In this second part, we will explore some ways that we as coaches, PE teachers, and trainers can contribute to solving the problems of exclusion and bullying. 

What IS the Solution?
The solution seems fairly obvious to me.  Find ways to mix competition with cooperation.  Instead of choosing your young athletes based on their perceived potential, be about the business of helping all kids enjoy sports.  When you see these ego-driven, bullying / dominance situations – discuss this with kids.  Ask the right questions to help them understand implications.  Do I as a coach or trainer truly understand competition?  Do I realize that if there is true competition, we want everyone else to have the same advantages?  Otherwise, it seems there is never a true competition. 

by Dr. Kwame M Brown

This will be the first of two parts, exploring the connections between social awareness and bullying / exclusion. The purpose of this first part is to call out the issue in the larger scope of the lives of children / teens. The second part will explore some ways those of us who work with children can attempt to change the landscape as it currently exists. Since these articles are appearing in a blog, they will obviously not be a full dissertation, exploring every detail. The purpose here is to start a valuable discussion.

A significant feature of the play environment we provide our children these days is exclusion (from coaches and teams) and bullying (from both peers and coaches). Children who don’t make a team are already made to feel “less than”. Many coaches and teachers tend to value the more talented children, even to the point of excusing certain behaviors. On the flip side, many coaches and teachers engage in bullying behaviors. Yes, these issues have been around for a while, but have greater consequences now with the electronic age. Social media and modern communication devices confer the ability for bullying and exclusion to follow a child around, literally. The obsession we have with elitism, and promoting the elite performers of sports almost exclusively, also may contribute to the behavioral trait of subjugation and ridicule of others.

by Wil Fleming – www.beforcefit.com

We have all seen this scenario before: An athlete taking attempts at a max weight and missing attempt after attempt.  This happens all the time when an athlete is taking attempts in Olympic lifting.  Missed clean, rest, try again, miss again, “Okay last attempt” miss again.  As a coach if you are encountered with this you try to take the opportunity of a brief failure to tell the athlete all the aspects of a lift that were successful, but where do you go from there?

We all train our athletes for success. That much, I would hope, is a given.  Success, to each of them, takes many forms.  For some it is making a team, for others it is a state championship, or even a spot on an Olympic team. 

We train athletes to get stronger, get faster, move better or be healthier, to help achieve their goals, but shouldn’t we really just be training them to succeed?

Tony Reynolds says…

Treadmill – The belt pulls your leg through resulting in relatively passive extension of the hip. Passive extension would then minimize the contribution of the primary hip extensors.

This can be offset a bit by inclining the treadmill, but still does not match the recruitment patterning of running on the ground.

Ground – YOU pull your leg through. Therefore land running involves active hip extension.

You are never going to improve speed of extension or the force generation capacity of that extension when you utilize an activity that minimizes the contributions of the primary hip extensors.

So a great question was asked on the message board over at www.IYCAMembers.com a couple of days ago.

"Why are high speed running treadmills NOT recommended for training young athletes?"

I’ve been talking about this issue for as long as I can remember.

So naturally… I offered my two cents.

Here are my thoughts: