Sport is not a 4 letter word, it's a 5 letter word like Great and Super, at least it should be...

Last week I had the opportunity to volunteer at the New Brunswick Indian Summer Games (A name change is being considered).  I spent a morning at the UNB Lady Beaverbrook pool as a timer.  It reminded me of why I decided to study and work in sport many years ago, and why I have persisted until now. 


I watched the sense of accomplishment on the faces of these young swimmers, many of whom were competing for the first time.  I watched the camaraderie being developed between teammates as they cheered each other on and celebrated each others efforts.  And, I was just happy to see physical exertion of these kids and hoping that they would come to relish the post exercise feeling of positive fatigue.


This event came on the heels of the North American Indigenous Games and was at the same time as the Canada Games were taking place in Winnipeg.  I followed the stories from both Games along with thousands of others on Twitter, Facebook, TSN and the CBC.  There were so many positive stories of athletes overcoming the odds to make a team, personal bests being achieved and good sportsmanship that it has contributed to a very positive summer of sport.  These games have been a shining example of the good of sport and in addition to the memories of the fun and the competition, I wonder what other benefits these Games bring our athletes.


Often in attempting to answer this question, we focus on the experience at Games itself, but we need to look at the whole process.  For all athletes this starts many years before the event, although most Canada Games team programs formally start about two years out.  They involve numerous camps, hundreds of ours of disciplined individual training, thousands of kilometres of travel to competitions, lots of tests, trials and tribulations.  The rewards include the health benefits of all the physical activity, the social benefits of belonging to a team, learning teamwork and leadership skills, acquiring life lessons and a whole host of others.  Once at the Games, athletes develop friendships from across the nation strengthening our social fabric.


Despite all the positives that sport can bring, I have worked with and presented to many groups who view sport as a four letter word.  It is a viewpoint fuelled by stories in the media of drug cheats, sporting acts of violence, role models gone bad and the greed of some professional athletes.  However, it would be a mistake to gloss over this perception and consider it simply a fault of the media.  Too often, we are not doing a good enough job with minor sports.  A system that relies almost entirely on volunteers (to keep costs affordable) often shoots itself in the foot by disappointing its clients - parents and youth.


I try to keep my eyes and ears open and see the very good and the not so good of youth sports.  We have some great associations who are very well organized, the communication is good.  Parents show up to venues and are greeted and shown where to go, coaches are prepared, well trained and supported.  The facilities and equipment are appropriate, the atmosphere overwhelmingly positive and the environment is safe.  Everyone participates, everyone learns, everyone competes and everyone has fun.  This is how youth sport should be, but it often misses the mark.  Cases of disorganization, poor coaching, an emphasis on winning rather than competing and bad sportsmanship are still too common and we need to work together to overcome them.


Over the years, problems in sport have led a good number of people to view sport in a negative light.  We need to collectively do a better job of providing quality sport experiences to change this perception so that more kids can benefit in more ways from participating in sport.  In the meantime, parents should do their homework before signing their kids up for a program.  Are the coaches trained?  Does the club follow the Sport for Life Model and it's national bodies endorsed programs?  What is the competition system and the rules around it?  What are the expectations of the parents?


If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing well.

Sport for the Love and Practicailty of it

A couple of weeks ago I found myself at the Canadian Powerlifting Championships in Jonquiere, Quebec.  I should state the obvious, which is that I was not competing, I was there with my wife, who was.  In fact, during the morning weigh-in, a lady was handing out competitor wrist bands and asking who needed one and she walked right by me.  I thought I'd done enough over the past 4 months of the cycling 'off-season' to at least warrant a dismissive "you're not competing are you".

Anyhow, being here reminds me of all the good things that sport has to offer.  This competition has motivated hundreds of master's athletes across the country to work out hard every day of the week, eat healthy and focus on clear goals.  It has also led to some other family members eating a lot healthier than they may have otherwise tended to do.

I wonder how many of these athletes had positive experiences in quality sport programs when they were growing up.  I would hazard a guess that most of them did and the habits of working out have stayed with them throughout their life. 

As I was waiting around during the morning session while people were gradually getting warmed up you could see the camaraderie between the athletes.  They were happy to see old friends and see the progress that each had made.  There was no attitudes on display, no mind games being played and nobody talking smack.  I guess in a sport like powerlifting, you let your performance speak for you.  No point trash talking and then failing on a 50kg squat.  It was just a 'happy to be alive and doing what I love' vibe going around, and who doesn't want that?

It was interesting to see how most women clearly had a weight category that they had trained to compete in and were boundly determined to stay under that weight, while others had decided long ago that they would just go in the open class.  Either way, respect is due when you see how much these ladies are lifting.  Any women in there 50s and 60s who can squat 100+ kgs deserve recognition.

The really nice thing about powerlifting is that it's one of the most practical sports, right up there with running.  The transfer of my skills from soccer to real life are modest.  I have managed to cushion the fall of the odd plate and saved it from breaking, but as a powerlifter you can pick up heavy stuff. Who needs a car jack if your partner can dead lift 200kgs?  Bring all the groceries from the car upstairs in one trip.  The dog isn't pulling you across the street when he sees a squirrel, not with those thighs that can squat 100kgs.  Yes, the many benefits of sport and practical.  You've got to love it.

Fran deadlifts 142KGs for a new master 2 national record.

Kudos to UNB Men's Hockey - Development Should Never End.

The University of New Brunswick Men's hockey team won another national championship this past Sunday.  To beat the likes of Queens, Acadia and Saskatchewan, you can imagine that they had to play remarkably well.  This was arguably the best team that UNB has ever assembled - at least in the 30 years that I've been watching.  However, what impressed me most is the player development that has taken place.

At this level there must be a temptation to simply recruit the best available players and plug them into a system.  Now I don't have 'people' on the inside or know any players, but  the constant improvement of the players in all facets of the game is plain to see.  Each year players get better and it is a real testimony to the program.  There must be a great deal of emphasis on individual player development as well as the team as a whole.

That said, isn't getting better what drives and motivates all true athletes.  We love a challenge and are committed to improve which motivates us to work hard.  We aren't measuring performance in steps taken, more likely litres sweat.  This is one of the big wins of sport.  It also points to one of the big holes in the Canadian Sport System.  All of our coaching programs are focused on youth or the development of high performance athletes.  Once you enter the 'weekend warrior' group, no more proper coaching.  Now you have to rely on the internet, hearsay, the old timer who always shows up or put your trust in what the top performer has to say.

Rant: Are we obsessed with winning and losing?

Way back in the day I read a quote from a leading sport sociologist Garry Whannel (1983) "For every one winner, there's at least one loser".  It's a very profound statement, and had I belonged to a book club in those days, I'm sure it could have been the topic of much discussion.

Now I'm a pretty competitive guy and it took me a while to learn that losing is ok.  No, it actually is ok.  If I lose, it's probably OK.  It's not that I didn't prepare properly or give the old 110% we like to think is necessary. It's not that the referee had it in for me or the coach must go.  Somebody has to lose.

For those who participate in individual sports, let's face facts, you almost always lose.  500 people in a triathlon race, one winner.  If you are in a racquet or combat sport, on average, you lose half the time.  In team sports, a little less if ties are allowed.  Without at least one loser, there are no winners (Harris 2017).

Look at the sports pages of any media site or even the web pages of local club sites and we report on the heroes of the day (winners) at the expense of the real content.  Who scored, who placed, who finished first, but very little about the competition itself, the performances, the lessons learned, etc.

OK, I'm all for trying to win and giving it all you have within the rules and with proper ethics and all that, but we need to lose this idea that it's all about winning and start to focus on performance (and the other great things about sport).  How many personal bests?  Who were the strong performers (stats aside)?  How strong was the opposition?

I sure as heck didn't win this one.

 

Rightsizing Sport

I just found an excellent story on the development of the Toronto Maple Leafs' Auston Mathews.  I'd always wondered how a kid growing up in Arizona not only made it to the NHL, but is thriving in it.  Why everyone in hockey is talking about Auston Matthews . The article is a bit dated and every once in a while I regret cancelling my daily subscription to the Globe and Mail. however, not usually on recycling day.

With the New Brunswick Hockey Association endorsing cross-ice hockey there are those for it and those who think it's just not real hockey.  As well,  there is so much focus on playing games and going to tournaments that I sometimes wonder if the sport is for the kids or the parents.  While this relates to hockey, you could insert many of our major team sports in here.

The Auston Mathews story describes how nearly all of his early hockey experience was gained playing 3 on 3 on a small ice surface.  This is said to be largely responsible for his incredible puck handling ability.  Working in tight quarters he had to think quick and keep the puck close.

Auston also spent an inordinate amount of time with a skating coach, but it seems very little time in the early years with a hockey coach.  In fact, for two years, Auston didn't play competitive hockey, he just played locally and practiced.  How does this match up with the predominant thinking of Canada's typical hockey parent?  Travel and play, travel and pay, spring hockey, summer hockey, hockey camps......

So I ask, does a player need this level of organization to be the next 'Great One?'  Given the Mathews story, the answer would seem to be a resounding NO, at least at the younger ages.  Would parents and kids be better off if we returned the days of the past where kids spent hours and hours just playing small sided games and playing around on the ice?  Unfortunately, many kids these days don't take the opportunity to get out and experience free play so maybe this will not work.  However, at the very least, I would suggest that parents would be much better off spending a fraction of the money they do on travelling to tournaments and channeling some of it into ice time and encouraging free play.

It's so easy to get caught up in playing games or going to competitions.  I recall travelling to 9 speed skating competitions in one season, 6 of them weekend affairs outside of Fredericton.  It likely cost around $3,000 just for travel.  Those competitive experiences were valuable, but how much competition is enough competition.  Competition is a test and following the test you need time to improve before being tested again.  You can't do that if you are going from game to game or meet to meet.  It is so easy to fall into line with the norm.

The Sport for Life model  www.canadiansportforlife.ca promotes competition for development and asks sports to take a serious look at their competition schedules.  We need to ask questions about what level of competition is appropriate and when.  How can we limit travel and costs?   At what age should sports have provincial championships and when should it be a jamboree?  What are the implications for having provincials for very young athletes?

If we could reduce the cost and commitment for parents, more kids could afford to play and there would be more local competition and fewer travel demands at the younger ages.  The more kids playing, the more kids there are bin the competitive stream later.  As Kiwi rugby coach says in the video featured on the Sport for Life page"it takes a lot of milk to make cream".

Early Specialization in Sport

When is it too early to specialize?  Check this video out from Nova Scotia.  It was produced out of a partnership including soccer and hockey.

Nova Scotia leads the way...

High School Sport - what's it all about?

Back in Blighty, high school sport was just a chance to play with your mates and have a bit of a laugh.  Sure, we'd practice once or twice a week, but that was really just scrimmaging anyway.  We'd win some, we'd lose some, nobody really cared. What I remember most was some of the quirky teacher-coaches we had over the years, the occasional near dust up and that time it hailed so hard we all ran and hid in the hedge.

Fast forward and move to Canada and I start to see pictures and reports in the newspaper - people seem to be taking it quite seriously, especially basketball and hockey.  I've tried to understand high school sports, but I find it an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle.  Is it about developing the individual through sport?  Is it about developing athletes?  Is it about winning the provincial banner?  Does it mean different things to different people?  I don't know!

This past weekend was the play-downs for the high school provincial basketball championships and following one of the games there was a bit of a spat between a couple of coaches.  It boiled down to the fact that one school had two players who were not locals, but had allegedly moved to that school's catchment area to play basketball in what is considered to be a 'top program'.  The two players had a major impact on the result and the losing coach was griping and implying it was not fair as at his school, they developed their own players.

I don't know if there are written or unwritten rules about this sort of thing, but in most sports outside of the school system this would be perfectly acceptable and even encouraged.  Soccer NB has a development centre located in Moncton with a full-time professional coach and support services designed to help the top high school aged players progress.  They encourage provincial team players to relocate.  It operates outside of school sport.  If you are a promising and passionate figure skater, but happen to live in Backwoods, NB. where the local club has only 2 hours of ice time a week and Ginny's Mom does the coaching duties, you are not going to achieve your goals unless you relocate. Basketball NB has excellent provincial team programs that run in the summer, but high school basketball is the only game in town for the long winter months.

Put yourself in shoes of a talented and passionate basketball player who happens to go to a school with a weak basketball program, or no team at all.  Do they let their dreams (and potential scholarship opportunities) fade away or do they relocate to a school that provides excellent coaching and a strong competitive schedule?  And, if there's a school rule against that sort of thing, should high schools be the primary development vehicle for the sport?

Comments please.

It's (not) all about the games

Watching sports on tv this weekend, as I generally do, twice I heard professional coaches lamenting about how little time they had to practice.  Mike Babcock of the Maple Leafs and Jose Mourinho of Manchester United have both been stymied in their efforts to improve team performance by a congested game schedule.

A speaker at the Sport for Life Conference once stated that many basketball parents rate a program by a) the amount of 'stuff' their child gets and b) the number of games they play.

The Canadian Sport for Life model establishes an ideal practice to game ratio for all ages / stages of development.  For those in the Learn to Train (9-12 yrs) and Train to Train (12-16 yrs) it is generally 3  or 2 practices for every game played.  How many sport teams observe this ratio?

Think about it this way, the game is a test to see what you know and what you don't know (rather like at school). After the test, you know what you need to work on.  If you don't practice, however, how are you going to get better?  www.canadiansportforlife.ca   

Building the Athlete First

The one thing that most great players have in common is that they are also great athletes.  A look back into their childhood reveals a youth spent outdoors, playing with friends and trying a wide variety of sports.  These days, I hear from a lot of New Brunswick coaches that they don’t see a lot of natural athletes any more.

Today’s youth are much less likely to spend their time outdoors playing and exploring and much more likely to spend their time indoors playing computer games or watching NetFlix.  The result is that children showing up in youth sport programs often lack the basic skills needed to be successful.  Fundamental skills such as running, jumping, throwing, catching and sliding are underdeveloped.  This means that we must change the way we coach.

Teaching basic movement and general sport skills is now an essential component of early sport programming.  There’s little point in practicing break out drills if players can’t move, pass or control an object efficiently.

A growing number of sports have now embedded the development of fundamental skills into their developmental programs.  For example, Skate Canada has its CanSkate program, Baseball has its Rally Cap and Athletics has its Run Jump Throw.  All of these programs have a focus on developing movement and basic sport skills using fun activities and small sided games.  Coaches of other sports need to creatively including the development of fundamental skills into their practices.  The days where the warm-up consisted of 10 laps of the gym have disappeared from the progressive coach’s practice plan.   

In addition to developing better athletes for your sport, who will become better players in the future, the development of all-round fundamental skills is a win for the individual and society.  Physically literate individuals are more confident and more likely to be active throughout their lifetime.  Further, they will reap many benefits in their everyday lives from having better balance on icy sidewalks to improved dance moves on a Saturday night. 

Rant #1 - Competitive C Hockey

I had a conversation with a parent last week and it was one of those that raises the blood pressure significantly.  Her son is 9 years old and was playing with a Competitive C Atom team.  “What the heck is Competitive C”, you might rightly ask, and let’s be honest, it’s rec hockey.

Now I said in the introduction that he was playing, but now he isn’t because he has quit.  So, is he a quitter, has he let his team down?  Heck no, he’s a 9 year old that just wants to play hockey.  He’s a typical kid, except he’s not as good as some of the other boys so his coach decided that 2 minutes at the end of each period was ample playing time – less if the result of the game hung in the balance.  In fact, it is so important that the team be successful that the coach double shifts all the best players and confines the rest to the end of the bench.

This is 9 year old recreational hockey.  It exists to help kids have fun, learn new skills make new friends and be physically active.  That is its primary focus and the job of the coach is to help everyone of the kids on their team achieve these goals.  Now, I’m not saying that the kids should all hold hands, go easy on the opposition and try to end all matches in a tie – if keeping score at all.  No, I play to win and would expect all players to do the same, but it is not the result that is important at the end of the day.  Nobody cares or remembers who beat who on any given January day in a Competitive C New Brunswick hockey match-up.

For Pete’s sake, let all the kids play and use your coaching skills to balance your team as best you can to be competitive against your opposition.  The coach’s excuse to the parent in this case, was that the team needed to do well in the league to get a preferential draw in the play-offs.  Not good enough!  All the benefits of participation in sport, all the lessons to be learned around teamwork, hard work and commitment are all lost when a team is no longer a team, it's two teams – those with skill and those with less skill.  What makes this particular situation worse is that the weaker players were largely excluded in practice as well – sent to skate from pylon to pylon while the more able players did puck handling drills.

We’ve got to do better than that.