All posts in Kids’ Sports

Kids’ Sports — No Drama

By | August 17, 2011 | Kids' Sports, Unsportmanlike Conduct | 4 Comments

As a detour today from our regular drama around here, I submit, in 100 words or so, that there is no place in kid’s sports for adult drama.

My kids have been involved in sports of some sort for the past 13 years or so, so I feel like I know a little about this.

To Parents, Coaches, and other League Officers and Volunteers:

KEEP THE DRAMA OFF OF THE FIELD. We are here for our kids to learn. We are here for our kids to have fun. If you can’t keep the drama to yourself, then don’t come around. The kids don’t need to hear it. It’s a bad example that they shouldn’t be following.

That is all.

Kendra has had it. Could you tell?

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Ain’t That A Kick In The Head

By | August 11, 2011 | injuries, Kids' Sports | 1 Comment

Among all the other evidence that I took leave of my senses between the ages of 18 and 22, I played rugby in college. Fall and Spring. Six seasons, and a host of injuries that included three concussions. Since this was “the olden days,” I sat out of practice a week and that was it. No CT scans, or even much follow-up from the medical staff at my school. Other than my first trip to the concussion rodeo, I only ever saw a doc once.

This is a perfect example of “now that we know better, we do better.” Concussion awareness programs are everywhere today, from the NFL to elementary school (to The Onion). And now Dick’s Sporting Goods has created PACE, Protecting Athletes through Concussion Education.

Through PACE, Dick’s Sporting Goods will supply up to one million young athletes across more than 3,300 middle and high schools nationwide with ImPACT software, a scientifically-validated computerized concussion evaluation system. It is a computerized, neurocognitive assessment tool that is used by medical doctors, psychologists, athletic trainers, and other licensed healthcare professionals to assist them in determining an athlete’s ability to return to play after suffering a concussion. Compared to my experience, WHAT A CONCEPT!!!

Here’s an article about Schaumburg, Illinois schools’ experience with ImPACT.

Schools need to apply in order to get the software. To apply for your school, visit http://www.mydickssportinggoods.com/pace/ and click “Submit Your School” on the left-hand side.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis tries out the ImPACT baseline concussion software at the PACE event at Dick's Sporting Goods in White Plains, NY.

Get Off the Phone, Soccer Parents

By | March 10, 2011 | Kids' Sports, Soccer | 5 Comments

The oldest boy is playing soccer. The kind of soccer where they actually have practices and games and as a parent you have to go.

He’s so excited he can’t see straight.

He’s also not very good at it. That’s fine. The boy isn’t all that athletic. Maybe he’ll grow into it. Maybe he won’t. But he’s having fun, and he thinks he’s good and loves it. To me, that’s what it’s all about at this stage in the game.

I will freely admit I had my cell phone out, texting a girlfriend while they were getting organized at the beginning of practice. I had a book, I had my great big old picnic-style blanket spread out, purse half dumped and was putzing around doing this and that. But as practice got going, I set down my phone and sat to watch the shenanigans.

Eight-year-old boys who don’t have a clue how to play soccer trying to practice playing soccer is sort of a hoot.  They’re uncoordinated, they don’t pay attention and I just find there to be something joyous and hilarious about them. They’re playing a game in its least competitive form, and it’s just fun.

So all this parental musing about the nature of sport aside, I notice a kid shoving another kid out on the field. Being a completely judgmental parent, I look around to see whose jerkwad kid this is.

And that’s when I noticed.

Everyone is on their phone except me.

Texting, surfing, talking. They’re doing anything except watching the field. So I sit and observe the parents. Thumbs are flying and smiles spread over their faces as they continue to communicate with their digital world that they’ve brought with them to the soccer field.

They are missing it. They are missing the sucky dribbling and passing. They are missing the boys’ total inability to weave in and out of cones. They are missing the corner shot that knocked a kid down.

They are missing their boys being 8 years old and trying to learn a sport. This moment won’t come back. As a matter of fact, it’s over.

I’m not a perfect parent. I text more than I should and hell if my phone would surf the web I’d be snagging content from it as well. But if I believe sports are important enough for my child to play, then they ought to be important enough for me to pay attention to while they learn.

Get off the phone. Jerks.

High School Boy Doesn’t Want To Wrestle Girl: What?

By | February 23, 2011 | Kids' Sports, Wrestling | 2 Comments

Now I’ve heard it all. Joel Northrup, an Iowa high school wrestler defaulted in his scheduled match against a girl, claiming his religious beliefs wouldn’t allow him to partake in the festivities.

Now, his has nothing to do with a boy and a girl in tights rolling around together in an intimate way, but Northrup’s problem is the violence involved in the sport.

“Wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times,” said Northrup, ”As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.”

As a result, Cassy Herkelman, a freshman in high school, would become the first girl to win a match in an Iowa State tournament match in the 112 pound weight class.

So, this is a tough one. Wrestling is fighting. Pound for pound, men are typically stronger than women. Especially those who strive to be strong.  I can point out a million examples of this.  And in this case, Northrup is a sophomore with a 35-4 record, scheduled against a 20-13 freshman. So even the skills and experience weren’t evenly matched.

This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but wrestling is a form of fighting. There’s no ball or steering wheel, this is a battle of pure physical strength. Technique, of course, is key, but wrestlers are specifically known for their superior strength. Many, if not most of today’s UFC fighters come from high school and college wrestling backgrounds, many even having not been very well-accomplished before dominating in professional MMA fighting.  And if we’re going to allow men and women to wrestle one another, are we also going to allow them to fight one another? I hope not.

I also happen to believe that men and women shouldn’t fight. This isn’t saying that there aren’t many, many women who could kick the shit out of me, because there are. It’s saying that at that level, all things being equal (skill, weight, etc), men usually win in a sport like wrestling. Urijah Faber weighs 145 pounds and I doubt there’s a 145 pound woman on the planet who could stop him. Maybe I’m wrong.

I am all for women in sports, and I’m even for women competing against men, in some cases.   But I can also see a man being completely against fighting a woman.

Wrestling is a violent sport, and while it is a woman’s choice to decide whether or not to defy the odds and fight against men, the man should also have a choice. Her desire to fight him doesn’t outweigh his desire not to fight her. He has rights, too.

When I wrestle with my girlfriend, she goes all out. She gives it everything she has and offers very little concern about whether or not she’s giving me too much. I, on the other hand, in addition to defending myself, am trying not to hurt her.

If I was wrestling with my friends (which I don’t do anymore because it  lost its appeal long ago), there would be no holding back.

My point is simply that I am built to not hurt a woman, even if she is punching the shit out of me. Not all men are like that, but many are. If that makes us sexist pigs, so be it. I also have all the organized religious training of my sock drawer, so I don’t believe religion is what this is about, even though that seems to pop out as the issue. It’s a little more than that. This is a kid who believes it’s not okay to get violent with women. Yay!!!

Forget how he learned it. I don’t care. It could have been on the back of a Frosted Flakes box with a little maze and when you get to the center it says, “Don’t hit girls! Even if they want you to!”

This is about a kid with a strong moral compass and the conviction to sacrificing something he loves for what he believes, and is doing it in a non-violent way where the only person who gets hurt is ultimately Joel Northrup. Cassy Herkelman got a record that will stand forever, a record she likely wouldn’t have had if they actually wrestled. I’m sure not the way she wanted it, but I’m sure he didn’t want to forfeit and be eliminated.

I’m not saying that women will never be able to compete against men in physical strength, but it’s going to take some evolution. Men have been competing in sports for thousands of years, and for thousands of years before that we were throwing rocks at each other. It’s in our DNA. We’re bred for it.

Women have only been heavily involved in athletics or even war in the last twenty years. As more women continue to push the limits of their physical abilities, future generations will become physically stronger. It’s already happening. And hopefully cattle steroids will also do their part. I saw a thirteen year old girl the other day that looked like she ate Dolph Lundgren.  Give it a hundred years and she’ll be the norm.

Listen, ladies, you use more of your brains than we do. That’s way better. Since ancient times, we’ve built our muscles to compensate for our stupidity with brute strength. That’s why we bust down doors when we can’t figure out how to open them. Why we wander around aimlessly, frustrated, refusing to ask for directions until we’re completely lost. It’s why we hit each other with stuff. Hell, the whole reason we invented wrestling was because it seemed like a good alternative to hitting each other with stuff.  It was probably a woman’s idea. And yet? We still hit each other with stuff.

What I’m trying to say is, dammit, you’re already superior to us in just about every way. Do you have to beat us up, too?

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Concussions, and How to Spot Them

By | February 7, 2011 | Dain Bramage, injuries, Kids' Sports, Women's Sports | 3 Comments

It seems we’ve been hearing a lot more about concussions in recent years, particularly with regard to football and hockey. There was Merril Hoge’s career-ending head injury after a concussion that ultimately resulted in a $1.55 million judgment against the doctor who cleared him to play, and players like Aikman and Young retiring earlier than expected at least in part because of concussions.  In the NHL, it’s questionable what the most notable outcome of January’s Winter Classic was: the Washington Capitals’ win over the home team or the Pens’ star forward Sidney Crosby’s eventual absence from the ice after a series of what some said were intentional hits to the head.

An almost-fanatical attention to head-hitting rules seemed to pervade this season in the NFL, so it’s clearly being taken seriously there, and players are regularly suspended in the NHL for so-called “dirty hits,” some of which can surely cause obvious or more insidious injury to the head. Not to mention? These can be contact sports. Things happen, intentional or not, and players hit the ground and equipment too.

A couple of new developments suggest the science of detecting concussions is getting better.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of medicine have developed a test that can be given quickly to players on the sideline who have just suffered a blow to the head. The test, which any coach or parent can be trained to administer, is remarkably accurate at detecting concussions, according to the study, which is published in the current issue of the journal Neurology.

A test like this is potentially big news- something cheap, accurate, and easy to administer immediately following a potential head injury would be a huge step forward, and could prevent a lot of really scary and dangerous reinjuries that occur when athletes insist they’re ready to go back in and trainers/doctors don’t have anything concrete with which to stop them.

In other concussion news, researchers at Ohio State have recently released a study, published in the Journal of Athletic Training, that examined high school athletes who have experienced head trauma.  The study suggests that the symptoms of head injuries and concussions manifest differently in girls than boys. As more and more girls are playing sports, including contact sports (yay!) it’s essential that their coaches, trainers, and parents realize that the symptoms they report of a concussion are different than what one might “expect” given the conventional wisdom, which has almost always analyzed boys and men.

For example, the study says that while the primary symptom of concussion for both boys and girls is headaches, the secondary symptoms differ quite noticeably.  Boys are more likely to report feeling disoriented or confused, or to have memory loss, while girls are more likely to report feeling sensitive to noise and sound, as well as being drowsy.  Couple that with previous studies that suggest that girls suffer concussions at higher rates than boys, and this is key information for anyone involved in girls and women’s sports.

Interesting stuff.  Don’t lead with your head, kids.

Image Credit: wakemedvoices.org

Katie is lucky to have never received a concussion while playing sports. Unless sledding counts as a sport, in which case she totally has.

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