Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
My Hero: Coach Lim by Mariah Prendes
Who is the hero of the year? You will find out. My hero is Yit
Aun Lim! He is the head coach of the Marietta Marlins. (My
swim team). I’m going to give you some reasons why I think
Lim my coach should be nominated for the new 2011 hero!
Dr.Yit Aun Lim is a professor at Life University. Not only
is he a full time teacher but he is the head coach of the year
around swim team. He prefers to be called coach Lim. Lim is
extremely dedicated as a coach. He holds practices 7 days a
week at 5:30 A.M and in the afternoons for everyone who
would like to come. A coach also requires being responsible.
Aside from his full time job as a professor he is always on
time, and ready to make the swimmers better than they are.
He always seems to know all the swimmer’s strengths and
weaknesses in swimming. When you ask him about how to
be better at a specific stroke he is ready to help you. How
does he know all this? He was a Malaysian national swim
champion when he was only 15 years old. Although our
team is much smaller than many other teams we have been
number one in Georgia for 6 years in a row!
When I was 7 years old I was on another swim team. I
hated the practices and I never learned any of the strokes. I
always wanted to quit! After three years of being taught
swimming by Lim, last summer I finished as a top 5
swimmer in 5 events in the Georgia Age Group
Championships! Now, I regularly swim 2-3 miles a day in
practice and I love it! Lim says that swimming prepares us
for life, it takes hard work, responsibility, and dedication to
succeed in swimming and in life!
Lim is a very interesting person and I would like to
honor Lim as my hero because he is very dedicated to his
family and he always works and plays hard with the
swimmers! Lim treats all of the swimmers as though we
were his children!
By:
Mariah Prendes
Aun Lim! He is the head coach of the Marietta Marlins. (My
swim team). I’m going to give you some reasons why I think
Lim my coach should be nominated for the new 2011 hero!
Dr.Yit Aun Lim is a professor at Life University. Not only
is he a full time teacher but he is the head coach of the year
around swim team. He prefers to be called coach Lim. Lim is
extremely dedicated as a coach. He holds practices 7 days a
week at 5:30 A.M and in the afternoons for everyone who
would like to come. A coach also requires being responsible.
Aside from his full time job as a professor he is always on
time, and ready to make the swimmers better than they are.
He always seems to know all the swimmer’s strengths and
weaknesses in swimming. When you ask him about how to
be better at a specific stroke he is ready to help you. How
does he know all this? He was a Malaysian national swim
champion when he was only 15 years old. Although our
team is much smaller than many other teams we have been
number one in Georgia for 6 years in a row!
When I was 7 years old I was on another swim team. I
hated the practices and I never learned any of the strokes. I
always wanted to quit! After three years of being taught
swimming by Lim, last summer I finished as a top 5
swimmer in 5 events in the Georgia Age Group
Championships! Now, I regularly swim 2-3 miles a day in
practice and I love it! Lim says that swimming prepares us
for life, it takes hard work, responsibility, and dedication to
succeed in swimming and in life!
Lim is a very interesting person and I would like to
honor Lim as my hero because he is very dedicated to his
family and he always works and plays hard with the
swimmers! Lim treats all of the swimmers as though we
were his children!
By:
Mariah Prendes
Monday, July 11, 2011
Well-Meaning Parent Fuel Kids’ Sense of Entitlement
[In “The Secrets Of Leadership Are Often Found At The Bottom,” SportsBusiness Journal, June 6-12 http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/06/06/Opinion/Burton-Oreilly-column.aspx] Rick Burton and Norm O’Reilly accurately articulated an all-too-familiar sense of entitlement among today’s young adults. But that sense of privilege begins much earlier than college years.
As the article points out, their parents are “history’s most successful generation,” and many of those parents are sincerely determined to see that their offspring are never less than successful at any endeavor – academic, athletic, artistic, and others.
======================================
For some, it may be hard to believe but here’s a hard truth: Entitlement without hard work is a recipe for disaster.
Rick Burton (rhburton@syr.edu) is the David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and former commissioner of the Australian National Basketball League. Norm O’Reilly (norman.oreilly@uottawa.ca) is an associate professor of sport business at the University of Ottawa.
======================================
For those of us involved in youth sports, it becomes a real dilemma.
In Pop Warner, our rules prevent tryouts, cutting, and require mandatory play, yet, we’ve been forced to defend lawsuits that, at the most basic level, were filed due to playing time, or lack thereof.
Beyond the tremendous waste of our limited organizational resources defending lawsuits and the threat of suits, we often think of the values that the children are learning.
Instead of the positive values of team sports, they’re learning that Mom and Dad will fight their battles and will make any negative situation go away.
What a tremendous disservice to our children!
All of us learn that we win and we lose in life. I’m not a psychologist, but I believe that lesson is most easily and less painfully learned while young. Those of us in the youth sports world will continue to do our best to teach sports’ positive values.
As the article points out, their parents are “history’s most successful generation,” and many of those parents are sincerely determined to see that their offspring are never less than successful at any endeavor – academic, athletic, artistic, and others.
======================================
For some, it may be hard to believe but here’s a hard truth: Entitlement without hard work is a recipe for disaster.
Rick Burton (rhburton@syr.edu) is the David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University and former commissioner of the Australian National Basketball League. Norm O’Reilly (norman.oreilly@uottawa.ca) is an associate professor of sport business at the University of Ottawa.
======================================
For those of us involved in youth sports, it becomes a real dilemma.
In Pop Warner, our rules prevent tryouts, cutting, and require mandatory play, yet, we’ve been forced to defend lawsuits that, at the most basic level, were filed due to playing time, or lack thereof.
Beyond the tremendous waste of our limited organizational resources defending lawsuits and the threat of suits, we often think of the values that the children are learning.
Instead of the positive values of team sports, they’re learning that Mom and Dad will fight their battles and will make any negative situation go away.
What a tremendous disservice to our children!
All of us learn that we win and we lose in life. I’m not a psychologist, but I believe that lesson is most easily and less painfully learned while young. Those of us in the youth sports world will continue to do our best to teach sports’ positive values.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
It’s Not About Butterfly (or back, or breast, or free…..)
Coach (giving instructions to a group of above average ability 13-14 year olds): “The next set is nine 100’s of fly on 1:30, descending one through 3, 4 through 6, and 7 through 9. The purpose of this set is twofold: first, controlling your swims, and second, facing the challenge and beating it. We’re leaving on the next 60, get ready to go.”
Swimmer: “I suck at fly. It’s not my best event. Why do I even have to do this?”
Coach: “This is not about butterfly. It’s about your mind. It’s about mental toughness. It’s about learning how to deal with the very difficult. Swimming practice is not designed to be accommodating to what you like, it’s designed to be relevant to what you need, and at the top of the list of relevance is dealing with adversity and learning how to approach the seemingly impossible. This set is an unabashed challenge to your ability to tough it out. Get ready to go.”
However, the swimmer walks out of practice and later complains to her father who comes to the next practice and confronts the coach. “How does an impossible butterfly set help her breaststroke?” he demands.
What can happen? The coach can give the same answer to the father that he gave to the daughter and if the he buys into it, then we have a partnership – coach and father: the coach presents the challenges and the dad provides the emotional support to the child.
If the father doesn't buy it, the child will lose an opportunity to challenge themselves, convince themselves "I can" rather than "I can't", and the coach will recognize an athlete who is not ready to step up and "take a chance" yet, which is the first step to long term success."
Is there anything more important in this coaching and swimming endeavor than learning to deal with adversity? Are you giving your coach the authority, the freedom, support, and the blessings to prescribe workouts which enable the swimmer to develop resiliency?
Swimmer: “I suck at fly. It’s not my best event. Why do I even have to do this?”
Coach: “This is not about butterfly. It’s about your mind. It’s about mental toughness. It’s about learning how to deal with the very difficult. Swimming practice is not designed to be accommodating to what you like, it’s designed to be relevant to what you need, and at the top of the list of relevance is dealing with adversity and learning how to approach the seemingly impossible. This set is an unabashed challenge to your ability to tough it out. Get ready to go.”
However, the swimmer walks out of practice and later complains to her father who comes to the next practice and confronts the coach. “How does an impossible butterfly set help her breaststroke?” he demands.
What can happen? The coach can give the same answer to the father that he gave to the daughter and if the he buys into it, then we have a partnership – coach and father: the coach presents the challenges and the dad provides the emotional support to the child.
If the father doesn't buy it, the child will lose an opportunity to challenge themselves, convince themselves "I can" rather than "I can't", and the coach will recognize an athlete who is not ready to step up and "take a chance" yet, which is the first step to long term success."
Is there anything more important in this coaching and swimming endeavor than learning to deal with adversity? Are you giving your coach the authority, the freedom, support, and the blessings to prescribe workouts which enable the swimmer to develop resiliency?
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