CHILL Manager Blog: Real World Sportsmanship: CHILL Manager

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The Essence of Sport, Diana Nyad Style

Photo of Diana Nyad, courtesy of www.kcrw.com

"I have three messages: one is we should never ever give up; two is you are never too old to chase your dreams; and three is it looks like a solitary sport but it takes a team.”

I’m not a swimmer. In fact, if there are two sports I never took to and have no desire to start, it’s swimming and running. Most certainly, it’s because my attention span isn’t what it needs to be in order to sustain either of those. In other words, I’m kind of a wimp.

Which is what makes Diana Nyad’s historic swim so awe-inspiring to me. Here’s a woman who, at 64 years old, isn’t anywhere close to winding down (although, she might deserve a little breather now…). This was her fifth and final attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida; her first attempt was when she was 29. Her last fourattempts have been since she’s been 60.

It's not her age, but her words (no doubt crafted over the hours she spent in the dark water, rotating one arm in front of the other and fluttering her legs over and over) that we should pay the close attention to.

Never ever give up. As a parent whose kids play sports, this is one of the lessons I want them to learn. So what if you aren’t the best or the quickest or the most talented? That’s not the point. The point is to keep trying, in spite of setbacks and frustrations. Now I can add, “And it’s not like you got stung by a jellyfish in your mouth like Diana Nyad” in order to further reinforce that message.

You are never too old to chase your dreams. Kids might not understand that lesson right now, but as adults, we can. She’s not just sharing wisdom about sports. She’s reminding all of us, even if we aren’t athletes, that we can dream of something and set about achieving it. Become a writer, become a singer, change careers, pursue a passion, find those things that will make your life an authentic representation of who you believe yourself to be. Chase. Your. Dreams. Surely, whatever it is you want to do will seem a lot easier than plunging your face into cold, dark salt water thousands and thousands of times and wondering if your shark spotters have managed to stay awake.

It looks like a solitary sport, but it takes a team. I suspect Diana was referring specifically to swimming, but we can consider this lesson in broader terms. Sometimes, we think we’re alone in this life—that our struggles are ours alone and that our failures are debilitating and shameful. We turn away from help and we shy away from helping others. But one of the most important concepts to take away from sports as a metaphor for life is that we’re interconnected and interdependent. Diana had an entire team of people on her exhibition. Those people weren’t allowed to provide physical support (like, hold her up), nor was she allowed to touch the boats. But they navigated and swept for predators and monitored her. Isn’t that what life’s “game” is about? Finding a team of friends and/or family to help you search your way in the dark, keep an eye out for bad people and situations, and check in with you to make sure you’re okay.

When I think about swimming, I become very conscious about every breath—even though I’m nowhere near water. Having watched Diana Nyad’s dream come to fruition and hearing her words about sport and life, I think (maybe) I can breathe a little easier now.

For more information about Diana Nyad’s amazing journey:

http://diananyad.com

http://swimswam.com/diana-nyad-completes-110-mile-swim-cuba-key-west-florida-just-52-hours/

Sports and the Tsarnaev brothers: Their backgrounds and their target

AP/FBI

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2013 - As details emerged about the Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokar, in the last week, two particular ones seemed atypical of other domestic terrorists—their involvement in sports and their focus on a sporting event.

According to numerous sources close to the family, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an accomplished amateur boxer, “fighting in a Golden Gloves Tournament in Salt Lake City and sparring in local gyms around the Boston area.”

How much does a trashed hotel room really cost?

Credit: J. Meric/IMG Academy

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2013 - In February, 2013, over 300 NFL draft hopefuls converged on Indianapolis to perform

for the biggest job interviews of their young lives. They ran, jumped, threw, lifted weights, and showed their tenacity and skill.

A couple of them may have also excelled in the age-old skill of acting like spoiled brats. Reports are out that a hotel room used by two players was trashed while they were there...CONTINUE READING

Gay athletes: 3 possible outcomes of coming out

Despite the craziness of March Madness basketball

, swirling around sports bars and basements, one decidedly different story is making itself known: A current NFL player is now considering coming out.

Prior to the Super Bowl, former NFL player Kwame Harris was publicly outed after having a physical altercation with a former boyfriend. Harris ignited some backlash from other players, most notably 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver, who reportedly said, “I don’t do the gay guys, man. I don’t do that.” (Culliver has since volunteered at the Trevor Project, a crisis intervention program for LBGTQ youth.)

Although it’s not yet known if Harris’ situation prompted the current player, whose identity is still unknown to media outlets and the public, to begin discussions about coming out, the fact that he might be close is causing discourse in the sports

world.

So what happens if gay athletes decide to stop hiding their sexuality? There are three possible scenarios that may occur...CONTINUE READING

Three sportsmanship tip(offs) from a weekend of basketball

FGCU's Sherwood Brown and teammates
Credit: AP Florida/Michael Perez

Over the weekend, there was about as much basketball as one could hope to watch. Not only was March Madness on up to four channels at once, but our local high school

played in the Minnesota state championship. As a transplanted Hoosier, I was in heaven.

It was a weekend of listening to squeaky shoes and watching for examples of sportsmanship. Following are three take-aways from the basketball-full weekend:

1. Drawing attention to sportsmanship issues really does work. On Saturday morning, many hours before the Apple Valley High School

basketball team took on Park

Center at the Target Center, a Facebook post mentioned that at Thursday’s qualifier, our students turned their backs when the opposing team was announced.

Almost immediately... Continue reading...

Four reasons we might be to blame for the Steubenville rape

WASHINGTON, DC, March 19, 2013 - On St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday known best for its green beer and corned beef sandwiches, two teenage football players from Steubenville, Ohio were convicted of raping a teenage girl from West Virginia last summer while she was drunk.

The repercussions of these two guilty verdicts shed four unwelcomed lights on how our society is getting it wrong when it comes to preventing violence of this type.

1. We promote aggression and objectification. Kids are exposed to... READ MORE...

Abuse in youth sports: Words CAN hurt you

The coach’s spit flew into his seven-year-old victims face: “You’re not tough enough to play football! You’re a pussy! You’ll never amount to anything! Get out of here and don’t bother coming back!”

The young boy had been quietly standing outside a fence watching his former team practice. He quit the team a few days before because the coach constantly yelled at him (and other kids), but wandered back over to the field just to watch, since that’s where all his friends were.

When the coach spied him, he stopped practice and unleashed the words that would change the boy’s life forever.

It was 1973 and the boy, James T., lived on a military base in Germany because his dad was a military contractor. The team he wanted to be part of, but very soon didn’t, was run by young recruits determined to whip those kids (ages 6-8) into shape.

After all, it was how they, as recruits, been whipped into shape at boot camp.

Abuse isn’t new to sports but the recent high-profile sexual abuse stories have dominated our thinking about it. Unfortunately, in some regions and in certain sports, verbal abuse is seen as commonplace and even a desired way of coaching. In others, it’s seen as the lesser evil type of abuse.

The Women’s Sports Foundation has determined its position on abuse in sports.

An excerpt:

“Any type of abuse has debilitating consequences both for its victims and for the society as a whole. In the context of athletic programs it lowers the self-esteem and limits the ability of participants to develop their full potential in sports and physical activities. It impairs the future capacity of its victims to experience full athletic participation and to pursue employment and leadership roles in athletics.

This, in turn, deprives the society as a whole of the contributions of these individuals and damages a genuine appreciation of participant’s athletic achievements and contributions.”

Further, the Foundation defines verbal abuse like this:

“Verbal Abuse – The most commonly occurring type of abuse in sports includes 1) name calling, 2) hurtful comments regarding performance, 3) swearing at players or game officials and 4) comments meant to demean a person’s integrity.”

Source

It should come as no surprise that verbal abuse perpetrated against young athletes can have long-term, devastating effects. According to Patricia Evans, author of The Verbally Abusive Relationship and Victory Over Verbal Abuse, “No one is more influenced by verbal abuse than a child. The negative impact of verbal abuse on children cannot be measured. Certainly some children succeed who were verbally abused in childhood but are they better people?”

And that “typical” coach screaming? Not necessary, according to one source in the rugby world.

In his article, “Verbal Abuse in Sports,” Tim Goodenough, Mental Toughness Specialist for RugbyIQ.com, writes:

“Why screaming sessions mostly don’t work is that the verbal attacks are commenting on the value of the individual, and not their behavior, they are personal and not about the group. The experience of hearing abuse from a trusted source – the coach – in front of the team, is negative enough to not support the player learning anything, other than to not want to have that experience again.”

“Screaming as a style breaks down relationships, a key component in high performance. Fear – often the result of a scream - is a very short-term motivator. Fear can be effective for brief moments of time however over the longer term fear is very seldom effective for high performance. (If ever – I haven’t met an athlete yet who performs at their best by experiencing strong fear).”

James is a case study for how early trauma related to sports can shape a person’s entire life. Now in his mid-forties and a successful professional in the Midwest, James is built like a swimmer and will admit that swimming and running are the only sports in which he truly likes participating. “I was never on a team, though. I never wanted to be. I didn’t want to be the last kid chosen, the fat kid, or the kid who was called out for not being good enough.”

In a society where men are often judged for their ability to be athletes and to talk sports, James shies away from as much of it as possible. “I can hold my own if I have to with clients,” he says of having to converse on sports. “But I don’t buy-in to the importance of sports for kids. Physical activity, yes. But not team sports.”

Four decades later, the abuse James suffered is still painful and evident. And his decision to stay out of sports seems more like a defense mechanism than a true choice. Given his height and build, one wonders if he would have made a good outfielder or forward. Maybe he would have enjoyed coaching.

Maybe his own son would be involved in sports.

James has never been on a team that worked hard to make a play happen, bummed out over a loss, or learned from a compassionate coach who grew men and not just athletes. He never heard his parents cheer him on from the sidelines or felt his friends pat him on the back for making a save.

And he won’t.

All because one coach, forty years ago, abused him so intensely and publicly that he eschewed sports forever.

Organized youth sports are touted as great places for kids to learn teamwork, responsibility, accountability, and the importance of physical activity. But for some kids, sports are places where they suffer abuse, verbal or otherwise, at the hand of trusted adults, sometimes with the complicity of parents who are as invested in winning as the coaches are.

Experts in the fields of child and sports psychology encourage parents and coaches to make sure kids aren’t treated in a way that, off the team or in general, would be considered abusive. Otherwise, sports will be more detrimental to a child’s self-esteem and future participation in physical activity than not playing organized sports at all.

For more information on how parents can stop verbal abuse in sports, go to www.chillmanager.org.

Denny Hamlin: Crosses NASCAR’s line and earns $25,000 fine

Denny Hamlin
Source: Justin Edmonds/Getty Images North America

In racing news, Denny Hamlin, the 32-year old American NASCAR racer considered a superstar by many racing fans, made a mistake last weekend. No, he didn’t tap the brakes, bump a competitor or pass on a yellow flag. Instead, he answered honestly when asked about the new Generation 6 car

, the sport’s next greatest thing.

“I don’t want to be the pessimist,” Hamlin said about his #11 Toyota said after the Phoenix race, “but it did not race as good as our Generation-5 cars

. This is more like what the Generation-5 was at the beginning. The teams hadn’t figured out how to get the aero balance right. Right now, you just run single file, and you cannot get around the guy in front of you.”

Later, he also said, “I hate to be ‘Denny-downer,’ but I just didn’t pass that many cars today. That’s the realistic fact of it.”

NASCAR officials used the nebulous Section 12-1 prohibiting “actions detrimental to stock

car racing” to justify Hamlin’s fine. Although they didn’t reveal exactly which of Hamlin’s words violated the rule, it’s clear they feel he did something wrong. $25,000 worth of something, to be exact.

On the surface, Hamlin’s remarks could be compared to a football player saying, “I don’t think these new helmets fit right yet.” Or, a golfer saying, “These new graphite shafts don’t allow for as much distance off the tee.”

The NASCAR car is integral to the sport, a piece of equipment that not only defines the endeavor, but also has a great deal to do with determining an outcome. But just like an athlete still needs to be a good football player or golfer to succeed, a driver still has to be a good driver regardless of what car he’s driving. Hamlin’s stats indicate that he is a top-notch driver.

But what’s under the surface of all this drama over what seems like a minor criticism of new equipment? Chris Riley, a Michigan native and NASCAR fan for over 30 years, thinks he knows: “Anybody that’s been watching NASCAR for any length of time can tell you that the new car

isn’t racing very well yet.

“I’m sure it will eventually, but for now it needs work. NASCAR as a sanctioning body is very protective of its ‘brand.’ They’ve suffered some losses in spectator gate and television revenues over the last few years and they basically have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy about anybody that criticizes the on-track product or the sanctioning body itself.”

Another NASCAR fan, Craig Hassis, who lives in California and follows the sport closely, said, “I understand protecting the business. I just don’t agree on their [NASCAR’s] selective nature on who gets fined and why. Other drivers have said the racing and the cars need work, too”

Maybe not so publicly, though.

Imbalanced relationships, whether they are between partners, friends, employers

/employees, or coaches/mentees, are far more detrimental than the perceived loss of power a more equalized relationship would create.

The CHILL Manager program, a sportsmanship education and training system, identifies bullying as a direct cause of poor sportsmanship (entities attempting to maintain control) and also one of the most damaging effects of it (trickle-down abuse, unhealthy cultural norms, declining sport/activity participation).

In this case, by citing Hamlin for poor sportsmanship, NASCAR’s system of damage- and reputation-control appears to have had the opposite effect. Rather than keeping Hamlin on-script, the fine has galvanized at least one driver (Hamlin) to publicly buck the system.

From Hamlin’s Twitter feed: “…I believe the simple fact of us not even having a conversation about this issue before I was hit with a fine has something to say about our relationship….I am a person that worked very hard from the BOTTOM to get where I am today and someone telling me that I can[‘t] [sic] give my 100 percent honest opinion really bothers me….

“I feel as if today NASCAR lost one of its biggest supporters vocally of where our sport is headed. So in the end there are no winners. I said today I would not pay the fine. I stand by that and will go through the process of appealing. Trust me, this is not about the money

…It’s much deeper.”

So what came first? Did “bullying” by the organization (to keep mum about the Gen 6’s current limitations) cause Hamlin’s poor sportsmanship or did Hamlin’s attempt to control his freedom of expression cause NASCAR’s?

Sportsmanship in the real world includes honor among teammates, respect for coaches and mentors and respect for opponents. Sportsmanship is about creating and maintaining a positive relationship between all participants in a sport. But no organization is immune from poor sportsmanship, and ultimately bullying, from the top down, especially if no one challenges the negativity.

At least one thing Hamlin said holds a universal truth. This goes much deeper than a mildly critical statement about a brand new product (Windows 8, anyone?). This situation speaks to an imbalance in a sport that relies on balance to succeed.

What are your thoughts about the Hamlin fine? Leave your comments below.

Flacco’s $120.6M deal perpetuates unrealistic fable

The U.S. is in a time of budget cuts, reduced social services, and high unemployment. Some professional athletes aren’t feeling that hurt, however, as evidenced by quarterback Joe Flacco’s $120.6/six year deal with the Baltimore Ravens.

By Keith Allison (originally posted to Flickr as Joe Flacco)
[CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

Or are they?

According to Billy Corben’s 2012 documentary, 30 for 30: Broke, professional athletes are burning through their money faster than they can earn it. The film cites a Sports Illustrated report that revealed that 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are financially stressed after two years of retirement. Given that the average NFLcareer lasts just under three and a half years, that’s a wide swing from nothing, to everything, to nothing again in a short period of time.

The NBA isn’t much better. According to the same SI report, 60% of former NBA players are broke within five years of retirement.

One thing that lures kids and their parents into chasing the holy grail of sports is the hope of fortune. Who wouldn’t want a chance to score several or a hundred million dollars for a few years of work? It sounds like a dream come true, almost like winning the lottery. In fact, professional athletes who receive enormous contracts are often compared to lottery winners because of their quick and excessive spending.

True, the chances of winning a big-money lottery are lower than cashing in on a spectacular sports career, but not by a number that means very much. Each year, though, kids set their sights on being pro ball players and their parents do, too. According to the NCAA, in 2012 there were approximately 308,000 high school seniors playing football. From that pool, there were just over 17,000 NCAA freshman positions. Of that group, each year only 250-260 college athletes are drafted into the NFL. That gives a high school football player a .0008% chance of going pro.

Let’s say the high schooler is still completely convinced of his ability to play pro football. The average NFL salary is about $1.9 million a year. That’s the average, though. When you add in salaries like Joe Flacco’s new deal, that means a lot of guys are making a lot less than the average.

Despite the reality that most professional athletes make far less than we’re led to believe through commercials and lifestyles, families are still willing to sacrifice everything to get that ultimate paycheck.

Often, families hire trainers, send their kids to exclusive camps, buy them the best equipment, and otherwise pay for the chance to make it in the big show.

However, as Billy Corben’s film shows, that ultimate paycheck is a fable for all but a handful of players. Not only does the income potential not last long, because of injuries and sports politics, but many professional athletes are unprepared for instant millionaire status and tend to spend unwisely, ultimately leading to the high number of bankruptcies cited by Sports Illustrated. By offering contracts like Flacco’s, sports franchises are sending out a siren song to kids who would be better served by studying and choosing a career with more longevity.

Now would be a great time for parents to save money on personal trainers. Instead, they can focus their kids on long-term academic achievement over long-shot Hail Marys. In the end, kids’ expectations of themselves will be more realistic and they will have a great chance of success in their (second) favorite career.

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Frustrated hockey player takes it out on his community

In Farmington, Minnesota, a Twin Cities suburb that still straddles the line between bedroom community and farmland, residents love their town and their sports teams.

A late-game surprise during the February 12th high school hockey game, though, showed something different -- something that points out the fragile relationship between a community and its high school sports "heroes." One of Farmington's goalies decided he was fed up with his coaches and didn't care who knew it.

Here's what happened:
The Farmington goalie deliberately scored a goal against his own team, tying the game. Then, he removed his glove, flipped off his coaching staff, and saluted the parents and fans. Finally, he took himself out of the game and went to the locker room. Watch the video --

At first (and probably last) glance, the goalie was just plain wrong to express his pent-up frustration the way he did. Flipping off your coach in public, causing your team to lose, and quitting the team on senior night are about as unsportsmanlike as it gets. The only thing that could have made it worse was if someone had gotten physically hurt, too.

But I can't help but wonder about the story before that story. What caused him to snap? According to a post the goalie made on Facebook, here's what he believed:

"They played this sophomore goalie for the starter, he was terrible, I would try and talk to the coaches about this and tell them I want playing time but they never really listen to me or gave me a chance to show them that I'm a better goalie but still wouldn't trust me so I had it it with I asked a few of my players if they care if I did it and they didn't care they thought it would be funny so at the third period they dumped it in I stopped it put in my net started to skate off then flicked the coaches not the team the coaches then I saluted them then got off.

My hockey season is over. I did it for myself. [Like my status] if you think the coaches should quit:)"

So was this a situation where the parents and coaches were WAAC-ed out (wanting to win at all costs) and a player got lost in the quest? Or was this a situation in which the player wasn't a "team" player and was only looking out for himself? Is it possible it was a little bit of both?

Part of the problem with emphasizing competitive sports too much is that kids' expectations, like ours, become unrealistic. Clearly the Farmington goalie thought he was better than the sophomore goalie who got more playing time. His coaches didn't. Was he too confident or were they blind? At this point, no one knows. The coaches may have thought it was more important to try to win games earlier in the season than to give a senior the opportunity to finish out his high school career with more game time. (He was in the game when this all happened, though, so they must have decided that playing a senior on senior night was the appropriate thing to do.)

Somewhere along the line there was a breakdown in both communication and intention. And I'm betting it didn't start February 12th, 2013 or even February 12th, 2012. I'm betting it happened much earlier, probably when the goalie was playing in his first Squirt games.

In Minnesota, high school hockey coaches are usually very involved in their towns' youth hockey programs. From 3rd grade on, coaches know who the good skaters are, who are middling, and who aren't that good at all. Tryouts are really only for the handful of kids who might have improved over the summer. As a former hockey parent myself, I have no doubt that the teams are formed, not on the ice, but around a beer or soda. Every hockey parent out there has a story of how a player bombed tryouts because of an injury and he made the A team anyway. Or the kid who busted his butt all summer long, spent countless hours at a rink during the best months in Minnesota, still only making the C team because another kid's dad could coach the B team if his kid was on it.

For the Farmington goalie to still be playing hockey as a senior, he must have been told that he was good at some point -- either by his coaches or his parents. Otherwise, he would have been cut before now. So it's no wonder he was pissed that he wasn't getting playing time and a kid who hadn't put in the time he had was starting in front of him. He felt entitled to that playing time; he felt he deserved that playing time.

However, the coaching staff, who had probably known him for seven or eight years, had some reason to allot playing time the way they did. They're paid to coach; winning games is a good way to keep that job.

I tried to contact the goalie but didn't get a response. So we don't know how far back the problems went. But a frustrating situation, created by expectation and hubris, set into motion the events that eventually caused the unsportsmanlike conduct on February 12th.

What do you think?

I'd love to hear from the coaches or anyone else involved with this. If you know someone who knows someone who might want to email me, please pass this along.

I can be reached via the website at www.chillmanager.org. Thanks!

Pistorius: Sprinting into his own Shakespearean Tragedy

Perhaps you've heard of Oscar Pistorius, the South African runner? Currently, he's infamous for shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Steenkamp and Pistorius

Last summer, he was famous for being the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics.

Prior to that, he was known for creating a worldwide discussion about the advantages and disadvantages held by athletes who are forced, usually by tragic circumstances, to use prosthetics in order to compete.

Pistorius

And it is an interesting question, in these times of ever-evolving polymers and metal alloys. Technology has finally given us the ability to enhance athletic performance in the physically challenged and has also blurred the line between able-bodied and para-competitions. So should all athletes, regardless of race, religion, country, gender, or number of limbs be allowed to compete in the same contests?

Ok, I'm not actually going to answer that because I'm not sure either.

Anyway, back to Pistorius.

In an article written for ABCnew.com by Bazi Kanani, I found this quote from his father quite telling:

Pistorius' father was quoted overnight in the South African paper The Sunday Times saying his countrymen are destroying a national icon.

"There is something fundamentally wrong with our society," Henke Pistorius said. "We build people up into heroes, who overcome immense challenges, only to take great glee in breaking them down."

Isn't that the truth? As consumers of sports, we build up these national icons, adore them, idolize them, aspire to be them, support them with our hard-earned dollars...then, when they turn out to be human after all, we delight in the next act in the show: the downfall.

Much like a Shakespearean Tragedy, our protagonists (athletes) are faced with a paradox -- how far will they go to maintain their status, and will hubris eventually ruin them? Is it possible to stay "on top" without sacrificing integrity?

Shakespeare: the man who understood men

Unfortunately, Pistorius is the next installment of Shakespeare meets 21st Century Celebrithetes. Whether or not he's guilty of murder isn't the point today. The point is that Pistorius has, indeed, been crowned and then dethroned.

It's a story that has played out for centuries and will play out for centuries more, or for at least as long as we make heroes out of mortals and, even more quickly, make mortals out of heroes.

Lessons from Dominican Little League

The Caribbean Sea, seen from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominica.

When I first sat down to write this post, it was destined to be a feel-good, "look at these kids playing for the love of the sport" piece. A big ol' smiley face piece. An "Awww" piece. A "I wish our kids could value their opportunities a little more..." piece.

Then I did some more research and looked a little closer at my assumptions. Dominican kids don't have less pressure to succeed at baseball, as the Saturday afternoon, semi-organized games I witnessed would suggest. They have infinitely more.

Baseball came to the Dominican Republic in the late 1800s, brought by Cubans (the first Caribbean baseball powerhouse) who were fleeing their war-torn country. Almost immediately, it became a hit. Teams were formed, then leagues, then major leagues, then a professional league, then academies, training centers, scouting stadiums...Baseball is considered the national pastime of the Dominican Republic and a lot of outside money comes into the country because of it.

Yet, due to economical strife caused by their last dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, most of the population is desperately poor.

A (hopefully) uninhabited home

According to the Dominican Prospect League's home page, "From the time they are little, Dominican boys are enticed by the dream of a professional career in baseball. Many perceive this as their only opportunity to escape a life of poverty."

According to our guide, running water is spotty, even in the capitol city of Santo Domingo.
We saw dozens of shops and homes with garbage piled on the roofs or thrown in the streets.

Our kids, here in the U.S. (for the most part), aren't trying to escape a life of poverty; they're trying to attain a life of luxury. That difference in motivation means that the Dominican kids who want to succeed at baseball have more to lose by missing the limelight than the U.S. kids who have to settle for college, community college, or post-high school jobs if they don't become the next Babe Ruth. Dominican kids who don't make it have far fewer options for schooling and far fewer opportunities for work outside the tourist industry (the number one industry in the Dominican).

The desperation that comes from wanting to flee poverty is one that drives kids, families, and those who can profit off of them to do whatever it takes. The focus isn't on winning games and collecting medals and trophies, like it is here. Frankly, from what I saw, medals and trophies would seem to be a luxury not worth having. The focus instead is on becoming the best technical player one can be. That's the way to success. Well, that a willingness to sacrifice youth, education, and money for a shot.

In a fascinating ESPN article, "It's not all sun and games," authors Jorge Arangure Jr. and Luke Cyphers explore the reality that is Dominican little league. In it, they reveal the Dominicans' secrets to cultivating youth players.

.... Of course, one reason Dominican kids are so skilled is that they play few games. Unlike topflight American youth baseball, which emphasizes dozens of organized games a year, Dominican training is based on solitary repetition. "I don't know if they know baseball," one U.S. scout says of the trainers, "but they know how to coach them for the showcases."

Guzmán's charges drill seven hours a day -- five hours on hitting alone, up to 400 swings. "Just like the big leagues, scouts want big, strong guys who hit the ball out of the park," says Astin Jacobo Jr., a New Yorker who built an academy in San Pedro on an old sugarcane field eight years ago and now has 27 alumni currently in pro ball, including his son, Astin III. "It trickles down."

Something else trickles down too: a lack of regard for education. Most of these boys don't attend school. Dominican kids and families rolling the dice on baseball are making an economic decision. The United Nations says the Dominican government spends just 2.3% of its gross domestic product on education, ranking 121st in the world, behind Rwanda, the Philippines and Kazakhstan (the U.S. ranks 38th, at 5.7%).

Two of several baseball fields we saw that day. Notice the lack of infield, lines, bases, and grass.
Although the blowing trash was mostly absent from this particular field, others were littered with the offings of multiple days and households -- wrappers, bottles, diapers, and papers.

In the Dominican Republic, families are doing the exact opposite of what I wish we could achieve here. They're wagering all they have on the physique of a pre-teen, eschewing school and trade training, and creating situations in which an entire family's future is impacted by the achievement or failure of a young athlete.

Despite the fact that this blog is about promoting good sportsmanship and appropriate attitudes with regards to youth sports, I understand that those issues are almost uniquely American. Seeing the Dominican little league players out on a scorching day, working their butts off, was inspiring but they're doing it because they feel they have no other choice, not just because they love baseball.

We are lucky to have choices and lucky that we don't have to depend on sports to make or break our families.

Just a little perspective for today...

CHILL Manager Blog: Real World Sportsmanship

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