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SEVENTEEN REASONS WHY FOOTBALL IS BETTER
THAN HIGH SCHOOL
by Herb Childress
As an ethnographer, Mr. Childress was able
to watch more than a hundred high school students in a variety of circumstances.
Here's what he learned.
WE DEFINE SCHOOL as a place of learning.
But as I visited classes in the high school in which I was an observer
for a year, what I saw mostly — and what the students told me about most
frequently — was not learning at all, but boredom. I saw students talking
in class, not listening to lectures, having conversations instead of working
on their study guides, putting their heads on their desks, and tuning out.
Teachers talked about what a struggle it was to get students to turn in
their homework at all, much less on time. Students picked up enough information
to pass the test, did their work well enough to get the grade, and then
totally forgot whatever it can be said that they had learned.
We adults could see this as yet another
moral problem. We could call young people lazy and tell one another that
they won't put any effort into their work. We could press for more testing
to tell us that — sure enough — test scores are declining. We could seek
more penalties when students don't do well in class — more ways to coerce
them into doing their work. We could talk about going "back to basics," which
is to say making school an even less appealing and more restrictive place
than it is now.
But as an ethnographer, I had the advantage
of hanging around with more than a hundred of this school's students outside
the classroom, and I got to watch them in a variety of circumstances. For
example, in February I spent one Thursday through Saturday with Bill, a
junior who had good grades during his first two years of high school but
lost interest in school during his third year. I watched him not bother
to study at all for a French test and fail it. I watched him skip a class
and play a computer game instead of writing his article for the school newspaper.
I watched him get busted in a couple of classes for tardys and talking. But
that same guy on that same weekend spent two hours running full out in a
soccer practice and spent more hours than I can count playing hacky sack.
(He taught me how to play acceptably well, no small achievement in itself.)
He cooked a wonderful dinner at home one night and worked five fast-paced
hours at his restaurant kitchen job the next night. He spent most of his
home time playing games invented by his little brother and sister, who loved
him. He spent two hours surfing on Friday and three more hours preparing
for another surfing trip on Sunday.
When I was with him in school, he was an
archetypal slacker, but when I was with him outside school, he was a person
with a lot of interests — things that he was dedicated to and good at
doing. And that pattern carried over to many of the students that I followed.
I watched other young people operate computers and wash horses. I saw them
playing video games that had dozens of rules and literally hundreds of
decisions to be made every minute, and I watched them play card games that
I couldn't begin to understand. I watched them drive four-wheel-drive trucks
at insane speeds on dirt roads and watched them working on those trucks
as well. I watched them acting, opening their hearts in front of hundreds
of people. I watched them wrestling and playing the piano. I was privileged
to see them doing the things that they loved to do. The things that they
put themselves into without reserve, the things that they were damn good
at. The students I knew were a skilled bunch of people. So why didn't those
skills and capabilities and that enthusiasm show up more often in the
classroom?
In the school that I observed, I saw striking
— and strikingly consistent — differences between the perfunctory classroom
sessions and lively extracurricular activities. The same students who were
emotionally absent from their classes came alive after school. We say, "If
only she'd spend as much time doing her algebra as she does on cheerleading
. . ." with the implication that students blow off algebra because they're
immature. We don't usually think to turn the question around and ask what
it is about the activities they love that is worthy of their best effort.
We don't usually ask what it is about school that tends to make it unworthy
of that kind of devotion. But if we're interested in looking at places of
joy, places where students lose track of how hard they're working because
they're so involved in what they're doing, places where teenagers voluntarily
learn a difficult skill, places that might hold some important lessons for
schools, football is a good choice.
Let me give you 17 reasons why football
is better for learning than high school. I use football as my specific
example not because I love football; I use it because I hate football.
It's been said that football combines the two worst elements of American
society: violence and committee meetings. You can substitute "music" or
"theater" or "soccer" for "football," and everything I say will stay the
same; so when I say that football is better than school, what I really mean
is that even football is better than school.
1. In football, teenagers are considered
important contributors rather than passive recipients. This attitude is
extraordinarily rare in teenage life, but it is central to both learning
and self-esteem. A football team is framed around the abilities and preferences
of the players; if there's nobody who can throw the ball but three big
fast running backs and a strong offensive line, the team isn't going to
have an offense that dwells much on passing. But the geometry class — and
every student in the geometry class — has to keep pace with the same state-ordained
curriculum as every other school, regardless of the skills and interests
and abilities of the students. Football players know that they, and nobody
else, will get the job done. Students know that they are considered empty
minds, to be filled at a pace and with materials to be determined by others.
2. In football, teenagers are encouraged
to excel. By this, I don't mean that players are asked to perform to someone
else's standards (which may already be limited); rather, they are pushed
to go beyond anything they've ever been asked to do before, to improve
constantly. There is no such thing as "good enough." We congratulate players
on their accomplishments, but we don't give them much time to be complacent
— we ask them to do even more. In the classroom, we give them a test on
polynomials, and the best result they can get is to score high enough to
never have to deal with polynomials again.
3. In football, teenagers are honored. Football
players get extraordinary amounts of approval: award banquets, letter jackets,
banners around the campus, school festivals, team photos, whole sections
of the yearbook, newspaper coverage, trophies, regional and even state recognition
for being the best. The whole community comes out to see them. We put them
on floats and have parades. That doesn't happen for members of the consumer
math class.
4. In football, a player can let the team
down. Personal effort is linked to more than personal achievement: it
means the difference between making the team better or making it weaker,
making a player's teammates and coaches grateful for his presence or irritated
with his apathy. A single player can make his peers better than they would
have been without him. That's a huge incentive that we take away from the
classroom with our constant emphasis on individual outcomes.
5. In football, repetition is honorable.
In the curriculum, we continually move forward, with not much opportunity
to do things a second time and get better. Students have to do new things
every time they get to class. In football, students do the same drills over
and over all season long — and, in fact, get better at them. The skills
get easier, and players start to use those skills to do things that are
more complex.
6. In football, the unexpected happens all
the time. Every player will line up across from the same opposing player
dozens of times during a game, but he knows that, each time, his opponent
could do something different, and he'll have to react to it right in the
moment. There's no opportunity to coast, to tune out, to sit back and
watch others work. Every player is required to be involved and absorbed
in his work, and a talented player who holds back is typically held in
lower regard than his less talented but more engaged teammates. Contrast
that with a normal class period, scripted by a teacher with the idea that
a successful class is the one that goes as planned, with the fewest disruptions,
and it's clear why apathy can be a problem in the classroom.
7. In football, practices generally run
a lot longer than 50 minutes. And when they end, there's a reason to stop:
the players work until they get it right or until they're too tired to move
anymore. There's no specific reason that a school class should run for 50
minutes instead of 35 or 85, and there's no reason why classes should run
the same length of time every day. The classroom schedule responds to pressures
that come from outside the classroom — state laws, other classes, even bus
schedules. The football practice schedule is more internal — the coach and
team quit when they're done.
8. In football, the homework is of a different
type from what's done at practice. Students do worksheets in the classroom
and then very often are assigned to do the same kind of worksheet at home.
Football requires a lot of homework that comes in the form of running and
weight training, things not done at practice. Players work at home to find
and build their strengths and then bring those strengths to practice to
work together with their teammates on specific skills. The work done at
home and the work done in common are two different jobs, and each is incomplete
without the other.
9. In football, emotions and human contact
are expected parts of the work. When players do well, they get to be happy.
When they do poorly, they get to be angry. Players are supposed to talk
with one another while things are going on. But we have no tools to make
use of happiness or frustration in most classrooms, and we generally prohibit
communication except for the most restricted exchanges. When we bring 30
students together and ask them not to communicate, not to use one another
as resources or exhort one another to go further, then we make it clear
to them that their being together is simply cost-effective.
10. In football, players get to choose their
own roles. Not only do they choose their sport, but they also choose their
favorite position within that sport. In the classroom, we don't allow people
to follow their hearts very often. We give them a list of classes they
have to take, and then we give them assignments within those classes that
they have to do, and we don't offer many alternatives. We've set the whole
school thing up as a set of requirements. But sports are a set of opportunities,
a set of pleasures from which anyone gets to choose. Each one of those pleasures
carries with it a set of requirements and responsibilities and difficult
learning assignments; but youngsters still do them voluntarily, following
their own self-defined mission of seeking their place in the world.
11. In football, the better players teach
the less-skilled players. Sometimes this teaching is on purpose, but mostly
it is by example. Every player is constantly surrounded by other players
who can do things well and who love doing what they do. The really good
players are allowed to show off — in fact, it's demanded that they show
off, that they work to their highest capacity. The people who aren't as
good observe that. They don't simply see skills they can learn; they become
inspired. They get to see another person — not just the teacher but a peer
— who knows what he's doing and who loves to do it. In the classroom, the
best students aren't often given a chance publicly to go beyond what everyone
else is doing. They're smothered, held back, kept to the same pace as their
classmates. We give the appearance of not caring so that we won't be hurt
when the students don't care either.
12. In football, there is a lot of individual
instruction and encouragement from adults. A coach who has only the nine
defensive linemen to deal with for an hour is going to get a pretty good
sense of who these youngsters are, what drives them, what they can and can't
do. And those players are going to see the coach in a less formal and more
human frame; they get to ask questions when questions arise without feeling
as though they're on stage in front of 30 other bored students.
Let's admit a basic truth: bigger classes
make personal contact more difficult. The school I was in had an average
class size of 27 students. That was considered pretty good, since the
statewide average was 31. But as I looked around the halls at the team
photos in their glass trophy cases, the highest player-to-coach ratio
I saw was 13 to one; sometimes it was better than 10 to one. There was one
photo of the varsity football team with Coach Phillips and his three assistants
surrounded by 35 players; erase the three assistants from the picture, and
you could have had a photo of any one of his history classes.
On the first day of freshman basketball
practice, 23 hopefuls tried out, and by the end of the first week, there
were still 17. On the next Monday morning the coach said to me, "I sure hope
some more of these kids quit. You can't do anything with 17 kids." True enough
— so why do we expect him to do something five periods a day with 25, 30,
or 34?
13. In football, the adults who participate
are genuinely interested. The adults involved in football are more than
willing to tell you that they love to play, that they love to coach. And
they don't say it in words so much as in their actions, in the way that
they hold themselves and dive in to correct problems and give praise. But
the teachers I watched (and the teachers I had from grade school to grad
school) were, for the most part, embarrassed to death to say that they loved
whatever it was that they did. It takes a lot of guts to stand up in front
of 25 students who didn't volunteer to be there and say, "You know, dissecting
this pig is going to be the most fun I'm going to have all day." We're candidates
for the Geek-of-the-Month Club if we let people know that we really love
poetry, or trigonometry, or theater, or invertebrate biology. And so we often
hide behind a curriculum plan, a textbook, and a set of handouts, and we
say, "You and I have to do this together because it's what the book says
we have to do." We give the appearance of not caring so that we won't be
hurt when the students don't care either.
But it was only in those few classrooms
where the teachers said, both in word and in action, that they absolutely
loved what they were doing, that the students were engaged, that they learned.
I talked with a lot of students — and their teachers and their parents
— about what they loved to do, whether it was photography or surfing or
hunting or reading — things that are real skills. And when I asked how
they got involved in those activities, both the young people and the adults
always answered that it was someone who got them interested, and not anything
intrinsic in the event itself. They followed someone they respected into
an activity that that person loved, and they discovered it from there.
14. In football, volunteers from the community
are sought after. No sports program in a high school could ever operate
without assistant coaches, trainers, and other local people who aren't paid
to help out. These people give hours and hours to the school in exchange
for a handshake, a vinyl jacket, and a free dinner at the end of the season.
Volunteers are a natural part of human activity. There are almost never volunteers
in the classroom — no adults who seem to believe that math or chemistry is
so interesting that they would help out with it for free on a regular basis.
There's no sense that anyone other than "the expert" can contribute to a
discussion of ideas.
15. In football, ability isn't age-linked.
Freshmen who excel can play varsity. In a ninth-grade English classroom,
an extraordinary student can't go beyond what the other ninth-grade students
are doing, even if he or she could profit from what's being assigned to
the seniors. When a student tries out for football, he gets a careful looking
over by several coaches, and if he's really good, they're going to move
him up fast. In the classroom, if that same student is really good — if
he's inspired — one person sees it and gives him an A. Big deal — it's the
same A that someone else gets for just completing the requirements without
inspiration. The pace of advancement in football isn't linked to equal advancement
in another, irrelevant area. If a boy is an adequate JV basketball player
but an extraordinary football player, the football coach isn't going to
say that the boy has to stay with the JV football team so that he's consistent
with his grade level. No way! The coach is going to tell that player, "Come
on up here; we need you." Have you ever heard an English teacher recruit
a young student by saying, "We need you in this classroom"? Have you ever
heard a science teacher say, "Your presence is crucial to how this course
operates — we're not at our full potential without you"?
16. Football is more than the sum of its
parts. Players practice specific moves over and over in isolation, but
they know that their job at the end is going to mean putting all those moves
together. In school, we keep the parts separate. We don't show our students
how a creative writer might use a knowledge of science; we don't show them
how a historian might want to know about the building trades; we don't
show them how a mechanic can take joy in knowing about American history.
We don't let our students see the way that all these different interests
might come together into a worthwhile and fascinating life. We pretend they're
all separate.
17. In football, a public performance is
expected. The incentive to perform in front of family and friends was
a great motivating force for the athletes I knew. The potential for a poor
performance was another motivator — nobody wants to be embarrassed in public.
These students were contributing an important civic service to their small
community, with over a thousand home fans at every game, and they took
that responsibility seriously. But schoolwork is almost always performed
and evaluated in private. Successes and failures are unseen and have no
bearing on the happiness of others.
No single one of these 17 patterns taken
individually constitutes a magic potion for a good learning environment.
But when we look at these patterns taken together, we can see that football
has a lot to recommend it as a social configuration for learning. I'm not
going to argue that we should give up on school and focus on football.
What I am saying is that we have a model for learning difficult skills —
a model that appears in sports, in theater, in student clubs, in music,
in hobbies — and it's a model that works, that transmits both skills and
joy from adult to teenager and from one teenager to another.
We need a varsity education.
Herb Childress holds a doctorate in Environment-Behavior
Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. His ethnography of
a Northern California high school, "Landscapes of Betrayal, Landscapes of
Joy," is available from University Microforms International, Ann Arbor,
Mich. He can be reached via email at miaktxca@aol.com.
LIFE'S THOUGHTS
-YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO EVERY
DAY...THEREFORE EXCELLENCE IS A HABIT- Socrates
"Things refuse to be mismanaged long." -Roman
Maxim
"Some people live on what they know; Some
people live for what they don't." -Sheik Abu Hanif
"There are tough guys and there are smart
guys, but there are only a few tough/smart guys...What are you?" -Robert
E. Stevenson Sr.
Seriousness is the last refuge of the shallow
Every morning in africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest
gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you
are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you'd better be running!
"Progress always involves risk: you can't
steal second base and keep your oot on first"-Frederick Wilcox
We don't stock the fruits-only the seeds.
Instead of pointing a finger, why not hold
out a hand.
You take a setback and turn it into a comeback.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the
man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena...." -Theodore Roosevelt
Loser: "It may be possible, but
it will be difficult." Winner: "It may be difficult,
but it is possible."
A man's worth should be judged not for getting
ahead of others, but by surpassing himself.
The highest reward for man's toil is not what
he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.
You can't get anywhere today if you're bogged
down in yesterday.
Cherish yesterday, Dream tomorrow, Live today.
Home is not where you live, but where you
are understood.
"Moving beyond your comfort zone-that's how
you achieve things."
"I learned if I tried harder for a longer
period of time than enyone else, I could win, even if I didn't have the
greatest talent."
How you finish a play, a day, or a life itself
is mor important than how you start it.
If you never stick your neck out, you'll never
get your head above the crowd.
"He climbs highest who helps another up. " -Zig Ziglar
"Character is victory, not a gift."
-Ivor Griffith
"Great souls have wills, feeble ones have
only wishes." -Chinese proverb
"The greater danger for most of us is not
that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach
it." -Michelangelo
"Democracy is based upon the conviction that
there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people." -Henry Emerson
Fosdick
"The next best thing to solving a problem
is finding some humor in it." -Frank A. Clark
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss
it, you will land among the stars." -Les Brown
"We must always have old memories and young
hopes." -Ronald Reagan
"Pray for a good harves, but keep on plowing."
-Anonymous
"Use the past as a springboard, not a sofa.
"
"Never measure the height of a mountain until
you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was."
-Dag Hammarskjold
"Discipline is not what you do to someone;
it is what you do for someone." -Lou Holtz
"Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense
and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success."
-Dale Carnegie
"Take a lesson from the mosquito. She
never waits for an opening-she makes one." - Kirk Kirkpatrick
"He who receives a benefit should never forget
it; he who bstows one should never remember it." -Charron
"Don't find fault. find a remedy."
-Henry Ford
"The nice thing about teamwork is that you
always have others on your side." -Margret Carty
"A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good
under pressure." -Classic Crossword Puzzles
"If you keep on saying things are going to
be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet." -Isaac Bashevis
Singer
"In the long run, the pessiimist may be proved
right, but the optomist has a better time on the trip." -Daniel L. Reardon
"Love cures people-both the ones who give
it and the ones who receive it." -Dr. Karl Mennninger
"No one can make you feel inferior without
your consent." -Eleanor Roosevelt
"You can't have everything. Where would
you put it?" -Steven Wright
"Be not simply good; be good for something."
-Henry David Thoreau
"The easiest way to have your way is to go
out and make it." -Thoughts for Today
"Even if you can't prevent another's sorrow,
caring will lessen it." -Frank A. Clark
"Success is getting what you want; happiness
is wanting what you get." -Anonymous
"There is no danger of developing eyestrain
from looking on the bright side." -Cheer
"Live your life and forget your age." -Frank
Bering
"Friendship doubles our joy and divides our
grief." -Anonymnous
"Nothing in the world can take the place of
persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful
men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a
proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."-Calvin Coolidge
"You've got to be smart to be #1 in any business.
But more important, you've got to play with your heart; with evey fiber
of your body. The objective is to WIN...fairly, squarely, decently,
by the rules...but to win." -Vince Lombardi
"No race can prosper until it learns that
there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem."
-Booker T. Washington
SINCERE: composed of Latin terms "sine"
and "cere"= "without wax." If a potter stamped "sine cere". there
were never ny cracks in the pottery, therefore, no wax or glue was needed.
You have thousands of opportunities to keep
quiet, use every one of them.
The missing ingredient in most of our talking
is a little shortening.
Always watch the sords you speak, Keep them few ans sweet; There may be some bitter words You will have to eat.
"Keep Quiet" (Proverbs 10:19) Matthew
12:36)
If you believe what you say, what you say
will be more believable.
Learn from the mistakes of others; you may
not live long enough to make them all yourself.
"Whenever you start-give it your best.
The opportunities are there to be anything you want to be. But wanting
to be someone isn't enough; dreaming about it isn't enough; thinking about
it isn't enough. You've got to study for it, work for it, fight
for it with all your heart and soul, because nobody is going to hand it
to you." -General Colin Powel
"No dream comes true until you wake up and
go to work." -Banking
"No power in the world can keep a first-class
man down or a fourth-class man up." -Defender
"You can't turn back the clock, but you can
wind it up again." -Bonnie Prudden
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll
get run over if you just sit there." -Will Rogers
"Be dissatisfied enough to improve, but satisfied
enough to be happy." -J. Harold Smith
"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that
where the fruit is? " Frank Scully
"There is a time to let things happen and
a time to make things happen." -Hugh Prather
"It may not be your fault for being down,
but it's got to be your fault for not getting up." -Steve Davis
"Don't be against things so much as for things."
Col. Harland Sanders
"What you get by reaching your goals is not
nearly as important as what you become by reaching them" -Zig Ziglar
"One of the secrets of a long and fruitful
life is to forgive everybody everything every night before you go to bed."
-Ann Landers
"A gem cannot be polished without friction,
nor man perfected without trials." -Chinese Proverb
"There's no traffic jam on the extra mile."
-Unknown
"Fame is a vapor,
Popularity an accident,
Riches take wings.
Only one thing endures-
Character"
-Horace Greeley
"Raise your voice only in enthusias." P.S.
"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
-Japanese Proverb
"It is a happy talent to know how to play."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Moderation in temper is always a virtue;
but moderation in principle is always a vice." -Thomas Paine
"The world is not interested in the storms
you encountered, but whether you brought in the ship." -Journal of
True Education
"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Your life is either a celebration or a chore.
The choice is yours." -Anonymous
"Success doesn't come to you...you go to it."
-Marva Collins
"Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently
begin again..." -Henry Ford
"Life in abundance comes only through great
love." -Elbert Hubbard
"It is not fair to ask of others what you
are not willing to do yourself." -Eleanor Roosevelt
"When nobody around you seems to measure up,
it's time to check your yardstick." -Bill Lemley
ROLE MODEL
The Bible says it would be better for
a person to hae a lage stone tied around his neck and drowned in the ocean
than to be a stumbling block to a youngster.
1. Compleiment three people
every day. 2. Watch the sunrise
at least once a year. 3. Be the first
to say, "hello." 4. Live beneath
your means. 5. Treat everyone
like you want to be treated. 6. Never give up
on anybody. Miracles happen. 7. Forget the Joneses. 8. Never deprive
someone of hope. It may be all he has. 9. Pray not for
things, but for wisdom and courage. 10. Be tough-minded
but tenderhearted. 11. Be kinder than
necessary. 12. Don't forget,
a person's greates emotional need is to feel appreciated. 13. Keep your promises. 14. Learn to show
cheerfulness, even when you don't feel like it. 15. Remember that
overnight success usually takes about 15 years. 16. Leave everything
better than you found it. 17. Remember that
winners do what losers don't want to do. 18. When you arrive
at your job in the morning, let the first thing you say brighten
everyone's day. 19. Don't rain
on other people's parades. 20. Never waste
an opportunity to tell someone that you love them.
-Life's Little Instruction Book
Same -day dry cleaning. You would
think waiting is one of life's most
trying experiences. We've created
for ourselves instant lifestyles. If
things don't happen right now, a trubulence
of impatience blows
through our inner-world.
A student asked a college president.
"Can I take a shorter course of
studies than the one prescribed?"
"Oh, yes," replied the president,
"but it all depends on what you want
to be. when God wants to make
a giant oak. He takes many years.
But when He wants to make a
squash, He takes a few months."
YOUR OUTLOOK COUNTS!
Belief sets up the conditions that make
success, health, and happiness possible.
To turn potential into reality, you must
do something about it.
If you think you can
If you think you can't
You're right!
Nine Affirmative Principles
1. I can achieve far beyond
my horizons, and in avenues of life I have never explored. 2. I posess a basic
goodness which is the foundation for the greatness I can ultimately achieve. 3. I must take
responsibility for my actions, my well-being, and the attainment of my
maximum potential. 4. I must seek
self-awareness, self-approval, and self-commitment in order to attain self-fulfillment. 5. I must commit
myself to building and maintaining relationships that are critical to
the social development of my family and community. 6. I must manifest
the belief that mutual respect is the fundamental element of all relationships. 7.I will enrich my own life by helping
others to enrich theirs. 8.I will work toward my goals by
planning, executing, and measuring my progress. 9.I will make commitments with care
and honor them with integrity.
-Les Brown
ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH
TO HANDLE SUCCESS?
Unfortunately, the road to anywhere is
filled with many pitfalls, and it takes a man of determination and character
not to fall into them. as I have said many times, whenever you get
your head above the average, someone will be there to take a poke at you.
That is to be expected in any phase of life. However, as I have also
said many times before, if you see a man on top of a mountain, he didn't
just light there! Chances are he had to climb through many difficulties
with a great expenditure of energy in order to get there, and the same is
true of a man in any profession, be he a great attorney, a great minister,
agreat man of medicine or a great businessman. I am certain he worked
with a definite plan, and an aim and purpose in life and, will be eenvied
by those less successful. I have always thought that the following
little verse contained a good philosophy for every coach:
By your own soul learn to live,
and if men thwart you, take no heed,
If men hate you, have no care;
Sing your song, dream your dream,
hope your hope and pray your prayer.
I am sure that if a coach will follow
this philosophy of life, he will be successful. To sit by and worry
about criticism, which too often comes from the misinformed or from those
incapable of passing judgment on and individual or a problem, is a waste
of time.
-Adolf Rupp
* college basketball coach*
ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH
TO HANDLE CRITICS?
It is not the critic who counts, not
the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of
deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who
is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because
there is no effort without error and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion,
who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the
high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly,
knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know
neither victory nor defeat
.
-Theodore Roosevelt, Twenty-sixth President
of The United States
The above is one of the
most impressive and impacting philosophies I have ever heard. It
was a thought expressed by one of the greatest competitors of our time.
Theodore Roosevelt, our twenty-sixth President. It embodies my basic
feelings as to what success is really all about. The same philosophy
applies to just about every phase of one's life. The common thread
of thought for people in our sports world is to always try, try and try
again...to know in your heart that you did your best. Then, if victory
does come, you will know that you made a very special contribution
-Texas E. Schramm
NFL President
IT CAN BE DONE
Somebody said that it couldn't be done.
But he, with a chuckle, replied
That, "maybe it couldn't," but he would
be one
Whow wouldn't say so til he tried.
So he buckled right in, with a trace
of a grin
On his face if he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the
thin
That couldn't be done and he did it
.
Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never
do that;
At least no noe ever had done it."
But he took off his coat and he took
off his hat
and the first thing we knew he'd begun
it;
With the lift of his chin, and a bit
of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddity;
He started to sing as he tackled the
thing
That couldn't be done, and he did
it .
There are thousands to tell you it cannot
be done
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you,
one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you;
But just buckle right in with a bit of
a grin,
Then take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tacle the
thing
That "cannot be done" and you'll do it!
STATE OF MIND
If you think you're beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't;
It's almost a cinch you won't
If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in the world you'll find
success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.
full many a race is lost
Ere ever a step is run;
And many coward fails
Ere ever his work's begun.
Think big, and your deeds will grow;
Think small and you'll fall behind.
Think that you can, and you will;
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You;ve got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger of faster man;
B ut sooner or later the man who wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.
Its All In The State Of Mind!
WHAT WILL TODAY BRING?
This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I
will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important
Because I'm exchanging a day of my life
for it.
When tomorrow comes this day will be
gone forever,
Leaving in its place something I have
traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss;
Good, not evil;
Success, not failure,
In order that I shall not regret the
price I paid for it
Because the future is just a whole string
of todays.
THE MAN IN THE GLASS
When you get what you want in your struggle
for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yours
And see what that man has to say.
for it isn't your father or mother or
wife
Whose judgement upon you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most
in your life,
Is the one staring back from the glass.
You may be like Jack Horner and chisel
a plum
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're
only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the
eye.
He's the fellow to please-never mind
all the rest;
For he's with you clear to the end.
And you've passed your most dangerous,
difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the
pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass-
But your final reward will be heartache
and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.
-Nothing splendid has ever been achieved
except by those who dared to believe that something inside of them was
superior to circumstances.-
DON'T QUIT
When things go wrong as they sometimes
will,
When the road you're trudging seems all
uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts
are high,
And you want to smile, but have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns;
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck
it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow-
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's
cup;
And he learned too late when the night
came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out-
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you
are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest
hit-
It's when things seem worst that you
mustn't quit.
-Leo Piggott
WINNERS VS. LOSERS
The Winner Is always
a part of the answer The loser
Is always a part of the problem
The Winner Always has a
program The Loser
Always has an Excuse
The Winner Says
"Let me do it for you" The Loser
Says "Thats not my job"
The Winner Sees an answer
for every problem The Loser
Sees a problem in every answer
The Winner Sees a
green near every sand trap The Loser
Sees two or three sand traps near every green
The Winner Says "It may
be difficult but it's possible" The Loser
Says "It may be possible but it's too difficult"
When a winner makes a mistake, he says, "I
was wrong;" When a loser makes a mistake, he
says, "It wasn't my fault."
A winner works harder than a loser and has
more time; A loser is always "too busy" to do
what is necessary.
A winner goes through a problem: A loser goes around it, and never
gets pat it.
A winner makes commitments; A loser makes promises.
A winner says, "I'm good, but not as good
as I ought to be;" A loser says, "I'm not as bad as
a lot of other people."
A winner listens; A loser just waits until it's his
turn to talk.
A winner respects those who are superior to
him and tries to learn something from them; A loser resents those who are superior
to him and tries to find chinks in their armor.
A winner feels responsible for more than his
job; A loser says, "I only work here."
A winner says, "There ought to be a better
way to do it;" A loser says, "That's the way it's
always been done here."
YOU
You cannot bring about prosperity
by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak
by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the wage earner
by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot further the brotherhood of
man by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot help the poor
by discouraging the rich.
You cannot establish sound security
by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and
courage by taking away man's
initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently
by doing for them what they could
and should do for themselves.
-Abraham Lincoln-
THE COMMON DENOMINATOR
OF SUCCESS
Like most of us, I had been brought up
on the popular belief that the secret of success is hard work, but I had
seen so many men work hard without succeeding and so many men succeed without
working hard that had become convinced that hard work was not the real
secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements.
And so I set out on a voyage of dscovery which
carried me through biographies and autobiographies and all sorts of dissertations
on success and the lives of successful men until I finally reached a point
at which I realized that the secret I was trying to discover lay not only
in what men did, but also in what made them do it.
I realized further that the secret for which
I was searching must not only apply to every definition of success, but
that it must apply to everyone who had ever been successful. In short,
I was looking for the common denominator of success.
And because that is exactly what I was looking
for, that is exactly what I found.
But this common denominator of success is
so big, so powerful, and so vitally important to your future and mine that
I'm not going to make a speech about it. I'm just going to "lay
it on the line" in words of one syllable, so simple that everyone can understand
them.
"The common denominator of success-the secret
of success of every man who has ever been successful-lies in the fact
that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like
to do."
It's just as true as it sounds and it's just
as simple as it seems. You can hold it up to the light, you can
put it to the acid test, and you can kick it around until it's worn out,
but when you are all through with it, it wll still be the common denominator
of success, whether we like it or not.
If the secret of success lies in forming the
habit of doing things that failures don't like to do, let's start the
boiling-down process by determining what are the things that failures don't
like to do.
The things that failures don't like to do
are the very things that you and I and other human beings, including successful
men, naturally don't like to do. In other words, we've got to realize
right from the start that success is something which is ac hieved by the
minority of men, and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following
our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences
and prejudices.
Perhaps you have been discouraged by a feeling
that you were born subject to certain dislikes peculiar to you, with which
the successful individuals are not afflicted. Perhaps you have wondered
why it is that the most successful seem to like to do the things that you
don't like to do.
They don't! And I think this is the
most encouraging statement I have ever offered to a group of individuals.
But if they don't like to do these things,
then why do they do them? Because by doing the things they don't
like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to accomplish.
Successful individuals are influenced by the desrire for pleasing results.
Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined
to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they
like to do.
Why are successful individuals able to do
things they don't like to do while failures are not? Because successful
individuals have a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit
of doing things they don't like to do in order to accomplish the purpose
they want to accomplish .
DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR TRYING TO WIN
After you've worked to develop you character,
after you've spent the long hours practicing to get your edge, after you've
brought yourself to a mental and a physcical peak, you find out.
You step onto the field, the court or the mat and you find out who the
winner is-you or the guy staring you in the eye.
Don't be afraid to be a winner. Win
with class, win with character. You've worked hard, you've paid the
price and you deserve to win. You can fight like the devil to win
and still have class. the harder you fight, the more you try to win,
the more people will respect you.
Get used to competition because you'll be
competing all your life. In school, you compete for grades.
In business, you'll be competing to make the sale.
Don't let people convince you that winning
insports is not important, that grades aren't important or that making
the sale is not important. If you don't have hour share of victgorie,
you won't be on the team for very long. If your goal is to get into
graduate school, you had better plan on getting your share of A's.
and if you want to keep your job, you better make a sale now and then.
Nice tries and great efforts don't buy many groceries in the real world.
Another reason why winning is so important
is that success will help you to maintain your enthusiasm. How long
will you remain excited about your sport if you go out each week and get
beat? Without enthusiasm, you are likely to work less than you should
and you are likely to lose again. Losing is a tough habit to break.
Don't say that you're not in a sport to win.
No apologies are needed. somebody is going to win, you or your opponent.
You make that decision-but before you do, remember it doesn't matter if
you win or lose until you lose.
WINNING EDGE: USE
OF VISUALIZATION
1. Basic Theory
a. All actions start with
thoughts. b. Learn by trial
and error. c. Once a correct
or successful response is learned, it is remembered for future use (forget
failures). d. Every person
has a built-in guidance system or goal-striving device. e. Mind cannot
tell difference between real and imagined experience. f. Principles: 1.
Must have a goal or target. 2.
Must be oriented to and on results. 3.
Do not be afraid of mistakes. 4
Skill learning is by trial and error.
2. Picture said in a certain manner-nearly
same as actual performance. 3. Before we can be, we must become,
before we become, we must be able to visualize our goals. 4. If you want to achieve a thing,
see it, visualize it, close your eyes a moment. Get the mental picture.
Practice learning to think in pictures. It must be mentally accomplished
before it is materially accomplished.
5. USE OF VISUALIZATION
ON OWN:
a. You
must believe that mind cannot tell difference between real and imagined
experience.
b. If
you repeat something successfully over a long period of time, it becomes
a habit.
c. If
you practice something successfully in your mind, it is almost like actually
doing it.
d. Visualize
techniques, skills, charges, etc. but always successfully. Remember,
the more realistic you visualize, the more closely it will be associated
with the real technique, etc.
e. This
is easy practice - requires no physical effort, only concentration of mind.
f. You
can visualize at anytime - in the morning, or before bedtime, at lunch,
one the"throne", etc.
g. If
you visualize something enough when you do actually do it, you will have
a feeling of having done it before successfully.
h. Helps
to develop the habit of thinking positive.
i. Does
not replace npractice or on field technique - it is only a learning aid
- it can give you the extra edge.
j. It
is not easy to do at first - it requires concentration on your part - you
must develop the habit of visualizing.
"AND THEN SOME"
A prominent salesman summed up his success
in three simple words - And Then Some.
"I discovered at an early age," he said,
"that most of the difference between the average and top people could be
explained in three words. The top people did what was expected of them
- and then some . They were thoughtful of others;they were considerate
and kind - and then some. They met their obligations fairly
and squarely - and then some. They were good friends to their freiends
and they could be counted on in an emergency - and then some."
MENTAL STANCE
1. Believe that you can achieve success. 2. Believe in your ability. 3. Believe in hard work. 4. As a player believes, so
he is. 5. Belief enables a player
to do the impossible.
RECIPE FOR GREATNESS
To bear up under a loss; to fight the bitterness
of defeat; to be victor over anger; to smile when tears are close.
this is what any man can do and be great.
FOR A GREAT TEAM
1. Talk of Winning.. 2. Talk of confidence, Poise, Knowledge. 3. Talk of becoming a Great Team. 4. Talk of Enthusiasm, of always
trying. 5. Talk of Agressiveness.
DYNAMICS OF A WINNER
DESIRE: The enjoyment of
competition and the ability to be assertive.
DEDICATION: The willingness
and determination to work toward the common goals. Working tirelessly,
never quitting.
CONFIDENCE: The belief in
one's ability and the willingness to take the responsibility for one's
actions.
LOYALTY: The willingness
to make a committment to one's coaches, team and oneself.
TEN REASONS WHY I SWEAR
1. It pleases my mother so much. 2. It is a fine mark of manliness. 3. It proves I have self-control. 4. It indicates how clearly my mind
operates. 5. It makes my conversation
so pleasing to everybody. 6. It leaves no doubt in anyone's
mind as to my good breeding. 7. It impresses people that
I have more than ordinary education. 8. It is an unmistakable sign
of culture and refinement. 9. It makes me a very desireable
personality among women, children, and respectable society. 10. It is my way of honoring
God who said, "Thou shalt not take the nome of the Lord in vain."
MAXIMS OF FOOTBALL SUCCESS
1. NEVER QUIT (Make this a habit in
everything you do. Don't take the easy way out and be a quitter.) 2. Think in terms of TEAM success.
Learn to get along with one another, to help one another, and to enjoy
playing together as a TEAM. 3. Never be annoyed by a coach's
criticism. Be worried when you receive no criticism, as this shows
you haven't made yourself noticeable yet or you are slipping. 4. Do not make excuses-make
good! 5. Plan to be a hard worker,
welcome tough situations. 6. Practice develops habits
of behavior; only perfect practice, therefore makes for perfection. 7. DO NOT EVER THINK YOU ARE
GOOD ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO MISS PRACTICE: NO ONE IS GOOD ENOUGH NOT
TO BE ABLE TO MAKE HIMSELF A LITTLE BETTER FOR THE TEAM'S SAKE. 8. A player who places personal
glory and success above the best interests of the team is a liability rather
than an asset. 9. Football and academics come
first; everything else is secondary during football season. 10. Have a tough mental attitude.
WHAT IS CLASS?
Class never runs scared. It is sure-footed
and confident in the knowledge that you can meet life head-on and handle
whatever comes along.
Jacob had it. Esau didn't. Symbolically,
we can look to Jacob's wrestling match with the angel. Those who
have class have wrestled with their own personal "angel" and won a victory
that marks them thereafter.
Class never makes excuses. It takes
its lumps and learns from past mistakes.
Class is considerate of others. It knows
that good manners are nothing more than a series of petty sacifices.
Class bespeaks an aristocracy that has nothing
to do with ancestors or money. The most affluent blueblood can be
totally without class while the descendant of a Welsh miner may ooze class
from every pore.
Class never tries to build itself up by tearing
others down.
Class is already up and need not strive to
look better by making others look worse.
Class can "walk with kings and keep its virtue,
and talk with crowds and keep the common touch." Everyone is comfortable
with the person who has class--because he is comfortable with himself.
If you have class, you don't need much of
anything else. If you don't have it, no matter what else you have--it
doesn't make much difference.
IT TAKES ONLY TWO PERCENT...
By Gene Emmet Clark, D.D.
Have you been working like a horse? I've been thinking about that expression--and
at least one horse I can name has earned a pretty fair hourly rate.
someone has figured out that the race horse, Nashua, earned more than a
millon dollars in a total racing time that added up to less than one-hour!
That's pretty good pay. Of course, we
know that many, many more hours went into preparing for that winning hour
of racing.
But there is something else here that interests
me. What is there about a horse like Nashua that mad him such a consistent
winner and made him so valuable? You'd probably pay a hundred times
as much for a horse like Nashua as you would for an ordinary race horse.
But is he a hundred times faster? No. To be a consistent winner
and to be worth a hundred times as much as the average, he needed only to
be consistent in finishing just ahead of the rest.
All he had to do was win a good share of the
time by a nose to be worth a hundred times as much as an also-ran.
And so it is with human beings who are on top in the game of life.
A writer in a national magazine made the assertion
that the difference between a man of achievement and that man of mediocrity
is a difference of only about two percent in study, application, interest,
attention, and effort.
Only about two percent separates the winner
from the loser! A boxer can win the world's championship simply
by winning one more round than his opponent--or even by being only a point
or two ahead. And this narrow margin can make the difference between
fame and fortune or never being heard of again! Its often a matter
of only two percent. We have no idea of what a change we could make
in our results if we would simply add that two percent more time and effort
than the average person is willing to put in.
THE GREATEST CHAMPIONS
REACT TO DEFEAT IN A POSITIVE WAY
LEARNING FROM FAILURE
There are times when the ability to learn
from failure is a great tactic. Olympic decathalon champion Rafer
Johnson develops the point: "The most enjoyment I had in the past was not
always winning: What gave me the biggest thrill was the way I reacted when
I was beaten--what I thought about and how I came back from defeat.
To my mind, the geat champions are the ones who are able to react to defeat
in a positive way. I'd much rather climb into the head of someone
who's lost and see what made that person come back to be a victor, than
climb into the head of a winner. You can probably learn more from
the failures rather than the successes of others. That somebody wins
all the time does not necessarily mean they are successful."
CONFIDENCE...FAITH IN
MYSELF
God gives me faith in myself.
Not only on the days when I am going great
and winning and nothing seems impossible, but on days when I wonder if
I am brave enough, smart enough, strong enough. Don't let me quit, not ever.
Let me keep faith in myself. No matter how many people discourage
me, doubt me, laugh at me, warn me, think me a foot, don't let me listen.
Let me hear another voice telling me, "You can do it, and you will!"
If nobody else in the whole world gives a darn or believes in me, let me
believe in myself. I know thee will be times when I doubt my own
ability, I will be discouraged, on the verge of despair. Don't let
me give up, hang on to me. Fan the fires of my faith so that I will
try even harder. Give me even more faith in myself. You are
the source of my abilities and my faith. I know that you will give
me what I ask...Faith in myself.
FEAR AND FAITH
Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear
paralizes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens,
faith heals; fear makes useless, fait
