There's a Reason Why Your Kids Aren't Playing - They're Not Good Enough

The fall sports season is reaching its zenith. Boys and girls at all levels and grades are running, stretching, planning and preparing for cross-town or cross-county rivals. Fall, especially in New England, is a wondrous time of year even if the Red Sox aren’t participating. [Here in Florida, it’s cause for a street party whenever the temperature falls below 70 during the day.]

For high school athletes, it means all those sweaty summer practices, workouts and sports-camps are finally going to pay some dividends.

The heart of any school athletic season brings with it busy schedules, frantic parents or older siblings driving kids from one field to the next, competition, camaraderie, joy, and disappointment.

One question every coach from Pop Warner and Youth Volleyball, on up through the highest levels high school competition in Texas, has heard in their coaching career is this:

“Why isn’t my kid playing?”

This topic came up in the wake of a column that ran in the Boston Globe last week about the lack of play for some in youth sports.

The absurdity of many “win-at-all-cost” coaches in youth sports is neatly matched by the fanaticism of “play-my-kid-or-else” parents at the high-school level.

When the games start to count, the main reason why your kid isn’t playing is simple:

“They’re just not good enough.”

“He/she just isn't fast enough.”

“He/she just isn’t strong enough.”

“He/she just isn’t tall enough.”

“He/she is too fat/too skinny.”

“He/she just didn’t try hard enough in practice.”

“He/she should not play over Jimmy/Jenny because they're faster, quicker, stronger, taller, and/or try harder.”

Good coaches, however, are not usually that blunt or honest.

We’ll focus on football for the rest of this conversation. Although much here applies to all sports, regardless of the game or gender. Many coaches are notorious for not telling what you and I would consider the “truth.”

The coach of New England’s NFL entry has mastered that skill. And high school coaches who fancy themselves as the “Belichick of the _______ League” are likely to follow his lead.

Parents get a little nutty at times when it comes to their children and youth/high school sports. Nearly every parent ever [this one included], at one time or another in the dark recesses of their minds, fancies a scenario where their son or daughter can master this or that sport well enough to earn a free-ride to college. When that dream/delusion is squashed after meeting the reality of genetics, talent, and/or interest, it’s hard to reconcile.

For the parents, that is.

The thing is that many kids know what they’re good at, and what they’re not good at. When it comes to football, for instance, most of the middle-schoolers or freshman already know the one or two kids who are good enough to play on the varsity team. And be the ones likely to catch the eye of a college recruiter. Their parents do not.

The rest play because they enjoy it, need the discipline, want to belong to a team, have dreamed of it since they were 5 or 6, are trying to make their parents happy, need a varsity sport on their college application, or some combination thereof.

There is another level of high school athlete, the non-elite, that encompasses about 99 percent of those who play high school and/or youth sports. They’re the ones whose career in organized athletics will end with their final high school game. Some of these kids are very talented and skilled. They’re able to throw the ball AND catch the ball, much to the delight of Gisele Bundchen. They can beat anyone in a footrace. They can bench twice their body weight.

Others possess marginal athletic skills, but make up for it practice, by getting stronger and quicker, and with on-field effort.

And no matter how much little Billy tries, no matter how much little Billy wants to play, there’s no guarantee that he will play. [Unless he’s participating in a league that mandates or guarantees playing time.] Participating in high school sports, for instance, is no different than any other education experience. You learn about winning and losing. You learn about bad calls and bad breaks. And some kids just aren't good enough to play, at least on a routine basis.

Far too many children today are living in a world where they never learn "no." They don’t know how to handle disappointment and failure. Nor do they know how to react and move on when they don’t get their own way. Interacting with actual people, and not just the screens on their iPhones or iPads, is a challenge, if not an impossibility. I won’t call this “abuse,” but it’s pretty damn close.

This is a world constructed by “well-meaning” but dangerously naïve parents. The children know no better because this is what they’re taught. Real-life doesn't come with "Participation Awards," "8th-Place Trophies" or laudatory bumper-stickers telling everyone that you're able to do your job without screwing up.

Playing a team sport, like football, with the right coaching can help students learn life’s difficult lessons, including Mick Jagger’s truism that “you can’t always get what you want.”

The joy of winning, the life-time friendships that are crafted among teammates, the sense of accomplishment and, for some, that varsity letter, makes the effort worth the risk. Some kids just aren't good enough to play at any competitive level . This is not a moral judgment. They’re too big, too small, too slow, don’t work hard enough off the field, or aren’t physically strong enough to be safe while being on the field against better athletes who won’t take it easy on them.

It sucks when your kid isn’t playing. Been there, done that. No reasonable parent wants to see their child hurt. But no one escapes this life unhurt, emotionally if not physically.

When these kids move on in life, they are going to get rejected when they apply for college, turned down when they ask out someone for a date, fail to get the job they want, the shift they want at work, and taste failure and disappointment on multiple fronts.

Legitimate safety concerns aside, coaches should try to get make sure everyone gets some playing time. But that should never come at expense of other kids who are more talented, try harder or spend more time practicing.

My son earned a starting spot senior year on his varsity football team. When it became evident he wasn't going to play much after the first few weeks of the season, he made the difficult decision to leave the team. He focused full-time on his studies and conditioning, so he could qualify for a military scholarship. The sophomore who replaced him is now playing at a Div. I-AA school on scholarship. This turned out to be a great decision for my son, who is a third-year US Army ROTC cadet. Win-win.

Their coach wasn't very good, and would be fired before my son graduated. This taught my son another important life-lesson: All your bosses aren't going to be great. Sometimes, leadership is going fail and take everyone down with it.

No child should be forced to play sports. And no child should ever go out for any team thinking they're going to be guaranteed a spot or playing time, no matter how loudly their parents complain. There is, however, much on the upside to playing team high school sports that barely gets mentioned nowadays.

In that sense, sports is a true metaphor for life. No one is guaranteed "playing" time in life. For the most part, hard work, effort, planning and desire is rewarded. The benefits can be wonderful. But it’s good to prepared when it doesn’t work out that way.

The OBF column is written by award-winning journalist and Bay State native Bill Speros. Bill has written and reported for ESPN, CBSSports.Com and was a sports/deputy sports editor at several metro daily newspapers. Reach Bill on the OBF Facebook page, on Twitter @realOBF or at his
OBF email Address. Thanks always for reading.

Source: http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/obnoxiousbostonfan/2014/10/were_about_a_month_or.html?p1=Must_Reads_hp

Why playing freeze tag will make you a better parent (and athlete)

We gathered on the field, scattered across the green expanse. The four of us eyed each other cautiously. All of a sudden, we each started running across the field as fast as we could, darting in different directions and trying to escape my husband’s hands.

We were playing freeze tag and Ed was “It”.

I can’t remember the last time that I played freeze tag. It must have been elementary school. When Jasper asked if we could play together, my first instinct was to groan and find a way out of it. The last thing I wanted to do was run around and play tag.

But for some reason, both Ed and I agreed and we set out on a harried game. It was the most fun I have had in a long time.

I sprinted and laughed and screamed. I let go. I felt carefree.

As a grown-up and as a parent, there are so many roles we play. Most of those roles revolve around being responsible and pulled together – in short, to be an adult. But that doesn’t mean (shouldn’t mean) that we forget how to be carefree.

I think it was one of the few times that my kids have seen me with my guard down, completely down. I think that they need to see that every once in a while. I think that they need to see Mommy and Daddy running around and acting silly. I think that they need to see Mommy and Daddy as human beings.

While I am saying this a little tongue-in-cheek, freeze tag is a great way to sneak in a workout and some extra activity. It’s true!

Here are 5 additional benefits to playing freeze tag:
1) Speed work: It’s like a fartlek workout – a creative, less structured form of interval training.
2) Agility training: Darting back and forth plus quick changes in direction are sure to increase your agility.
3) Mental training: You have to be in-the-moment and focused. If you’re not, you’re likely to be tagged.
4) Strategic Thinking: You need to strategize how to get around the person who is “It” in order to un-freeze the other players.
5) Teamwork: Building on #4, you have to work together with the other players in other to beat the person who is “It”. Some players need to distract the person who is “It” while others zoom in to un-freeze the other players.

When was the last time you played freeze-tag?

Source: http://www.lovelifesurf.com/freeze-tag/

Auburn's Secret Sauce: Beet Juice

Auburn's Secret Sauce: Beet Juice
The Nitrate-Rich Beverage Is Fueling the Fifth-Ranked Tigers; 'The Worst Thing in the Entire World'

Behind every championship team is a strategy that may sound strange to everyone else. Auburn's happens to taste that way, too.

Beyond the usual explanations for Auburn's remarkable rise from 3-9 in 2012 to winning the Southeastern Conference last year is a secret that hadn't been revealed until now. Over the last two seasons, the Tigers have been experimenting with an elixir-like potion.

"We were doing beet juice," says Auburn dietitian Scott Sehnert.

Before each game, between team warm-ups and the opening kickoff, Auburn's staff distributes small pouches of beetroot concentrate. The players swirl the beetroot crystals around their water bottles and then slug the deep-purple concoction—which they don't exactly savor.

"The worst thing in the entire world," said Auburn tight end C.J. Uzomah. "It is nasty."

But they aren't drinking it for the taste. In recent years, sports scientists have seized on the discovery that beetroot juice is rich with nitrate. That has led to multiple studies revealing possible performance benefits that range from increased muscle efficiency to decreases in fatigue levels.

Beetroot juice, in other words, could energize players with that extra oomph as the game goes on. Last season, for example, Auburn won four games despite trailing in the fourth quarter, including their win-for-the-ages over rival Alabama. Auburn tied that game in the final minute and then won it on a game-ending 100-yard missed field-goal return.

Now, in their second season with the stuff, more than half of Auburn's players bite the beetroot-juice bullet. But it didn't go down so easily at first. Uzomah was baffled when Sehnert told Auburn's players about the wonders of gulping beetroot juice. His initial reaction: "Dude, seriously?"

This idea isn't exclusive to Auburn, which is 2-0 and ranked No. 5 heading into Thursday's game at No. 20 Kansas State. The list of beetroot juicers in college football includes the University of Texas, where Longhorns dietitian Amy Culp introduced beetroot juice to the football team's nutritional nuts, who used their locker-room influence to sell their teammates. Culp aims for Texas' athletes to drink beetroot juice at least three times a week, she said.

In the NFL, the Houston Texans were early adopters. Before it was widely available as a concentrate, they sent interns to grocery stores to buy all the beetroot juice they could find. Roberta Anding, the team's dietitian at the time, protected Houston's habit as if it were the team playbook.

"I'd be at sports nutrition and medicine meetings," she said, "and I wouldn't tell anybody we were doing this."

How beetroot juice joined Gatorade and water as the drinks du jour in college football is almost as peculiar as the taste itself.

In 2007, Lawrence Mallinson, the managing director of James White Drinks, which produces Beet It, learned that beetroot juice sales were about to spike as a result of physiologists finding that its heavy dose of nitrate lowers oxygen demands during exercise.

Sports scientists and endurance athletes were suddenly interested in beetroot juice. But they caught the industry by surprise. The nitrate in beetroot juice varies by the glass, meaning some athletes were getting more than others, while laboratories would see skewed results in their beetroot-related experiments.

The other problem was that drinking beetroot juice by the half-liter wasn't palatable as a pregame snack. "Bloody hell, that's an awful lot of juice," one rugby team told Mallinson, he said.

What they needed to do was come up with a way to reduce the amount of juice while controlling the amount of beetroot—which is how they came up with concentrated beetroot shots.

Some beetroot-juice makers are catering to athletes who can't stand the flavor. Neogenis Sport, an Austin-based company that stocks more than 30 pro and college teams with BeetElite, created a sweeter, black-cherry alternative, said sports nutritionist Tricia Griffin. James White Drinks in England rolled out an oatmeal bar stuffed with beetroot concentrate to mask the bitterness of its Beet It product.

But there are the extreme beetroot-juice converts who swallow it through gritted teeth before their workouts. "The serious sports world is used to taking dollops of absolutely horrible stuff," said Mallinson.

The growing body of beetroot-related sports research is still in its infancy. So far, it has focused on continuous endurance activities, like long-distance running and cycling. The overall sports value of nitrate supplementation requires more research, said the scientists who specialize in the matter.

But one paper last year in the European Journal of Applied Physiology examined beetroot juice in an unexplored context: team sports. The researchers simulated the intense but intermittent activity patterns in football and soccer—and found evidence of performance boosts similar to those in earlier studies. "It's pretty fascinating," said Andrew Jones, a University of Exeter physiologist who co-wrote the study, "that something as humble as the beetroot can exert such profound effects."

And it seems to have caught on in Auburn's locker room, of all places. Sehnert, the team's dietitian, estimates that 70% of players finished their beetroot juice before the Tigers' last game. "It's an acquired taste," Uzomah said.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/auburns-secret-sauce-beet-juice-1410978433

The Race to Nowhere In Youth Sports

“My 4th grader tried to play basketball and soccer last year,” a mom recently told me as we sat around the dinner table after one of my speaking engagements. “It was a nightmare. My son kept getting yelled at by both coaches as we left one game early to race to a game in the other sport. He hated it.”

“I know,” said another. “My 10 year old daughter’s soccer coach told her she had to pick one sport, and start doing additional private training on the side, or he would give away her spot on the team.”

So goes the all too common narrative for American youth these days, an adult driven, hyper competitive race to the top in both academics and athletics that serves the needs of the adults, but rarely the kids. As movies such as “The Race to Nowhere” and recent articles such as this one from the Washington Post point out, while the race has a few winners, the course is littered with the scarred psyches of its participants. We have a generation of children that have been pushed to achieve parental dreams instead of their own, and prodded to do more, more, more and better, better, better. The pressure and anxiety is stealing one thing our kids will never get back; their childhood.

The movie and article mentioned above, as well as the book The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, highlight the dangerous path we have led our children down in academics. We are leading them down a similar path in sports as well.

The path is a race to nowhere, and it does not produce better athletes. It produces bitter athletes who get hurt, burnout, and quit sports altogether.

As I said to my wife recently, the hardest thing about raising two kids these days, when it comes to sports, is that the vast majority of the parents are leading their kids down the wrong path, but not intentionally or because they want to harm their kids. They love their kids, but the social pressure to follow that path is incredible. Even though my wife and I were collegiate athletes, and I spend everyday reading the research, and studying the latest science on the subject, the pressure is immense. The social pressure is like having a conversation with a pathological liar; he is so good at lying that even when you know the truth, you start to doubt it.  Yet that is the sport path many parents are following.

The reason? FEAR!


We are so scared that if we do not have our child specialize, if we do not get the extra coaching, or give up our entire family life for youth sports, our child will get left behind. Even though nearly every single parent I speak to tells me that in their gut they have this feeling that running their child ragged is not helpful, they do not see an alternative. Another kid will take his place.  He won’t get to play for the best coach. “I know he wants to go on the family camping trip,” they say, “but he will just have to miss it again, or the other kids will get ahead of him.”

This system sucks.

It sucks for parents, many of whom do not have the time and resources to keep one child in such a system, never mind multiple athletes. There are no more family trips or dinners, no time or money to take a vacation. It causes parents untold stress and anxiety, as they are made to feel guilty by coaches and their peers if they don’t step in line with everyone else. “You are cheating your kid out of a scholarship” they are told, “They may never get this chance again.”

It sucks for coaches who want to develop athletes for long term excellence, instead of short term success. The best coaches used to be able to develop not only better athletes, but better people, yet it is getting hard to be that type of coach. There are so many coaches who have walked away from sports because while they encourage kids to play multiple sports, other unscrupulous coaches scoop those kids up, and tell them “if you really want to be a player, you need to play one sport year round. That other club is short changing your kid, they are not competitive.” The coach who does it right gives his kids a season off, and next thing you know he no longer has a team.

And yes, most importantly, it sucks for the kids. Any sports scientist or psychologist will tell you that in order to pursue any achievement activity for the long term, children need ownership, enjoyment and intrinsic motivation.  Without these three things, an athlete is very likely to quit.

Children need first and foremost to enjoy their sport. This is the essence of being a child. Kids are focused in the present, and do not think of long term goals and ambitions. But adults do. They see “the opportunities I never had” or “the coaching I wish I had” as they push their kids to their goals and not those of the kids.

They forget to give their kids the one thing they did have: A CHILDHOOD! They forget to give them the ability to find things they are passionate about, instead of choosing for them. They forget that a far different path worked pretty darn well for them.

So why this massive movement, one that defies all science and psychology, to change it?

We need to wise up and find a better path.

Parents, start demanding sports clubs and coaches that allow your kids to participate in many sports. You are the customers, you are paying the bills, so you might as well start buying a product worth paying for. You have science on your side, and you have Long Term Athletic Development best practices on your side. Your kids do not deserve or need participation medals and trophies, as some of you are so fond of saying, but they do deserve a better, more diverse youth sports experience.

Coaches, you need to wise up as well. You are the gatekeepers of youth sports, the people who play God, and decide who gets in, and who is kicked to the curb. You know the incredible influence of sport in your life, so stop denying it to so many others. Are you so worried about your coaching ability, or about the quality of the sport you love, to think that if you do not force kids to commit early they will leave? Please realize that if you are an amazing coach with your priorities in order, and you teach a beautiful game well, that kids will flock to you in droves, not because they have to, but because they want to!

Every time you ask a 9 year old to choose one sport over another you are diminishing participation in the sport you love by 50%. WHY?

To change this we must overcome the fear, the guilt and the shame.

We are not bad parents if our kids don’t get into Harvard, and we are not bad parents if they do not get a scholarship to play sports in college. We should not feel shame or guilt every time our kid does not keep up with the Jones’s, because, when it comes to sports, the Jones’s are wrong.

As this recent article from USA Lacrosse stated, college coaches are actually looking to multi sport athletes in recruiting. Why? Because they have an upside, they are better all around athletes, they are not done developing, and they are less likely to burnout.

You cannot make a kid into something she is not by forcing them into a sport at a very young age, and pursuing your goals and not your child’s goals. Things like motivation, grit, genetics and enjoyment have too much say in the matter.

What you can do, though, is rob a child of the opportunity to be a child, to play freely, to explore sports of interest, to learn to love sports and become active for life.

Chances are great that your children will be done with sports by high school, as only a select few play in college and beyond. Even the elite players are done at an age when they have over half their life ahead of them. It is not athletic ability, but the lessons learned from sport that need to last a lifetime.

Why not expose them to as many of those lifelong lessons as possible?

Why not take a stand?

Why don’t we stop being sheep, following the other sheep down a road to nowhere that both science and common sense tells us often ends badly?

It is time to stop being scared, and stand up for your kids. Read a book on the subject, pass on this article to like minded people, bring in a speaker to your club and school, but do something to galvanize people to act.

There are more of us who want to do right by the kids than there are those whose egos and wallets have created our current path. We have just been too quite for too long. We have been afraid to speak up, and afraid to take a stand. We are far too willing to throw away our child’s present for some ill fated quest for a better future that rarely materializes, and is often filled with so much baggage that we would never wish for such a future for our kids.

If you think your child will thank you for that, then you probably stopped reading awhile ago.

But if you want to get off the road to nowhere in youth sports, and to stop feeling guilty about it, then please know you are not alone. Our voice is growing stronger every day. We can create a new reality, with new expectations that put the athletes first.

We can put our children on a road to somewhere, one paved with balanced childhoods, exploration, enjoyment, and yes, multiple sports.

Someday our kids will thank us.

Source: http://stevenashyb.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/the-race-to-nowhere-in-youth-sports/

Stealing Second and Third Base: The Secret are in the Hands

Baseball and spring training is around the corner.  See my previous post on the 60 yard dash here and here.

Adarian Barr was one of the first coaches to say that the hands were the most important aspect in setting a PB in the 100 meter sprint.  He was willing to help anyone who listened, to the point where he got banned from a popular Track forum for “advertising”.

At the time, coaches were over analyzing stride rate, stride frequency, and ground contact the point of nausea.

The hands and arms are important.  If you want quick hands, see my training article on how to use a speedbag.

Even in the 100 meter starting blocks, I often wore a watch on my left hand with my right foot in the rear blocks.  This way, I would focus on having my left hand exploding when the gun went off.  The left hand initiates the (posterior) chain reaction.

I asked Lee Taft from http://www.basestealing.com his opinion, and here was his response.

*********************************************************************************
For many years, I have spoken about how important the hand speed is to an explosive start in base stealing. There are other sports where this concept applies as well, but none, in my opinion, are more important than the action of the hands when jumping.
I mention the hands, but obviously they are attached to your arms; so the arms must move quickly as well. The point is that I want the base runner to put his focus in the hands getting started. In other words, don’t tell him to have the shoulders move first and let the lower arm and hands follow behind. The hands should initiate the action.

Here is an excerpt from my Base Stealing Manual on the importance of the hands:

Arms and Hands

The arms are bent and the hands are relaxed. Once the player decides to take off, the arm action is actually the first movement by milliseconds. The arms cannot be left behind. If they are, the player will be slightly delayed in getting into the acceleration phase of the steal. By focusing on the hands moving first, the legs will drive harder and quicker, and the upper body will turn to face second much quicker. Every little bit helps!

The arms will go from the relaxed position in front of the body immediately into the running action and in opposition of the leg action.

The right arm gets driven back (as the shoulders turn) while the left arm drives forward in the up position of acceleration.

The shoulders and upper body rotate with the arms and set the body up for an optimal acceleration position.
If the arms are slow to rotate into the running position, the upper body gets "blocked" and doesn’t rotate as quickly. This hinders the power and effectiveness of the first step of acceleration.

When the arms and hands rotate quickly this action causes a reaction of the left leg to push quickly and aggressively into the ground. This is extremely helpful in gaining a big jump. So get the arms and hands moving quickly!

When coaches teach their players to rotate the arms away from second, or hold the arms long, or whatever other fancy technique they use, the effects are harmful to the first move from a biomechanical and force production standpoint.

Theses actions can delay the arms from getting into the running position as quickly as possible.

When the arms must rotate from a farther position than in front of the body, there can be a rotational force of the arms that spins the body away from second base. Don’t allow the arms to get away from the body and create a centrifugal force. Try to keep the arms moving in as straight of a line as possible.

Finally, when a player is taught to rotate the arms toward the second base to get into the running arm position as soon as possible, the action reaction between the movement of the arms and the reaction of the left leg pushing into the ground is greatly diminished.

For more information on base stealing, visit Lee Taft’s http://www.basestealing.com

Source: http://speedendurance.com/2011/02/22/stealing-second-third-base-secret-are-in-the-hands/

The Benefits of Exercise On Your Kid's Brain

When kids play tag or engage in sports and other vigorous physical activity, not only do they make their bodies become fit, they are also making themselves smart.  Exercise has many good effects on the brain, not only for adults, but also and more importantly, for kids.  According to Phil Tomporowski, exercise science professor at the University of Georgia, exercise has “a more long-lasting effect on brains that are still developing.”


The following are findings on how exercise help your kids become smart:

Exercise increases the flow of blood to the brain.  The blood delivers oxygen and glucose, which the brain needs for heightened alertness and mental focus.  Because of this, exercise makes it easier for children to learn.  A 2007 study done in the Columbia University Lab reveals that a 3 month exercise regimen can increase blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning by 30%.

According to U.S. researchers, exercise builds new brain cells in a brain region called dentate gyrus, which is linked with memory and memory loss.  According to John Ratey MD, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, exercise also stimulates nerve growth factors. "I call it Miracle-Gro for the brain," he says.  People who exercise regularly have improved short-term memory, exhibit faster reaction time, and have higher level of creativity. 

Also according to John Ratey, exercise builds up the body’s level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF.  BDNF causes the brain’s nerve cells to branch out, join together and communicate with each other in new ways, which leads to your kid’s openness to learning and more capacity for knowledge.

Psychologists in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studied how exercise affects the actual shape and function of the children's brain. They found that fit children scored better in a series of cognitive challenges and the kids' MRI showed a significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and “executive control,” or the ability to coordinate actions and thoughts crisply.

A separate study by the same institution finds that fit children also have bigger hippocampi. To do complex thinking, the hippocampus and basal ganglia regions interact in the human brain structurally and functionally.

Exercise improves your child's ability to learn. In a 2007 study, German researchers found that after exercise, people learn vocabulary words 20% faster than they did before they exercised.

Exercise helps creativity. A 2007 experiment has found that a 35 minute treadmill session at 60 to 70 percent of maximum heart rate improves cognitive flexibility, the ability of the brain to shift thinking and produce creative, original thoughts.

Activities that involve balance and jumping activities like jumping rope strengthen the vestibular system that creates spatial awareness and mental alertness.  This provides your kid with a framework for reading and other academic skills.

According to many studies, stress damages the kid’s brain.  Exercise reduces stress by placing the brain into homeostasis and contributing to the balance of the body’s chemistry, electrical and organ systems.  Its effect is similar to taking anti-depressant medications.

Studies in University of Illinois have shown a strong relationship between fitness scores and academic achievement among primary school children.

A research by Oppenheimer Funds shows that kids who participate in organized sports learn confidence, teamwork and leadership.  Eighty one percent of women business executives played team sports as girls.

A Swedish study shows that cardiovascular fitness is associated with cognition in young adulthood. The research hypothesize that aerobic exercise produce specific growth factors and proteins that stimualate the brain.

Exercise increases your child's strength, flexibility and endurance. This gives your kid the confidence to go through the physical challenges of childhood such as being able to run to catch the school bus, carry heavy books, and bend to tie his shoes.

The following are tips to make kids active:

Set example to kids by being active yourself. Engage in a lot of walking, running, biking or playing sports. A study suggests that preschool kids whose moms are active also tend to be active themselves. According to Esther van Sluijs from the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine who made the study, parents affect their kids in three ways - by acting as role models, by helping them to be active, and by being active with them.

Make fitness a priority in your home.  Set limits on watching TV, playing video games, and being in the internet.

Make fitness fun.  Engage your kids in fun sports or other games which he loves.  Also, don't limit your kid to playing traditional sports.  There are video games like Dance Dance Revolution that can be played actively.

Encourage your kid to walk.  Don't use the car if you and your kid are going to places where you can walk to.  Look for opportunities to walk, find places to stride like a mall, and stairs to climb.  Build you kid's walking muscles so that distances that used to be far for him will feel near.  Make your child get used to and love walking.  This will benefit him throughout his life.
Encourage your kid to run.  Teach him the joys of jogging.  Run with your kid, or make it a social activity, with friends or relatives.

Encourage your kid to use wheels.  Not wheels of a car, but bikes, scooters, rollerblades or skateboards (make sure they have adequate protection like helmet, elbow pads, long pants).  On his next birthday, give him one of these gifts instead of another video game.

Encourage your kid to dance.  Dancing is one thing some kids enjoy more than conventional exercise.

Encourage some competition.  If your kids have other family members or friends, make them compete with each other in a fun way.  For example, there's always the running race (give the  younger kid a distance advantage), but you can think of other creative contests like who can do the most jumping jacks, skipping rope, etc.

Go to regular outings.  Take a hike.  Explore a nearby park.  Enjoy the outdoors. Remember to bring a ball or a frisbee.

Don't be too strict about an active life.  Although a regular routine of being active is what's best, perfection is not your goal.  When your kid has a busy day, try to get him to do his best to be active, but if this is not possible, schedule longer activity days when he has more time.

Parents of teens should be cautioned against having their kids play contact sports like football. According to Dr. Robert Cantu, chairman of the Department of Surgery at Emerson Hospital and co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at the Boston University School of Medicine, kids under the age of 14 should not be involved in collision sports. Teenagers who played contact sports often already show signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by multiple blows to the head. The symptoms are personality changes, memory loss, depression, even dementia.

Source: http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/35-the-benefits-of-exercise-on-your-kids-brain

Overspeed: What's Your Speed Limit? You Can Raise it!

What is Overspeed Training?

The purpose of overspeed training is to increase both your stride rate and stride length by forcing you to perform at a much higher level than you are capable of without assistance.  Imagine running down a hill, where your legs step further and you run faster you normally do.  Continuous training in this fashion will get your nervous and muscular systems accustomed to running at a faster pace.  After several weeks of training with assistance, you can now run without assistance and at the faster pace you have been training at.

Words of Caution

Take Overspeed Training VERY seriously.  Because you are running faster than normal, sometimes you cannot handle the speed and can take a nasty fall.  We advise training on soft surfaces such as grass.  Here are a few other pointers:

- Always use Overspeed Training at the beginning of your workout, after a general warm-up and stretching session.  Only when your muscles are not fatigued can you train correctly and have less chance of injury.

-Rest completely between sets.  You are working for longer and faster strides, not conditioning or endurance.

-Progress slowly.  In your first week, sprint only at 3/4 speed to get your body used to the extra assistance.

Types of Overspeed Training

The easiest form of Overspeed Training is Downhill Sprinting.  It is also the most dangerous because it is usually a harder surface and many people do not perform it correctly.  Use about a 50 yard area that is between 1 and 3 1/2 degrees slope.  Any more than this and there are more potentials for overstriding or falling.  Wear protective clothing, such as a jacket and training pants to prevent cuts and scrapes.  Again, we do not recommend downhill sprinting, but if you are to do it you should do it correctly.


The second form of Overspeed Training and probably the most popular, is parachute assisted training.  With a parachute, you run with resistance, and with a quick release you let the parachute go and enter the Overspeed phase.  This method seems to work the best because you can control when you want to release and enter the Overspeed phase.

The third form of Overspeed Training is the use of elastics.  Most commonly, two runners will run, one in front and one in back, and the back runner will lag behind, then get pulled by the elastic and enter the Overspeed phase.  Alternatively, you can do this exercise alone while tied to an anchor, and get pulled toward the anchor.  The solo exercise involves a quick release feature, where you release the elastic and continue to run past the designated point.

Source: http://www.jumpusa.com/overspeed_training.html

Jeter Makes His Mark as Captain Away From the Media’s Spotlight: A quiet leader

From his first spring training as the Yankees’ manager, in 1996, Joe Torre knew that Derek Jeter gets it. The front office had decided that Jeter, then a rookie, would be the Yankees’ starting shortstop. Torre anointed him as such to the news media. Then he read what Jeter said.

“Derek answered the same question better than I did, because he said, ‘I’m going to get an opportunity to become the shortstop,’ ” Torre said. “And that little thing, it may have been a
throwaway line for other people, but I thought: ‘You know what? You’re right.’ In his mind, he had to earn the right to be the shortstop. In mine, I was giving him the right to be the shortstop. It’s different. That impressed me.”

Jeter was 21 years old then, but he quickly emerged as a leader on a veteran team that would win the World Series. Seven years later, George Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ principal owner, named him captain.

Much of what Jeter learned about leading came from Don Mattingly, who once encouraged a young Jeter to jog — not walk — across the field of an empty stadium.

One night during spring training this year, the veterans had been removed from a game and were eager to leave Legends Field. They were off the next day, the only day off for the team during camp. But there was running to do, and Jeter made them do it.

“None of us wanted to go, and he’s like, ‘Let’s go,’ ” Johnny Damon said. “He makes sure we get our work in. That’s why he’s him.”

A crucial component of leadership, Torre said, is that those being led cannot resent the leader. On a team of veterans, the players tacitly accept Jeter’s status. He is a link to the title teams of the late 1990s, he plays the game correctly and he does not betray their confidence.

“He’s very private about what he does,” said Jorge Posada, adding that Jeter never shares details of meetings. “That’s not the way you lead.”

But if off-the-field communication — in a group setting or one on one — is vital, then there is one player who seems to confound Jeter as the captain. That, of course, is Alex Rodriguez, who in many ways is everything Jeter is not. Their differences were evident during camp this year.

Rodriguez reported to camp and immediately addressed his friendship with Jeter, finally admitting it had cooled over the years. Telling the truth seemed cathartic to Rodriguez.

Jeter did not roll his eyes in response, but he might as well have. He talked about the topic the next day, but not much, insisting it was a private issue that had nothing to do with baseball.

Weeks later, both players made a trip to Sarasota. Rodriguez left the Tampa clubhouse first, trailed by a dozen reporters asking him about another flap over his contract, which offers the promise of more riches or a change of scenery because of an opt-out clause after the season.

After Rodriguez had slipped into the parking lot, Jeter strolled through the same corridor undisturbed. He raised his eyebrows and smiled. Jeter also has a mammoth contract, but it includes no loopholes, and no one asks about it.

Jeter and Rodriguez exist with no open hostility and probably no hostility at all. Their relationship is scrutinized, and while neither player likes it, each understands the interest. What bothers Jeter is the theory that by not helping Rodriguez through the regular booing he faced last season, he had failed in his role as captain.

“It was unfair,” Jeter said of criticism of his captaincy. “I’m not going to please everybody with everything I do, and that’s fine. Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. But it’s a role I take very seriously, I do the best I can with it, and when people say that, I think that’s unfair.”

The author Michael Shapiro, who wrote extensively about Pee Wee Reese’s captaincy of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 2003 book “The Last Good Season,” said he believed a captain like Reese would have found a way to help an uncomfortable teammate.

“But by the same token, this is not Duke Snider, who was younger and deferential,” Shapiro said. “This is different. Alex Rodriguez is Jeter’s peer and rival. What Jeter would have to be saying is, ‘I am your superior officer here, and I’m going to make things easier for you.’ It’s a tricky thing.”

The pitching coach Ron Guidry was a captain of the Yankees at the end of his career. He said a captain must read the personality of each player, knowing when to cajole and when to coddle.

“The team captain is a friendly shoulder,” Guidry said. “He’s the guy you want to come talk to you, unless you go and talk to him first.”

Jason Giambi, who told Sports Illustrated last year that he had challenged Rodriguez in the clubhouse during a slump, played down the idea that Jeter needed to help Rodriguez. Jeter and Rodriguez get along fine, Giambi said, and there is no controlling the fans in any case. Torre agreed.

“The way I look at it, if Derek felt that he needed to do something to make this team better, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it,” Torre said. “So I don’t think he felt that he needed to do any more than he was doing at that point in time, least of all to tell the fans to lay off Alex. These are New York fans. They’re about as knowledgeable as any sports fan, and they don’t want to be told what to do.

“When you ask me how I think they’ll receive Alex, well, they’ll cheer him because they’ll want to support him, but if he hits into a double play, they’ll boo him. That’s what happens, and it wouldn’t have changed if Derek had said, ‘Don’t boo him.’ They weren’t going to listen to Derek, because they’re still there to be entertained.”

Yet no Yankee’s voice carries as much weight with the fans as Jeter’s. The news media report anything he says about Rodriguez, and a strong call for support could, in theory, sway some fans.

Asked if he believed he could influence fans, Jeter, who will turn 33 in June, did not answer directly. Maybe yes, maybe no, he seemed to say. The point was that it was not up to him.

“It’s not my job to change the way fans act,” Jeter said. “Fans can do what they want to do. I’ve never heard somebody in any sport tell the fans how to act. Why would you even get caught up in that? It’s not your job to tell fans what to do, bottom line.”

Jeter uses that expression — bottom line — frequently. It is fitting for a player who maximizes his talent by keeping things uncomplicated. He almost never creates distractions for himself, deftly walking a fine line.

Jeter probably conducts more interviews with reporters than any other Yankee. He pitches video games and Gatorade, and he dates celebrities. Yet there is much about him that fans do not know, and that extends to his role in the clubhouse.

“A lot of the things that Derek does go unseen,” Giambi said. “He does talk to guys on the side, but he doesn’t make it a media thing.”

In his new autobiography, the former Yankee Gary Sheffield said Jeter’s biracial background helped him relate to everyone, and he praised him for his even temperament. In meetings, Sheffield wrote, “he talks in positive terms. Maybe even clichés.” Sheffield said Mariano Rivera was more likely to be blunt in meetings.

Jeter said he felt responsible for answering questions about games and for representing the Yankees in public. He knows he has an image as a quiet leader who rarely speaks up, and it seems to amuse him.

There is much about his captain’s role he leaves unsaid, and that is how he wants it.

“I always find it interesting when people say, ‘Well, he’s a lead-by-example guy, he doesn’t ever say anything,’ ” Jeter said. “How do you know? I don’t do things through the media, but that doesn’t mean I don’t say things or I’m not vocal. You guys maybe don’t know about it. But you don’t have to know about everything.”

Torre would probably approve of that comment, too.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/sports/baseball/01jeter.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The Key to Raising Confident Kids? Stop Complimenting Them!

In Maria Semple’s hilarious new novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, the title character’s daughter, Bee, attends an elite, and progressive, private school. Here, grades are doled out in three tiers: S for “Surpasses Excellence,” A for “Achieves Excellence,” and W for “Working Towards Excellence.” That is, there is no child who is not excellent in some way. It’s a parody that is, unfortunately, not far from reality.

As parents, we believe we’re meant to instill confidence in our children. That building self-esteem is the number one priority of raising, and educating, children, and that regular praising will encourage them to believe in themselves. And if kids believe in themselves, the thinking goes, they will take risks, meet goals, and generally achieve great things. Except it turns out that confidence doesn’t necessarily lead to better performance. In fact, praise might actually undermine kids’ success.

First thing’s first: I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be supportive or encouraging, or help kids feel loved. But how often do we find ourselves saying “great job!” to the 4-year-old who cleans up her crayons after a coloring session? Or to the 8-year-old who finishes his broccoli? By dishing out praise to a child for doing things she should be doing anyway, we teach her that she gets rewarded just for being. Later, we tell them they’re smart and beautiful and awesome baseball players before they’ve had a chance to earn it—or know what those words really mean. They grow up placing their self-worth in that praise: If I’m not told I’m beautiful, she’ll start to think, then I must not be.

Research with children and families has indeed told us that praise has the opposite intended effect. It does not make children work harder, or do better. In fact, kids who are told they’re bright and talented are easily discouraged when something is “too difficult;” those who are not praised in such a manner are more motivated to work harder and take on greater challenges. The unpraised, in turn, show higher levels of confidence, while overpraised are more likely to lie to make their performances sound better. Praise becomes like a drug: once they get it, they need it, want it, are  unable to function without it.

Let’s look at 6-year-old Matthew. A natural athlete, Matthew was widely praised at an early age for his throwing and catching abilities. Once he became old enough to play with other children, he realized, for the first time, that he was good—but perhaps not the best. What happened then? In Little League games, he’d choke up, constantly looking back to his parents for encouragement and forgetting to keep his eye on the ball. He’d get upset if his every effort wasn’t met with accolades from his coach—but such accolades wouldn’t help him perform any better. Safe in the envelope of constant praise that happened in his backyard with his dad, Matthew was a bundle of nerves out in the real world. 

Here’s where we also see how praising kids sets them up for a world that’s almost never as generous. For kids who’ve spent their lives being celebrated for, say, tying their own shoes, failure can be devastating. In a recent New York magazine article, 27-year-old Lael Goodman said, “The worst thing is that I’ve always gotten self-worth from performance, especially good grades. But now that I can’t get a job, I feel worthless.” And this guy’s an adult; it’s even worse for an actual child. What’s more, by focusing too much on how we can build our kids’ self-esteem and confidence, we’re overlooking teaching them what real achievement means—and depriving them of knowing what it’s like to feel the satisfaction of setting a high goal, working hard, and achieving it. When we place more emphasis on the reward than the process of learning or doing—whether it’s an algebra problem or hitting a fly ball—kids inevitably focus more on the reward. They stop learning how to spell because it’s a benchmark for learning (and necessary); they learn it for the trophy and ice cream party that follows.

The point isn’t to criticize children. But it’s to recognize that self-esteem really, truly comes as the result of achievement—in the classroom, on the field, at home—rather than false accomplishments. Instead of praising your child with “you’re so smart!” be specific. Tell him, “You did a great job on your spelling quiz,” or simply, “You tied your own shoes!” Instead of telling him he’s he best on the team when you really don’t mean it, tell him you could tell he tried hard. Next time, he’ll try even harder—guaranteed. 

Dr. Peggy Drexler is a research psychologist, an assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill Medical College, Cornell University, and author of Our Fathers, Ourselves: Daughters, Fathers, and the Changing American Family (Rodale, May 2011). Follow Peggy on Twitter andFacebook and learn more about Peggy at www.peggydrexler.com

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-gender-ourselves/201208/the-key-raising-confident-kids-stop-complimenting-them

Usain Bolt’s speed workout

Adopt the Jamaican Olympic and world record holder's training routine to supercharge your sprint

Bolt on exercises
Usain Bolt is faster than every one of the billions of Homo sapiens to have roamed the Earth in the past 200,000 years. The reigning world recorder holder in the 100m (9.58 secs) and 200m (19.19 secs) boasts a staggering top speed of 27.79mph. But Bolt believes anyone – you included – can accelerate to greatness. “There are no secrets,” he says. “You just have to develop strength, power, acceleration and technique.”

To get speed like Usain, read on for the Lightning Bolt Workout, which consists of five exercises in two separate phases…

Phase A: Electrify your sprint
These three moves enable your muscles to reach maximum force in the shortest possible time to boost your explosive power and turbo-charge your sprint. “I [perform them] once a week during the winter to develop power and increase explosiveness,” says Bolt.

1. Bunny hops
5 sets of 20 reps
With your feet shoulder-width apart, squat down and bring both arms back. Drive your arms forward and jump as far ahead as you can ahead. Land and quickly repeat the jump.

2. Box jumps
4 sets of 8 reps
Adopt a squat position, with hands on your hips. Jump onto a 60cm high box, landing on your feet. Jump back down into a squat position and spring quickly back up.

3. Bounding
3 of sets 10 reps
Leap forward, landing on the front of your right foot. On landing, immediately leap forward onto your left foot. Use your arms to power your body through the air.

Phase B: Stretch your stride
“Flexibility helps with stride length, as does core stability to hold the hips in a good position,” says Bolt. “Usually when the hips drop the stride gets shorter.” These two moves target your hip flexors, which drive your knees skyward for a faster, longer stride. A Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research study proved sprinters were 9% faster after an eight-week hip flexion resistance-training programme. You’ll never miss the bus again.

4. Cable Knee Drives
3 sets of 10 reps
Using a low cable pulley and an ankle cuff attachment, stand so that the cable is taut and drive your knee explosively up to your chest. Keep the movement controlled as you lower.

5. Hanging leg raises
3 sets of 10 reps
While hanging from a pull-up bar with an overhand grip, bend your knees and raise your hips until your thighs are near your chest. Pause, lower and repeat.

Source: http://www.menshealth.co.uk/fitness/cardio-exercise/usain-bolts-speed-workout

Base Running: Getting Around the Basepaths

When I was in the big leagues and it came time to review baserunning during spring training, everyone wanted to call in sick. Even at the major league level-and keep in mind this was just a review-this was the most boring aspect of getting ready for the season. It wasn't necessarily the subject matter; it was how it was presented.

We would all huddle around Cal Sr. on the infield. Dad would take us through all of the responsibilities of a baserunner, starting from the on-deck circle. The talk would then move to the home plate area and right around the bases, one base at a time. Dad had gone through this ritual every year. But for him, there was no other way. The field was his classroom. We would try to be good students, but listening to all that talk when all we wanted to do was play made for a challenging day.

Players never want to focus on baserunning and coaches often avoid the topic because it is so boring, and sometimes coaches don't totally understand how to teach baserunning fundamentals. But when you think about it, baserunning is critical to winning games - the goal of a baseball game is to score runs, and baserunning is the means by which we do that.

So here are some tips to help you get your team running on all cylinders and thinking about how to run the bases the right way.

Contact - Getting out of the Box
Whether you've tapped one off the end of the bat or raked a hard line drive down the line, your first goal is always to get out of that batter's box in a hurry. There's no excuse for not hustling, so run hard down the first base line. 

Take a brief moment to see where the ball is headed and make a quick judgment - is it a base hit? If not, run as hard as possible through first base, stepping on the bag on the side closest to home plate, and do your best to beat the defense. If it's a hit, run hard and move gradually into foul territory in order to make a smooth turn at first base. Whatever you do, don't get caught watching the ball for too long - that only slows you down.

It's a Hit - What Now?
If you've earned a hit, round first with the full intention of going to second. Quickly find the ball on the field and make another decision - is the defense in control of the ball? If not, decide whether you can make it to second base and go! If the defense has the ball and is in a good position to throw you out at second, stop and return to first base.

A good rule to follow: "Run until the defense stops you."

Taking a Good Lead
Two and a half steps, that's a good guideline to follow when taking a lead. Keep your eyes on the pitcher and never cross over your feet - you want to be vigilant in case the pitcher makes a sudden move and you want your feet to be ready to change direction quickly. Take your lead off the back edge of the base - that increases the distance any pickoff throw must go and also makes it harder for the first baseman to tag you. Every little advantage helps.

Getting up with the Pitch
On every pitch, you should generate momentum towards the next base in a secondary lead. Think of shuffling with three hops and count them in your head - one, two, three. As the pitcher delivers the ball to the plate you begin advancing towards the next base in the form of those three hops. You want your feet to come down on "three" just as the ball enters the strike zone.

Based on what happens-a strike, a passed ball, a hit-make a decision on whether to advance or return.

Third Base - The Walking Base
The shuffling method of taking a secondary lead works for first and second, but when you've reached third base, it's time to take a different strategy. Now you're going to walk towards home with three steps - right, left, right, counting in your head, "one, two, three."

Just as in the shuffling secondary lead, when you get to "three," your right foot should be coming down and the ball should be entering the strike zone. React quickly to whatever happens and focus on taking advantage of every opportunity to score.

When in Doubt, Slide
No matter what base you are approaching (except for first base), if there's even a slim chance of a play, slide. Too many injuries occur because runners are indecisive. Sliding is always a safer alternative to slamming on those breaks. 

And you never want to be tagged out standing up when simply sliding could have saved your team an out.

Don't Let Up
You should always hustle, but when it comes to first base and home plate, you absolutely need to run straight through those bases. Nothing feels worse than to let up on your way to first only to realize the defense has made an error on what seemed a sure out.

Your team will also be pretty upset with you if you fail to run hard through home plate, even when the defensive play may be at another base. Fail to cross home plate before the third out is recorded and your run simply doesn't count.

No Fruit or Punctuation Please
I try to avoid terms like the "question mark" or "banana" when describing how to round the bases. Runners shouldn't make a sudden turn into foul territory just to make another quick turn through the bag.

You can judge a base hit before getting too far down the line, so make a more gradual line into foul territory. The turn at first becomes smoother and more efficient.

When looking at the square created by the basepaths, you should really picture a circular path for runners. Make all the turns gradual and runners will never have to break stride. That saves time, increases speed, and helps prevent injuries that can occur when trying to make sharp turns at full-speed.

Bring all of these tips and lessons to your next practice and improve your team's running ability. Before long, you'll see more extra-base hits, more first-to-thirds, and more runs crossing the plate.

Source: http://www.thefarmleague.com/baseball/drills/page-5/

Your Brain on Baseball: Baseball, Behavior & Brains

It’s spring training fielding practice, and Jeff Kent, the Dodgers second baseman, is covering first. A coach rolls the ball out toward the mound. The pitcher scrambles to pick up the ball. The catcher yells out which base he should throw to. Kent runs over and catches the ball at first.

Jeff Kent is 39 years old and has been playing professionally for 17 years. He’s probably been doing this same drill since he was 10 years old, because the practice drills the Little Leaguers do are basically the same drills the major leaguers do. Why is Jeff Kent, after all these years, still learning to cover first?

Because the institution of baseball understands how to make the most of the human brain.

One of the core messages of brain research is that most mental activity happens in the automatic or unconscious region of the brain. The unconscious mind is not a swamp of repressed memories and childhood traumas, the way Freud imagined. It’s a set of mental activities that the brain has relegated beyond awareness for efficiency’s sake, so the conscious mind can focus on other things. In his book, “Strangers to Ourselves,” Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia notes that the brain can absorb about 11 million pieces of information a second, of which it can process about 40 consciously. The unconscious brain handles the rest.

The automatic mind generally takes care of things like muscle control. But it also does more ethereal things. It recognizes patterns and construes situations, searching for danger, opportunities or the unexpected. It also shoves certain memories, thoughts, anxieties and emotions up into consciousness. 

Baseball is one of those activities that are performed mostly by the automatic mind. Professional baseball players have phenomenal automatic brains. 

As Jeff Hawkins points out in his book “On Intelligence,” it is nearly impossible to design a computer with a robotic arm that can catch a ball. The calculations the computer has to make are too complicated to accomplish in time. Baseball players not only can do that with ease, they can hit a split-finger fastball besides.

Over the decades, the institution of baseball has figured out how to instruct the unconscious mind, to make it better at what it does. As we know the automatic brain only by the behavior it produces, so we can instruct it only by forcing it to repeat certain actions. Jeff Kent is practicing covering first after all these years because the patterns of the automatic brain have to be constantly and repetitively reinforced.

But baseball has accomplished another, more important feat. It has developed a series of habits and standards of behavior to keep the conscious mind from interfering with the automatic mind.

Baseball is one of those activities in which the harder you try, the worse you do. The more a pitcher aims the ball, the wilder he becomes. The more a batter tenses, the slower and more tentative his muscles become.

Over the generations, baseball people have developed an infinity of tics and habits to distract and sedate the conscious mind. Managers encourage a preternaturally calm way of being — especially after failure. In the game I happened to see here on Tuesday, Detroit Tigers pitcher Nate Robertson threw poorly, but strutted off the mound as if he’d just slain Achilles. Second baseman Kevin Hooper waved pathetically at a third struck fastball, but walked back to the dugout wearing an expression of utter nonchalance.

This sort of body language helps players remain steady amid humiliation, so they’ll do better next time. 

Believe me, the people involved in the sport have no theory of the human mind, but under the pressure of competition, they’ve come up with a set of practices that embody a few key truths. 

First, habits and etiquette shape the brain. Or as Timothy Wilson puts it, “One of the most enduring lessons of social psychology is that behavior change often precedes changes in attitudes and feelings.”

And second, there is a certain kind of practical wisdom that is not taught but is imparted through experience. It consists of a sensitivity to the contours of how a situation may evolve, which cannot be put into words. 

Baseball players are like storm-tossed sailors falling and rising with the slumps and hot streaks that emanate from inaccessible parts of themselves. The rest of us rationalists use statistics to try to understand the patterns of what they do.

Source: http://greenpagan.blogspot.com/2007/03/your-brain-on-baseball.html?m=1

4 Sport Superstar: Deion Sanders

Deion Sanders possessed athletic ability that most humans can only dream about. He played professionally in both football and baseball at the same time. Blessed with phenomenal speed, he is considered to be one of the best cornerbacks ever to play football, known for completely shutting down his side of the field. Whether you were a sports fanatic or you tend to throw on a game or two in the background as you play Party Poker, it was impossible to not be astounded by his performance. In baseball, Sanders was known as a prolific base stealer who also made some key offensive contributions to his teams.
         
Sanders was born on August 9, 1967 in Fort Meyers, Florida. After winning state honors in three sports (football, baseball, and basketball) in high school, Sanders took his athleticism to the next level at Florida State University. He decided to drop basketball but then decided to participate in track. He starred in all three sports while at Florida State. He helped lead the track team to a conference championship, batted well, and stole numerous bases for the baseball team. However, it was in football that Sanders truly shone.
       
Sanders was a two-time consensus All-American, won the Jim Thorpe Award in 1988, had 14 career interceptions, and helped the Seminoles to a Sugar Bowl victory in 1988. In addition to his spectacular defense, Sanders was also extremely good at punt returns. He led the nation in punt return average in 1988 and is the all-time leader at Florida State in punt return yards. Largely regarded as one of the best cornerbacks in the history of college football, Sanders had his #2 jersey retired by the Seminoles in 1995.
         
Sanders ended up being drafted twice after his senior year at Florida State. The New York Yankees picked him in the MLB Draft, and the Atlanta Falcons selected him in the NFL Draft. Instead of choosing one over the other, Sanders decided to do what he had always done, play both. He played a sporadic, part-time baseball career, playing for four teams over nine seasons. He never played a complete year, his best season probably being with the Cincinnati Reds in 1997. That season Sanders played in 115 games, collected 127 hits, and stole 56 bases. He helped the Braves to the World Series in 1992, where he had a great series, batting over .500. He finished his baseball career in 2001 by playing 32 games with the Cincinnati Reds. Sanders’ career baseball totals include a .263 batting average, 558 hits, 43 triples, and 186 stolen bases.
         
After becoming Atlanta's first round pick in 1989, Sanders quickly established himself as one of the best defensive players in the NFL. He also developed a reputation as a flashy and cocky player, with his “high stepping” and elaborate touchdown celebrations. He played five seasons with the Falcons, during which he not only recorded 24 interceptions, but also became one of the NFL's elite return men. In 1992 he led the NFL in kickoff return average (26.7), kickoff return yards (1,067), and return touchdowns (2). Sanders left Atlanta to play for the San Francisco 49ers after the 1993 season.
         
Sanders spent only the 1994 season with the 49ers, but it is considered by some to be the best of his career. He grabbed six interceptions, returned them for 303 yards and three touchdowns, was named the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year, and helped lead the 49ers to win the Super Bowl. However, tempers flared in San Francisco and Sanders left for the Dallas Cowboys and a very large contract. Sanders enjoyed five excellent years with the Cowboys, during which he got offensive playing time as wide receiver, before moving on to the Washington Redskins in 2000. He intercepted four passes that year before suddenly and unexpectedly retiring. However, this was not the end of “Neon Deion” as he decided to return to the NFL in 2004 with the Baltimore Ravens. He grabbed a total of five interceptions with the Ravens before retiring again after the 2005 season. He finished his career an eight-time Pro Bowler with 53 interceptions returned for 1,331 yards and nine touchdowns, 155 kickoff returns for 3,523 yards, 212 punt returns for 2,199 yards, and 60 receptions for 784 yards.


Career Highlights, Awards, and Accolades:

Won All-State honors in football, baseball, and basketball at North Fort Meyers High School.
Third Team All-American at Florida State in 1986.
Consensus All-American at Florida State in 1987 and 1988.
Jim Thorpe Award winner in 1988.
Florida State retired his #2 jersey.
Elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
Elected to the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Eight-time NFL Pro Bowler: 1991-94 and 1996-99.
NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1994.
Two-time Super Bowl champion: 1994 (San Francisco) and 1995 (Dallas).
Career total of 7,838 all-purpose yards and 22 touchdowns.
NFL all-time leader with 19 defensive and return touchdowns.
Only player in NFL history to score a touchdown six different ways (regular and post season): kickoff return, punt return, interception return, fumble recovery, receiving, and rushing.
Hit .331 with Florida Sate in 1986.
Led the MLB in triples in 1992 with 14.
Played in the 1992 World Series with the Atlanta Braves.
Hit .533 during the 1992 World Series.
Stole a career high 56 bases in 1997.
Only player in history to play in both the Super Bowl and World Series.
In 1989 became the first player in history to hit a home run in the MLB and score a touchdown in the NFL in the same week.

Source: http://www.deion-sanders.com/bio.html