of the word fitness.  How do we begin to live this more expanded, more effective it would seem, definition?

Fear, Resilience, and Kids

A lot has been discussed in the past few years about our kids and our fear for their safety.  I say our kids here in the way that I always mean it – all kids belong to the “village” as well as the parents.

Helicopter parents, neglect cases, “bad” neighborhoods…

Where do we stand with what we are comfortable letting our kids experience?

I work with kids on a daily basis, and some are surprised to hear that I think it’s no big deal when a child falls down and gets a bruise during one of my classes.  “So, you have no regard for their safety?”, people have asked me, both jokingly and seriously.

To which I respond…

“Yes, I have regard for their safety, but I have also as great a regard for their resilience and their management of their own fear.”

How logical is it to protect children from every conceivable threat, react in a volatile manner when they get the slightest insult or bruise, then thrust them in a world like the one we live in?

It seems more logical to expose them to manageable risks, like the risks of slight injury they experience during play.   Play is not only fun, but truly the best opportunity to learn management of stress.  It also represents the safest way to learn resilience in the face of adversity. Without these skills, a human is at their most vulnerable.

Thus, it is my opinion that those schools that have outlawed running, dodgeball, and tag, unwittingly make kids less safe.  Let me know what you think.

The (Ideal) Role of Adults During Development

I decided to post this because I believe that out of fear we believe we should control children.  I believed this once myself.  Now, before you “tough love” parents get your panties all up in a bunch, let me first clarify as a non-parent, but someone who has worked with many, many children and has discussed child development at length with hundreds of parents.  I believe in consequences.  I just don’t believe in helicpoter parents (or coaches or teachers). 

Fact:  It is patently impossible to control another human beings every movement, given that we all have free will. 

Fact:  Children are ill-equipped, especially during the younger years, but all the way through adolescence, to fully consider the implications of their actions.  Notice I didn’t say that they were un-equipped, just ill-equipped. 

Now, how do we reconcile these two statements?  Well, we can just realize that every human’s path is his or her own, and that our role as coaches, teachers, parents is simply to guide and to provide lessons / information about possible consequences for different choices. 

Now, from my world, I can tell you what I have grown into doing with the kids I work with (I did not always approach things like this, judging from early video of some of my programs):

I get them in to my gym / room / field and immediately create a sense of play and discovery, by just putting those kinds of thoughts into my own head (for those of you that still think play is frivolous, read my other posts!). 

Then, we begin to “explore”.  In my realm of physical fitness, we may explore pushups or squatting, or pulling, in different situations. 

I ask them questions about how the movements feel, and how they think they could be more effective.  Depending on how robust the answers are, I may give a little more or a little less guidance.  Kids that don’t seem to be getting it, sometimes I pair up with kids who are a little further along.  We make it clear that I am the coach and therefore final authority, but I want them as much as possible to find things on their own. 

When they find the “right” pattern (this just means the safest, most efficient pattern, really):  I let them know, and we talk about how it felt for them.  I then make sure they know that they still need to continue to repeat it the same way many times before it’s “solid”.  Then they know that the repetition isn’t busy work, but a necessary part or their development.  Their “challenge” is to not waver in their commitment to efficiency of movement during that repetition.  This make repetition fun. 

When I see a mistake once, I leave it alone and see if they correct on their own.  If it continues to be repeated, I remind them of a better choice.  If it still continues to repeat, I discuss with them how I can better do my job. 

Notice I say “if it is repeated”.  The mistake is a mistake.  It has it’s own identity, and so does the child.  The two need not be confused. 

I also try to realize that children do not work for me.  I work for them (as a group, not individually, silly!).  Part of my responsibility as the employee of all children is to sometimes direct them, and sometimes sit back to let them find their own path toward what success means for them.

This is, as my friend Brian Grasso (who I will never get tired of hearing speak) always says:  “The Art of Coaching”

Parents, teachers, and coaches should always employ this art.  This doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences for actions.  In fact, I have kicked a fair number of kids out of class, and have had a fair number of kids sit out during my years as a coacheducatortrainer (I’m never sure what my title should be).  The key is to make sure that you are really dealing with a disruptive behavior problem as opposed to just a kid who annoys you. 

Imagine if this approach were incorporated more into education? 

Imagine if this approach were used more in creating a love for movement in our children (to avoid the so-called youth obesity epidemic)?

I can say that this approach is probably the right one, not because I invented it (I surely did not), but because I have used other approaches, and have grown into this approach.  But, as a humble man, I must (as we all must) consider the possibility that I am an idiot or simply misinformed.  What do you think?

Exuberant Animal!

I just spent the weekend having an experience of a lifetime.  In Leavenworth, Washington, at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, a bunch of trainers, physical therapists, coaches, and scientists, and a couple of gentlemen who mostly live off the land got together to experience and discuss the importance of play.

We dropped, we jumped, we ran we moved, we ducked we twisted we bent, we did partner resistance activities, body awareness activities, etc.  And that was just one session.  People laughed, worked hard, smiled, laughed some more.  People also gave talks on play (I gave a talk on neural development and play).  By the end, there were many in tears because of the richness of the experience.   Some had never experienced anything like this. 

This experience left me both happy and sad.  Happy because this is possible.  Sad because so many have made it impossible.  We rarely get/give time for play anymore in our culture.  We hoard, we scratch to get “ahead” – and for what?  To make sure we can have a big house?  Then what? 

We talked a lot about activity dependent neural development.  This is something that every neuroscientist, psychologist, and psychiatrist is familiar with.  This term speaks to the need for the nervous system to have experience to develop properly.  We also know that a variety of experiences precipitates a more robust development of the nervous system.  Any mammal needs a balance of experiential variety and rest to develop properly.  These are facts, not opinions. 

Now ask yourself, are you developing properly?  Are your children?  Do you want to solve the problems of youth inactivity and the problems in our educational system?  Infuse play and exploration.  Problem solved.  Want to know how to do this?  Talk to me. 

We need to start thinking about the richness of life’s experiences, and begin to achieve some balance.  We must respect the land, we must respect the value of the human body and health.  We are starting a movement to do just that.  Do you want to help?

Go to the following websites and see how you think you can contribute. 

www.exuberantanimal.com

www.iyca.org

http://nifplay.org/

www.coachingschool.org

These sites also have their own list of links.  Look at every single one.  What’s your role?  Tell me here.  Maybe we can help each other.  My role, long term, is to work in a multi-disciplinary fashion to set policies that are conducive to play and balance.  For the sake of our nervous systems.

What is the FUNction Program, and Why Did I Create It?

Well (to quote Ronald Reagan!), the FUNction Program, simply put, is a program that uses game play coupled with “teachable moments” to guide kids toward learning effective motor skills.  In English:  We have a lot of fun using games and obstacle courses and they end up fit and competent by accident. 

The reason I created this program (originally to help out RecPAC in Fairfax County) was because I know that kids need 2 things when it comes to fitness: 

1) Time to play

2) Guided discovery to help them learn motor skills that will serve them not just in a sports environment, but also in everyday life. 

Everyone should be able to move their bodies effectively. It is easiest to learn how to squat, bend, push, pull, and rotate during childhood.  Furthermore, it is easiest  in the long view (as we talked about in my post on play) to learn these skills from within, instead of having every bit of form and function dictated to you. 

I have now opened up this class to adults and kids alike i nthe form of our FUNction Fitnes Group at Oak Marr RECenter in Oakton, VA.  The other part of this version of the program is to promote community based fitness.  EVERYONE should be at the park playing.  I remember playing basketball against teens and adults alike when I was a “tween”. 

So, for those of you in Northern Virginia, I hope you check us out.

What I think Obama CAN Do

There has been a lot of talk about our President-elect lately, and what he can and can’t accomplish.  So, why not give an opinion from my perspective as an educator?  Here goes:

“Pre-script”:  Yes, I have broad ideas about solutions, but won’t be sharing them in this post.  This is about how the environment can change with President Obama. 

1) The Man

Barack Obama is just a man, but he is also an idea.  Both of these things are important to remember because this provides the information that he is at once a) fallible and b) capable of creating great movement and inspiration

2) What this means for education 

Since he is capable of inspiring people to create change, I don’t think it necessary for him to be an experienced educator to affect change in education.  I have heard this view propagated, and it is pretty narrow minded.  Presidents don’t fix things.  They don’t build cars, and they certainly don’t write curriculum.  What they can do is create an environment in which things can happen.  My hope is that he creates a “think outside the box” atmosphere.  What we have now is many people thinking inside many boxes.  The public school administrators “know” what they know.  Charter schools (a nice example of which is the KIPP network) “know” what they know.  Homeschoolers “know” what they know.  The problem is that they are all “knowing” it separately and in spite of each other!  I think that the President-elect has the ability (this is not a guarantee, so calm down) to inspire compromise and free thinking in a way that our previous Presidents have not. 

He obviously values education, but must listen to the right people (not person) in order to bring about the change necessary and foster creative problem solving.  Otherwise we will just be once again throwing money at bandaid solutions.  Many think simple solutions are the answer.  Some think radical change is the answer.  Make no mistake, improving education enough to make a dent will take some basic solutions combine with radical overhauls.  The mark of a genius president (which I think he has the potential to be) is to see where to plug in which once he listens to everyone. 

3) What this means for physical fitness and development in children

Quite obviously the man values physical fitness.  The looming question for me is (drum roll) – will he listen to those who know how to do it the right way, taking a child’s natural course and method of development into account…Or will he do it the wrong way, listening to the “famous” in fitness who think it just takes making our kids burn more calories.  Will he be listening to people who help him understand all of the issues inherent in recreating a physical culture, or will he just throw more funding and ask for more time in PE (as if that will be enough)?

Certainly his love of physical fitness and sports is enough to inspire.  In what direction?

Once thing I know for certain.  The types of changes we need will not be accomplished by cynics who are only interested in their own opinions.   It will be accomplished by those who are inspired by this President and by the times to make concessions and come to the table.  Those who are willing to put aside ego, “place” and credential to truly create solutions that benefit everyone, not just their own narrow interest group. 

We have to come up with solutions for every group (obviously not every-one), so that we don’t have just vouchers, which likely won’t work for the poor…so that we don’t have just charter schools, which don’t necessarily have everything figured out (some, not all)…so that we don’t just have the same old model of tightly wound test teaching curriculum that we see in public schools…so that the GREAT teachers we see every day in public, charter and private schools are given the opportunity to flourish. 

I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts, and if anyone knows a way I can help him and others bring about these changes…ways I haven’t considered:  Let me know.

FUNction Game Example for January 2009

Hey everybody, I finally figured out how to do video on the Move Theory website (yes, there’s a website).   This game is named “call out” (or whatever, I could care less about names).  

The gist of the game is that Tom (a FUNction Fitness Leader/Intern from last summer and a very promising psych student at University of Michigan) has grouped the kids into two teams.  All the kids on each team get numbered 1, 2, 3… so that each team has the same numbers.  Then, he calls out, say “Number 2 and 5″.  The number 2 and 5 from each team come out and try to capture the soccer ball to score a goal (number 2 and 5 from team one are competing with number 2 and 5 from team two). 

Note:  Notice some words I used above (and some that I didn’t).  I used the words grouped (not separated) and the phrase “competed with” instead of “competed against”.  Interesting, huh?

Now, let’s talk about a couple of things in regard to this game.  What you don’t see on the video (this is part of what we do when we train staff for FUNction) is Tom giving kids pointers between rounds about things they could have tried.  He doesn’t just give them tips to be more successful, he also gives them suggestions about being more creative and what else might be fun. 

Also, the purpose of this game has some motor skill tie-ins. 

Judgement of space and time / Sense of and regulation of the body in space / Foot skills, balance / eye – foot coordination…and much more. 

The other thing:  We listen to their ideas about the games and what they like.  We continue to develop FUNction with this information.  This is how we foster a love of play in children.  This is also how we avoid overuse injuries, by just watching what they do with their bodies, and the kinds of intervals they enjoy working at.  Then we develop those things along with their natural course. 

What do you have to add here?  Want to get involved with FUNction?  Want to help FUNction continue to grow?  My contact info is on the website.  Hit me up.

How Do We Solve Our Play Problem? Part II

Ok, let’s continue on to solutions.  This will obviously make more sense if you read Part I.   How are we going to solve this problem as a society?  I believe that there is enough data out there (both in the form of studies done on the brain and in the realm of social / historical science) to show that stifling creativity can be detrimental to a society.  I think that we have seen at this point that it can certainly kill an industry (see Detroit) just as much as the presence of creativity can stimulate an industry (see Apple / Steve Jobs).   There is a lot of play going on at Apple. 

Solutions:

1.  Each of us changes our way of thinking.  If you are a manager, begin to challenge your staff to be creative (many will not respond right away, don’t fear).  But the trick is – if their ideas don’t work, or aren’t as well developed as you’d like them to be, don’t then “re-stifle” them.  The impulse is to always say “that’s not good enough”.  Instead try the following phrase:  “How can we make this work?”  Discuss the factors involved, and come up with solutions together.

2.  Government must impose guidelines and regulations (that stick) on companies / agencies that are trying to kill their employees.  Those that tell someone that since they are on salary they are expected to work unlimited hours.  Those that call their employees seasonal just so they don’t have to pay them benefits (very thinly veiled attack on my own agency, which I love dearly but their wrong on this).   For those of you that say the best government is small or no government – and I will curse for the first time on this blog – bullshit.  When people stop trying to hoard everything for themselves and stop trying to subjugate others for personal gain, we can have tiny government.  Until then, the government should be there to protect the people.  The only problem – it needs to do it’s job better. 

3.  Parents need to change what they tell their children, and how they say it.   Do you think it promotes creativity when you “expect excellence”?  Remember that creativity comes from the freedom to make mistakes.  How about expecting commitment and effort instead? 

4.  Coaches and teachers, see number 3.  You are part of this too.  And yes I realize that when I point a finger at you, there are 4 pointing back at me. Part of the reason I have this blog is to remind myself of these things too. 

5.  Instead of funding things and celebrating things based on amounts:  So-and-so is great because they make a lot of money.   That guy can do no wrong because he had 25 touchdowns. She must be a good person because she’s pretty…How about celebrating those that demonstrate passion and commitment to making things better for the planet, those that think outside the box to create solutions that benefit others, those that are willing to be themselves without hurting other people. 

6.  Those that have a lot of money and power:  How much more do you need?  ’Member in kindergarten when you learned to share?  Do we need to make you repeat the grade?  Honestly, people,  how much of that house can you use, and how many cars can you drive with those two feet?  How many people need to suffer so that you can by that 13th car. 

Most of the solutions above have to do with personal responsibility and ideals.  But the thing is…there is a procedure for personal responsibility.   There is a procedure for helping your fellow human being.   There are actual steps to take.   Make a list of what those steps are in your life, whether you are a parent, a teacher, a government official, a coach, a cop, an executive, or some combination of the above.    Then execute the plan.  Change almost never happens from the top down (though with the right person, it can be inspired from there).  Change mostly happens when individuals decide to make things happen.  We get it backwards all the time.   Movements are created from people, not institutions.   Stop waiting for someone to do something about it, and go against the grain.  Make THAT the grain.

How Do We Solve Our Play Problem? Part I

Lorraine Williams (trackmom.com) during my last post on play, asked me how we could reintroduce play into people’s lives.   Well, first we have to realize why it isn’t there.  Some of these reasons I give will seem accusatory, or may seem like “class warfare”, which I find to be a curious term.  But they are really just issues of the human condition.   These are things that I can see because they are things that I have perpetrated along with the rest of humanity.

1. For some time now, most people have worked for others who are far more powerful and wealthy.  Those that have been in power want even more money and power, so the more hours we work, the more they get. 

2.  Those of us that are not powerful or wealthy (definitely includes me); many of us wish to become powerful and wealthy, so we believe that if we work enough hours and put in enough effort, we can make it so.   In my neighborhood, we called this a pyramid scheme.   Everybody knows it when they see it. 

3.  We have becomes slaves to technology, instead of the other way around.  I have slowly changed the way I look at technology in the last year.  I am the boss, because I am a human.  I (meaning humans) decide how much I wish to work.  Then, I use technology to help me accomplish more within that time frame that I specify. Do you see the difference?

4. The human ego.  Our ability to reason and create has saddled us with the side effect of an overblown ego.  We have expectations of ourselves based on this pathological need to satisfy the spectacular.  We then define our roles as “boss”, “worker”, “intelligent”, “unintelligent”, “talented”, “untalented”.   When people get roped into roles, creativity dies because no one can step outside of the box they get put in.  “I am not smart”, “I am antisocial”, “I have two left feet”, “I was not meant to accomplish anything great”. 

5.  Because of all of the above, we have a guilty conscience about the number of hours we spend working. It is a mortal sin to put down the blackberry, or have any fun, because no slave should defy the master.  We can have many masters:  technology, the wealthy / powerful, appearance in the eyes of others, etc.   We then harshly judge anyone else that we perceive as not being as hardworking / smart / talented as our glorious selves.   I got a “suggestion” in the box outside my office today that said since I had no weight scale and not enough wet wipes in the weight room, that I was a poor manager.  Is this an environment that promotes play and creativity, or one that promotes guilt and subservience?   Luckily, I have built enough awareness et that kind of judgement be a source of much laughter.  But do our kids have that skill yet?  I should think not.   Not unless we give them the environment in which to build it. 

Believe me, I am not one of those people that wishes anarchy, or doesn’t see the value in a chain of information and directives.  But the pyramid scheme that we have now, where there is such disparity and the forcefulness that arises from that disparity, will forever stifle play and creativity.  No mistakes can be made, because it upsets the master (whatever that master may be).  No mistakes – no creatvity – no play.

Let all this ride for a few minutes and then read part II, where I try to “mock-solve” some of these issues.