Archive for Parenting
Sports Mom Field Trip – My Visit to Gatorade Headquarters
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Monday I was in Chicago at the Gatorade Headquarters with seven other amazing Sports Moms for an exclusive opportunity to learn about about how Gatorade fuels young athlete performance. As Moms, we are primarily the ones getting kids to and from practice and games, managing schedules, handling the emotions, and washing out the grass stains. We are also responsible for the care and feeding of our athletes and face it, when it comes down to knowing the nutritional and hydration needs of our athletes on game day as opposed to our own nutritional needs, we are really under educated.
Today I am just going to give you a quick overview of our day with the Gatorade team. I literally took PAGES of notes on the how, why and when of fueling our athletes, how Gatorade fits into that and my thoughts on the Gatorade products which I will be sharing with you in more detailed posts over the next few weeks. Be sure to like the Sports Girls Play Facebook page or follow Sports Girls Play on Twitter so you don’t miss a thing!
We started our day with introductions and breakfast with the President of Gatorade North America, Sarah Robb O’Hagan. Sarah is a sports mom of three, a runner and super smart business woman. We had a great time sharing our own backgrounds, including how many kids we each had, the sports they play and what our websites were.
Next we met with their marketing department and got background on the history of Gatorade and its branding. Basically Gatorade was developed in 1965 in an effort to help college football players at the University of Florida (thus Gator – ade) maintain athletic performance throughout practice and games (watch the history of Gatorade commercial on YouTube – love it!). In Gatorade’s early years they focused primarily on athletes – testing them, finding out what they needed from a sports drink and formulating Gatorade to help. As the sports drink market grew, Gatorade in their own words kind of “lost its way” – marketing itself broadly to the general consumer and as a result, sales stagnated. After all, Gatorade is formulated to aid the body in the preparation, during, and immediately after EXERCISE. Gatorade is not formulated as a drink you kick back and consume during a movie or as a replacement for water. In the past few years Gatorade has re-focused its efforts on athlete and education of the athlete’s core team – the coaches, trainers, and while they are young – the parents.
One of the new Gatorade print ads aimed at Sports Moms
Throughout the course of our sessions with the marketing team we shared our preconceived impressions of Gatorade. We shared with them how we do or don’t already use Gatorade in our kids’ daily lives. We asked them tough questions about High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS – which, oh by the way, Gatorade no longer has), sugar, dyes and not knowing which product would be good for our kids when, how much, and why. Gatorade was hoping for those types of questions from us and responded giving us the ability to ask our hard questions directly to the scientists and product developers.
At lunch we met with Wanda Pratt, the Mother of NBA rising star Kevin Durant. You can watch her video spot as part of the Gatorade Become campaign below:
Wanda’s presentation to us was very inspirational and I loved how she shared stories of her son’s younger days. I especially liked the one where he stormed out of practice because his coach gave him conditioning he didn’t like. He walked to his Grandmother’s house and by the time he got there the coach had already talked with Wanda who had talked with his Grandmother. The way the coach and the parent handled the situation was right-on the money and about an hour later – after his Grandmother mentioned something about how piano might be a good thing to take up – Kevin returned to practice – and did every one of the tasks coach had asked for.
She answered all our questions and reassured us that one day, our athletes would thank us for all our support and everything we have done for them in order for them to follow a dream.
We spent our afternoon in sessions with scientists from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI), where they have tested over 10,000 athletes! The majority of the scientists at GSSI are former athletes and coaches – like the two who did presentations for us – Lindsey Baker and Lisa Esposito. Lindsey has a Ph. D. in Exercise Physiology from Penn State and she knew her stuff! Wow! The sessions on Teen Athlete Insights and Nutritional Needs as well as the Science of Gatorade were fascinating and this is where I took the most notes. Even if you take Gatorade out of the equation, the information the scientists shared with us is VITAL stuff for coaches, athletes and parents! If you want your athlete to succeed, you have got to pay attention to what is going in their bodies. For example – how do you teach your athletes to determine if they are dehydrated or not?? Check back on a future post for this really easy way!
My Gatorade creation and other product samples
Finally we finished up the day in the sampling room. We made our own Gatorade flavors – like mine at the right, which is Char’s Cherry Berry Pomegranate Potion – and learned more about the research that goes into coming up with new Gatorade products. We learned about each of the various Gatorade product lines and who they really are for – like the new G Series FIT which is more for the older athlete (ahem, 40 something Moms) who work out but don’t need all the extra calories that a college soccer player may need. We tasted them all and told the team exactly how we felt about each product – trust me, there were some serious faces being made and the honesty was on the table!! We told them if we would buy them or not – I found two products that I was completely unaware of that are excellent solutions for two of my own athletes (more on that in a later post) and fell totally in LOVE with the Gatorade Natural line.
Speaking of the Gatorade Natural line, they are natural versions of the Gatorade Thirst Quencher line and low-calorie G2 that are made with all natural flavors, colors and ingredients! And they taste AMAZING. Unfortunately they are only available in certain markets and only through Whole Foods stores. If you want this line available in more areas and outlets, please let the Gatorade team know. All the moms in our group did!
Like I said, I took so many notes and have lots to share with you about sports nutrition and your kids over the next few weeks, so check back in. In the meantime, feel free to check in with the other Gatorade Sports Moms and read their accounts of the experience, too.
The Gatorade Sports Moms are: Char Polanosky from Sports Girls Play (that’s me) with 3 kids, Lorraine Williams from Track Mom with 1 daughter, Lori Falcon from My Wooden Spoon with 3 boys, Carmen Staicer from Mom to the Screaming Masses who has 6 kids, Lisa Douglas from Crazy Adventures in Parenting also with 6 kids, Kimberly Kauer from Tippy Toes and Tantrums with 2 kids, Alyssa Banko from Mommy Warriors who has 4 kids (two sets of twins!) and Stephanie Wagner from And Twins Makes 5 with 5 busy kids.
Disclosure: I’d like to thank Gatorade for this truly educational opportunity! Gatorade provided me with all my transportation to and from the event, my lovely stay at The Wit Hotel, my delicious meal at Spiaggia and some nice Sports Moms swag. However, all opinions and insights shared in this post are my own derived from the information provided to us and my own experience.
Its Never Too Late To Challenge Yourself
Posted by: | CommentsThis post is for all the sports moms out there that may have some how, some way managed to lose their own sports path and goals because they are so focused on helping their children achieve their goals and dreams!
I was an active kid and did a variety of sports. I ran cross country in high school and in college I did 5K, 8K and 10 mile races with friends for fun. And then something happened. I got married and started my own family, juggling the demands of running a busy house and running my own business. And somewhere in all of that craziness I forgot about me. I forgot that I love to play, compete and challenge myself.
As I entered my forties I decided it was time to find the athlete in me again! I took up golf and last year I set about learning how to run again. I made it my goal to run a 5K race this year – no matter how slow. And guess what I did?
Last weekend I completed my first 5K in twenty – count them – twenty, years! It was so much fun! We hung out with the Easter Bunny before the race and it was great to see Moms, Dads, teens, kids and little ones in strollers all out there to run together. I ran the race with a good friend – who like me, decided it was high time to find her inner athlete again. We didn’t care if were last (which we weren’t), we just wanted to run the whole thing. We finished the 3.1 miles in 40 minutes. Not lightning speed by any measure, but we accomplished our goal and that was the best part.
And as an added bonus, I think I have now got my 14 year old son hooked!! He ran the 5K race too – it was his first one and he finished it in a blazing (compared to us) 23 minutes. Not too shabby for the first one! When I asked him how it went at the end, he simply asked, “When can we do that again?” COOL!! So, I think we are going to run another race in June.
I know its hard to carve out time for you when you are shuttling kids back and forth to practice, going to competitions, and still trying to keep the household moving, but you have to do it. Be creative. Make the time and give yourself a challenge. The rewards are HUGE! Not only will you feel amazing, you set the most important example for your kids that you possibly can!
So, what’s your challenge and how are you going to go about achieving it?
Sports Parenting – Keep An Open Mind and Keep It Real
Posted by: | CommentsA post on Playing to Win called Brains vs. Beauty: Considering Kids’ Participation in Beauty Pageants, Chess, and Football got me thinking this morning. As I started to leave a comment on the post, I realized I was going to say so much that I might as well just write it as a post here at Sports Girls Play.
As the parent of three kids (14, 12 and 9) – all of whom have different talents – I can tell your best laid parenting plans often get changed once you have kids and are in the thick of raising them! I would have never envisioned my kids being where they are today in sports, but I’m glad they are and am proud of each one of them!
As a young child my son was not athletic, confident or really interested in group activities – he would have rather read a stack of books or played cars all day. We tried soccer – he did the season, but wasn’t really in to it. We tried t-ball. Can we say bored out of his mind? Then we gave him ice skating lessons. He took to it – but on his own terms at his own pace. After a year of lessons he was ready to play ice hockey in the recreational league. He played seven years of house league ice hockey and really enjoyed it. He wasn’t interested in the travel league and it wasn’t until he was about 13 that he really started to get the confidence to be a leader on the team. And then they closed the ice rink!!
Faced with the realization that the only sport he had enjoyed was no longer an option, we convinced him to try summer league swimming. Again, he didn’t love it, but stuck with it and slowly improved. He joined the year round team and the longer he stuck with it the more he began to embrace it. He grew 13 inches in middle school so now at age 14 he is 6′ 1″ tall and is able to really use that height to his advantage in the pool. As a result of his swimming experience he was able to try out, make and then score points every meet for his High School Swim Team – an opportunity he would not have had, had they not closed the ice rink. If you would have asked me 10 years ago what sport I thought my son would play in High School, I would have laughed and said, “none.” Instead he has developed the confidence to take on new challenges like the JROTC Raider program. The Raider team trains for and does competitions that include a run, push ups, sit ups, orienteering, rope bridge building, first aid and more. Again, would I have ever guessed this is what he wanted to do? Nope!
My second child, a girl, was destined to be a gymnast in one respect or another. After all, with me being a gymnastics coach, Miss M was always at the gym. She did classes and then went on the developmental team. She loved it and always wanted to do what the big girls were doing. However, as she got old enough to compete, she didn’t seem to be enjoying it as much – she was moderately successful but didn’t have the natural strength that so many of her teammates had. She decided to try swimming competitively while still doing gymnastics to see if she liked it. In her mind, swimming would be so easy – you know, she was a gymnast. Miss M swam but wasn’t passionate about it and meanwhile her days at the gym were becoming more and more unhappy as skills got harder, scarier, and she was trying to figure out if she liked having her Mom in the gym coaching her.
The gym was all she really knew and I think she thought I expected her to be an elite gymnast. So much of her identity as a child was wrapped up in the fact that she was a gymnast and that made it hard to make the decision to quit. But they day she finally quit gymnastics I think a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders and she came to the realization that life goes on and we all still loved her the same – gym or no gym. She finished the season swimming and took a break from gym. By May she came to me and said that she really missed gymnastics and really didn’t like swimming, so could she go back to the gym. This time it was all her – she returned on her own terms and joined the All Star team (and was no longer coached by me). The All Star team was not as intense as the track she had been on before and it allowed her to tailor her routines to highlight her strengths and gave her time to work through some fears while still being able to compete. By December of this year, she was begging me and trying to cut a deal with me to let her add another day to her gymnastics schedule. She has had a very successful season – but it is because she wants it and does gymnastics for herself now. I don’t expect her to stick with gymnastics the rest of her school years, but it works for her now.
And then we have my youngest daughter. By the time she was three it was more than obvious to me that she was going to be way too tall to be a gymnast – not to mention that she was afraid of everything at the gym. Things her sister was doing at 3, she would not even entertain! The one thing I noticed was that Miss N loved being in water. I signed her up for swim lessons and she took to it right away – as long as her face was not in the water. She saw some kids about her age swimming in the other pool and wanted to know what their kickboards were, why they wore swim caps, etc. I explained to her that they were on the swim team and what it was all about. The summer of her sixth year she decided to do the summer swim team. It was a drama filled summer – full of nerves, tears and determination, but by the end of the summer it was pretty obvious to me, that she was right where she belonged.
Over the next few years she swam year round. It became more and more apparent that Miss N is an intense child expecting nothing but perfection in herself. She wanted to win her races and you could see it in her body language and the way she competed. But it wasn’t just at swim – it was showing up in school, at home and with friends. She is intense in everything she does – and puts an amazing amount of pressure on herself. She has been very successful in the pool but we have really had to work on the emotion aspect of the sport and trying to teach her how to manage nerves, her goals and how to handle it when she does not achieve her personal goals. (The benefit – the lessons she is learning from sports are helping her deal with her emotions and perfectionism in all aspects of her little life.)
This spring I decided she needed a change of pace and she is trying something totally different – field hockey. It has been really good for her to be the new one, be part of a team and get some good cross training in. Trying another sport has also helped take some of the pressure off, and at the same time it has helped her realize that she really does love swimming. She has already told me that she is going to play field hockey again next spring, but is getting excited about summer swim meets.
As parents, I think we have to be willing to help our children navigate their own destinies by gently guiding them towards the activities where they will not only enjoy but also flourish. Sports are an essential part of childhood development, however, they are not the end all. Whether your child enjoys sports, academic challenges or beauty pageants, it is our job to support our children, not live our own dreams through them, and to help them “keep it REAL.”
