Physical Education Update Blog

Christmas is a favorite time of year for my wife, Terry, and me. With parties for the university running team, track club, recreational basketball teams, school staff…and of course, Terry’s traditional Christmas dinner for family, we do most of our entertaining for the entire year during this three-week period.

One of the best things about Christmas is that many of the athletes I’ve coached over the past 25 years still travel home to visit family. Everyone knows that we’d love to have them drop by, so many of them do. It’s a wonderful chance to catch up with some of my favorite athletes…who also happen to be my some of my favorite people. And now, they often drop by with spouses and kids, which makes it even more fun.

Truly, one of the best things about being a coach is that you develop an extended family that grows every year.

The office will be closed from the 24th to New Year’s, so the next blog and “Fun Stuff for PE” newsletter will be delayed by a week - we won’t be back until January 12th and 15th respectively.

My best wishes to you and yours in this holiday season! I’ll see you in 2009!

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: parties, Christmas, physical education, visits

Backup Players - Always Be Ready to Play!

I’m currently reading a book by my favorite author, John Grisham, called “Playing for Pizza. It’s the story of an NFL quarterback - a 3rd-stringer who, through a series of injuries to his team’s top-two quarterbacks, ends up leading his team in the final 12 minutes of a championship game…with disastrous results. He finds himself playing in Italy, where the meat of the story takes place.

While this is a fictional account, the elevation of backup quarterbacks to a starter’s role is a common occurrence in today’s NFL. Here are just a few examples of backups  who are now leading their NFL teams.

Matt Cassel from the New England Patriots, took over from the league’s best pivot when Tom Brady was injured at the start of the season. Cassell hadn’t started a football game since high school. His team is now 8-5 and Cassel appears to be leading the Patriots back to the playoffs. His stock has risen so much that he’ll probably find himself a starter’s role on another NFL team next year.

Aaron Rodgers, of the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers was Brett Favres’ backup at Green Bay for two years. Favre, a legendary iron man who never missed a start, left Rodgers with almost no snaps in a game situation. Rodgers is now the acknowledged starter and while the Packers aren’t playing well, it’s not because of Rodgers.

In San Francisco, J.T O’Sullivan replaced Alex Smith, and was then replaced by Shaun Hill. On November 20th, Hill was named NFC’s offensive player of the week.

The most intriguing quarterback situation is in Cleveland. The Browns are now down to their 3rd-string quarterback, Ken Dorsey, after having lost Derek Anderson, then Brady Quinn, both to injury.  Third-stringer Dorsey’s backup is Joshua Cribbs, who has played the last four years as a kickoff return specialist.

So, a player who returns kicks is one injury away from leading his NFL team - a position I’m sure he never imagined at the start of this season.

The point of all this. If you are a backup…whether it’s in football, hockey, basketball, or any sport…don’t get discouraged. Don’t sit on the bench griping - show your coach that you’re enthusiastic and supportive of teammates. Keep practicing and most of all, keep learning and improving. As these NFL backups-turned-starters can tell you, your time may come!

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: backups, football, NFL, Grisham, Playing for Pizza, quarterbacks

I had a discussion the other day about “Which is more fun to watch, the Canadian football league or the NFL?” My own opinion is that, while I usually watch the NFL, I think CFL games are more fun to watch.

I was in the minority, with the consensus opinion being that the NFL has better players, so it must be more fun to watch. The discussion went something like this:

“Why is the NFL better?”

“Because the players are better.”

“How do you know the players are better?”

“Because they get had paid more.”

“Can you tell that the players are better just by watching?”

“Well no, not really.”

And that’s my point. Once players achieve a certain skill level most people would have a difficult time in distinguishing the best in the world from the also-rans.

CFL players aren’t making the big money in the NFL because they might be half a step slower or 10 pounds too light. But you can’t tell that just by watching them. They have the same skills -  and when you put them on the field with equally matched players, they’re totally indistinguishable from their counterparts in the bigger league.

Last night, I watched the Grey Cup championships on TV - it’s the Super Bowl of the Canadian football league. I channel-hopped back and forth between that game and an NFL contest between the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, versus the Arizona Cardinals and I found myself being drawn to the CFL game. The players, especially the linemen weren’t as big, but the game seemed as fast or faster. The skills displayed were incredible – 50 yard field goals, quarterbacks with rifles for arms, running backs deking and hurdling and receivers making acrobatic catches. The passion for the game they displayed was evident in the number of players in tears during the post-game interviews. If someone had told me these were the best players in the world, I would have believed him.

It’s the same in other sports. With 26 years of track coaching under my belt, I often have trouble determining - when watching the competitors in isolation - who is really running faster in a race.  Do you really think 98% of the population would know – just from watching - the difference between a sprinter running 10.5 or one who is  running 9.8 – or  that an athlete had just set a world record if an announcer hadn’t told them they had?

Ditto for basketball -  I prefer watching the collegiate variety versus the pros. Every collegiate team has players who can dunk, shoot the three-point shot and drive to the hoop at high speed. In fact, so do most high school teams. The difference between them and the pros is that the players tend to be smaller. But is size something that really makes a better viewing experience?

My point is that what truly makes sport exciting is close competition between athletes of equal ability.  And that type of competition might be right in your back yard – in your high school gym or local field.

So, if you haven’t a watched a local sports team play lately, get out there and watch. Whether it’s your local college, high school, or club team, you might be surprised at how skilled the athletes are and how much fun they are to watch.

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: CFL, Grey Cup, NFL, football, competition

Coaches! We have a copyright problem!

That’s right. Today, when I typed the word “coaching” into Google today, here’s what I found on the first page: 22 references, with only THREE referring to actual sports coaching.

What type of coaching did Google find for me?

Peer Coaching.
Executive Coaching
Business Coaching
Life Coaching
Dating Coaches
Conflict Coaches
Dialogue Coaches

These people used to be called consultants, trainers, instructors, guides  and advisors. But that was until marketing geniuses, acknowledging the sport culture that’s so prevalent in our society, decided that connecting to the term “coach” was a better way to sell their services.

I hate it. First, just try to find information on real sports coaching.  Those websites are hidden amid the 19,000,000 internet references to business coaching.

Plus, it diminishes the term “coach.” When I think of coaches, I envision men or women who work with kids, getting up early in the morning or staying late at night so their young charges can play, and dream and excel in the sport they love. Coaches are mentors, parental figures,  guides and role models. True, there are many professional coaches, but most coaches work for little or no pay, giving of their time because of their love for kids and their love of sport.

These original coaches are a much different breed than the professionals who charge mega-bucks to tell business executives how to run their corporation.

“Coach” is the “catch-phrase of the day” for the business/lifestyle/consulting world. It may eventually be replaced by a newer, more snazzy term. But it will have done its damage to the real coaches out there.

Maybe it’s time to consult a legal coach!

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: coaches, coaching, business coach, coach

There are two kinds of coaches. Indoor coaches, and outdoor coaches. I am both. While I do work on the indoor track for a few months in the winter, most of the time I am outdoors, coaching outdoor track and cross-country.

There are many days when I wish I were an indoor coach ALL year round. Our cross-country race this weekend took place on an unprotected plateau, in gale force winds and a drenching downpour so intense that anybody wearing clothing labelled rain-resistant immediately learned the limitations of the term “resistant.”

My runners and their supporters - 20 of them - tried to stay warm and dry before the race by crowding into an 8 x 8 foot tent. It worked: 20 huddled bodies generates of lot of body heat. However, I couldn’t participate in the collective radiator. There wasn’t enough room for coaches, so I remained outside the tent, trying to look impervious to the cold, the water streaming down my ball cap brim, my wind-pants feeling like an overflowing Depend®…and dreaming I was a basketball  coach..or volleyball mentor…or, at that moment, a full-time indoor track coach.

It’s not just bad weather that gives me indoor-coach-envy. Indoor coaches also have a better deal when it comes to packing for trips. No portable shelters, no rain gear,  no 60-item reminder list, no guessing about footwear or whether the clothing you’ve packed will leave you freezing or dripping sweat. A pair of shorts, sweats and a golf shirt will keep you warm and legally acceptable, and packing them into a tiny travel bag takes only a few minutes.

The tradeoff? Those occasional days when the clouds disappear, the air is fresh, the breeze drops, the sun shines just enough to keep you comfortable, and you know there’s no place better than to be outside, at that place and that time, doing exactly what you love. On those days, the memories of bad weather fade and you know that being an outside coach is the absolute best!

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: indoor coach, coaching, , cross-country running, coach, outdoor coach

Laurentian University, where I coach the women’s track and cross-country teams, is four hours north of Toronto, and most of our competition venues are at least that far away. (I also coach a track club, but that’s for other blog posts).

So we  do a lot of driving. In the past, we travelled in vans, but this year our fortunes changed dramatically. We now use a 30 passenger coach,  It’s heaven! The difference in stress levels after a bus-trip versus a van trip is astronomical. In fact, I’m typing this blog while sipping tea in the front seat of the bus. We’re flying down the highway and I can see the fall colors flashing past, and rivers and lakes and other spectacular views. The bus has a bathroom, luggage compartment,  reclining seats and a professional driver.

It has one other feature that sounds wonderful, but is a double-edged sword - a DVD player with five screens and speaker system. Movies! What a great way to wile away the hours!

Or so I thought. On our first trip in the bus, I made a fatal mistake. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s election time in both Canada and the United States.   Much has been discussed about the  election platforms of every political party on both sides of the border: Military spending and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan; unemployment, the deficit, and ways to stimulate the economy;  environmental initiatives; tax reduction; and health-care spending…

In the discussions on health care spending, I seldom hear anything mentioned about disease prevention and the incredible savings in our health-care spending that can result.  But in order to realize these savings, we need a national strategy for fitness.

The strategy must be comprehensive with the goal of establishing a national identity that includes fitness, health and physical competence. This identity must begin with our youngest of school children and sustain them throughout their adult years. National funds must be set aside to enable our states and provinces and local school boards to provide quality daily physical education led by competent instructors who will instill a love of physical activity and fitness and provide the knowledge and physical tools to enable every student to enjoy a lifelong, healthy lifestyle. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I witnessed a great example of the optimal use of facilities and cooperation between sports teams.

Lockerby Composite is a high school of about 1000 students within the city of Sudbury, Ontario. While the school has a great sports tradition, its outdoor facilities are limited to a single football field, bordered by houses, a rock outcrop, a parking lot and the back walls of the school itself.  It also has a small asphalt tennis court, bordered by a strip of grass separating the court from a busy street.

What I witnessed last week were two varsity practices and an inter-school competition all conducted simultaneously on these limited facilities.

The senior boys varsity football team was practicing on one half of the football field, while the girls flag football squad was running drills on the other half. At the same time, an inter-school cross-country race was being run, starting on the strip of grass beside the tennis court and running loops around several city blocks before finishing in the end zone of the football field. Three coaches, three varsity teams, all successfully sharing the same facility. You obviously don’t need Cadillac facilities to get it done. Way to go, Lockerby!

By the way,  this blog will continue as a bi-weekly from now on. We began as a weekly but went bi-weekly over the summer months. Feedback was so good that we’ll continue publishing every second week. Sometimes PE teachers have so much information thrown at them that keeping up becomes a chore.

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: physical education, cooperation, school, cross country running, football, sports

With the Olympics over, there is now a huge gap in my life that only watching 18 hours of daily television sports can fill.

During the games, I was occasionally able to wrench my bloodshot eyes from the television screen long enough to jot down some observations. Here they are:

Race Walking
I’m not a race walking fan. It’s a contrived form of locomotion, in which highly trained athletes are confined by unnatural rules that they all break. For example, “lifting” is illegal - it’s when both feet are off the ground at the same time. Yet, most race walkers do it at some point in the race. Slow motion video of the competitors leaving the Olympic stadium showed a number of them cheating in this manner.

Michael Phelps in School
Michael Phelps, because of his ADHD in school, was once told by a teacher that he’d never be able to focus on anything. Apparently, with Phelps winning eight gold medals in swimming, that teacher was wrong.

Synchronized Swimming
I realize synchronized swimming athletes are highly trained and the sport is difficult, but, it reminds me of cheerleading…in the water…with nothing but upside down legs showing…and with the cheerleaders wearing weird makeup, cheezy smiles and nose clips. I’m afraid I can’t get myself to like it.

The Most Cruel Event
The hurdles must be the most cruel of events. You are never more than 10m from disaster, as Lolo Jones, who had been decisively leading the 100m hurdle final, found out when she clipped the ninth hurdle and dropped from first to seventh in the blink of an eye. Ironically, she probably hit that hurdle because she was running too fast - which is the point in sprint events. That extra speed can change your stride pattern, taking you too close to the upcoming hurdles.

Volleyball Artillery
The Brazilians were serving the volleyball at 118 km/hour. Not spiking, serving! Their serves looked like cannonballs coming across the net.

BMX Biking
BMX biking. Quite a spectacle and very exciting, with lots of crashes and spectacular jumps. But those BMX bikes remind me of the tiny bikes the clowns ride in the circus.

Medal Incentives
One thing I didn’t realize was that the American Olympic medalists receive a financial bonus for winning medals: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. Canadians receive $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. The money is a nice incentive, but it’s tough to live on that for four years.

Grace in Defeat
You can tell more about an athlete’s true character after a crushing defeat than after a win. I was impressed with sprinter Tyson Gay - America’s top hope in the sprints. Gay failed to qualify for the 100m finals, then was involved in the botched exchange of the 4 x 100m relay. Although he had pulled a hamstring in the U.S. Olympic trials, he refused to use it as an excuse (although it WAS a factor), and took full responsibility for the botched exchange, although it wasn’t all his fault. Tyson Gay has a new fan and it’s me. I’m also a new fan of U.S. hurdler Lolo Jones, whose following post race interview was an inspiration:
Lolo Jones Interview

I realize it was a controversial decision, but kudos to the International Olympic Committee for awarding the Olympics to China. Yes, China is still a repressive state, and yes they should leave Tibet alone. But China possesses an ancient culture, expanding economy and form of government that are gradually opening themselves to the world. And these Olympics were a wonderful, if small, step in that direction. Getting to know athletes from other cultures on a personal level is one of the true benefits of the Olympics and it’s why boycotts are a bad idea. Don’t YOU feel like you know China a little better after the Games?

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: Lolo Jones, Michael Phelps, Olympics, hurdles

With the summer Olympics at the half-way mark, here are some observations:

Track - Usain Bolt
After watching Usain Bolt shattering the world record with a 9.69 in the 100m, I realize I have been coaching the event all wrong. I always thought sprinters had to use their arms in the last 20 metres of the race. Apparently holding them out like wings while pounding the chest is faster. I can hardly wait to implement this new technique!

Swimming
Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals in swimming was a super story.

But the best race performance, for me, was watching his teammate, 32 year-old Jason Lezak on the final leg of the of the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.

Lezak was anchoring against the world record holder in the 100m freestyle, Alain Bernard, of France. Bernard had done some trash-talking before the race, stating that the French team would smash the Americans. As the race progressed and the final exchange took place, it  appeared that Bernard’s prediction would come true, as he entered the water almost body-length ahead of Lezak.

However, as the Frenchman raced down the pool, he edged too close to his lane line. Lezak, the canny veteran, realizing the mistake, edged over to their shared line and drafted behind Bernard, riding his bow-wave, like a dolphin with a ship.  It was a rookie error on Bernard’s part, and Lezak made him pay.

With 10 metres to go, Lezak, who had expended a fraction of the energy of the Frenchman, made his charge, head bobbing, legs thrashing and arms flailing furiously.  The move was so dramatic, that he almost appeared to lift out of the water. Lezak out-touched Bernard by 8/100th of a second after having swum the fastest relay leg in history.

It was something to see. Michael Phelps deserves the attention he’s receiving, but he owes his record of 8 gold medals to Jason Lezak.

There will be more Olympic observations in the next blog.

P.S. Bernard later redeemed himself by winning the 100m freestyle in a new world record.

Dick Moss, Editor,
PE Update.com

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Tags: Jason Lizak, track, Olympics, Usain Bolt, swimming