Issues, Perspectives and Directions

When it comes to my philosophies on life, health,  education and human performance it is quite simple. When it comes to life i believe that a healthy body is a happy body. This is true in all aspects physical health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health and environmental health. If you keep good balance and live healthy you will end up happy with how things are. when it comes to you body i like to look at your body as a car, you wouldn’t put bad gas into your car so why put bad habits like food into you body. my coaching philosophy would consist of always having a winning mentality but not always making that the most important part. you know as well as anyone else that it feels good to win so saying that winning isn’t important you are crazy. create good and healthy relationships with all your athletes but don’t make favorites. You have to establish leadership but also confide and be there for all of them. also remember to make sure that they are having fun and that they enjoy the sport they are involved in.

Just a quick thought. Many coaches believe you must be consistent in everything you do in order to get respect from the players as a coach. I agree that there needs to be consistency in the way a program is run so the players know what is expected and so that it can be run without chaos. However, every athlete learns differently just as in every form of education. Also they respond differently to different ways to motivate.

As far as learning you need to see who responds to auditory instruction, who is more visual, and who learns from demonstration, or video, etc. Once their learning style is discovered, you can make much more significant breakthroughs.

As far as responding to motivation, it is also important to see how each athlete responds individually. Some need to really be kicked in the butt. Some athletes will not reach their highest level until you get after them and challenge them. Others crumble or shut down in that same situation. That person may need positive reinforcement. Turning negatives into positives will go along way with those athletes.

So it is important to be flexible (to a point-not being taken advantage of) in order to get the most from your team.

It seems in the world of coaching that creativity has diminished over time.  With resources such as the internet, coaches clinics, dvd’s, books, or magazines being used on a daily basis, coaches seem to loose their creativity in the process.  Do I blame coaches that take others ideas, no.  There is so much good information available to us today that its hard not to take a couple of proven training methods and incorporate that into your program.  I always wonder what coaching was like in the past when alot of these resources we take for granted were not available.  I feel this subject is true to mostly high school coaches than anything, due to the lack expertise in their sport.

I have been coaching now for a couple weeks and we have just had our first tournament. In my last blog I hit on the importance or winning, and how I think that winning should be on the back burner. I still believe that, but as a coach you want your kids to win because you know that they want to win. I think they way you handle your kids when they lose is something that is important. There were a couple situations where I had to work with a wrestler who just lost.
The first situation was one of our guys who lost to a tough opponent. He wrestled ok, but it seemed he thought he was going to lose going into it. So I took him aside and hit on the good things he did, but then really tried to hammer in the things that he did not do well, things that if he improved them he would be able to beat this guy nest time.
The second was one of our guys who lost to his opponent not because he wrestled badly but because his opponent was just a lot stronger. In this situation our kid wrestled great he didn’t make very many mistakes. He knew he was better and was beating himself up after the match; I went in and made him laugh. I tried to get the match behind him, I knew he was a better wrestler, he knew he was, so all there is left to do is make sure he doesn’t get into a mental funk and lose the rest of the day because of it.
It is a good experience working as a coach and it has really enforced that winning isn’t everything. I have found that I care more about the wrestlers working hard and doing the best that they can with limited mistakes than winning every match.

Humans are social beings, they need to function as groups for their well- being. People need leaders, empathy and care. They need sources of emotion and mostly, a target for their own emotion. People live in mirrors, treasuring what they have in others and hating their own flaws recognized in their companions. People are people, whatever they feel, whatever they do. We are all the same. The more personal, the more universal. Still, as long as somebody can recognoize you in a certain emotion that he feels in getting together with you after a long time, and that emotion is pozitive too, your place here is fully justified.

With coming near the end of my graduate career, and seeing the light, I have been able to figure out a lot of key facts on how to live my life. For example, I am a firm believer in living life to the fullest and never passing up an opportunity. Another thought of mine and advice that I could give to others is to figure out the unknown, before you pursue the known. Thats all for now.

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Albert Einstein)

Imagine counting your knowledge in paragraphs, your life in days and your love in I love yous…Things should be taken as they are, in their undivided fullness. We should not put much emphasis on concrete measurements, for they are rough and shallow. Instead, we should measure our knowledge in our voluntary acceptance of each other, our life in tea cups under the lashes of time, our love in breakfast meals taken with our dear ones.

Alright, I figured it out.  They easiest way to help someone succeed is believing in them until they reach their desired goals.  Growing up in Milwaukee and Waukesha I’ve come across someone interesting people.  The type of persons that believe in you but within the same school district other teachers could careless about my achievements.  That’s a part of life but as a future educator I will use my influence (power) to help every student succeed.  Can I reach each student?  Probably not but that is my goal.  Basically I will use the ”No Child Left Behind Act” but instead of lowering my standards to help them succeed I will up my ability to reach them.

I am t my laptop, in the kitchen with the deck door open. Full sun is coming in and the day is peaceful. I have been mentally sorting through quotes and philosophies. It is difficult to separate a life philosophy from a professional philosophy. Bottom line though, is that if I could not read, I would not be able to write this and sum up my thoughts. Are there oral blogs? Blogs for people to speak only? Must be. Back to reading…I can’t believe how treasured this skill is by some(expecially in toher cultures/countries) and the skill is taken for granted in the US. (My opinion). I see so many kids that struggle to learn, learn incorrectly and struggle even more to unlearn the inappropriate skills. Their parents aren’t alarmed…there is no sense of urgency. One reading program I saw a demonstration of is being used widely in prisons, where the illiteracy rate is very high. I also read an article in the Wisconsin State Reading Association journal about an eighth grader that still can not read despite all kinds of special ed help,but has fathered a child. I don’t have any answers only questions.

Philosophy of life
October 26th, 2009 by Laurie Campbell
I was startled to learn the other day that to own

a book is to be considered priveleged on a global

scale. Many in third world countries will never

own a book and possession of ONE book is a

status symbol. Add to the equation that in a third

world country to be able to actually READ that

book elevates one’s status even more. How humbling

that my job is to assist individuals in their reading

endevours.