Video: Give Me A “D” for Dad’s Involvement
By · CommentsWhile doing some research for an upcoming writing assignment I found one of my all time favorite youth sports videos at Mark Hyman’s Youth Sports Parenting site. I. LOVE. THIS. VIDEO! Yes, its been around a while, but this PSA ad put out a few years ago spotlights the importance of Dad’s involvement in the development of their childrens’ self esteem. Enjoy.
From the Ad Council:
More than 79% of Americans feel “the most significant family or social problem facing America is the physical absence of the father from the home.” Research shows that the lack of a father in the home correlates closely with crime, educational and emotional problems, teenage pregnancy, and drug and alcohol abuse.
In an effort to show dads the critical role they play in their children’s lives, the Ad Council has partnered with the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse and volunteer ad agency Campbell-Ewald to create a new PSA campaign that communicates to fathers that their presence is essential to their children’s well-being. The campaign provides fathers with the information they need to become better dads.
Now if this doesn’t give you something to cheer about today, I don’t know what will.
According to a tweet a few minutes ago from Universal Sports, Olympic Gold Medal winning gymnast Nastia Liukin is officially dating Evan Lysacek, the newly crowned Olympic mens ice skating champion.
Seen here at the ESPY awards, Nastia and Evan have been dating since last summer, but word is that its now official. They do make a very striking couple!
Making Workouts Fun – One Skittle at a Time
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One of the biggest challenges coaches face, especially when training young athletes, is finding ways to make the repetitive nature of a workout fun. Whether it is swimming laps, perfecting beam routines, practicing free throw drills or doing intervals, every sport has its fundamentals that must be done over and over in order to learn and master the skills needed for success.
I frequently use a variety of techniques for keeping my gymnasts motivated and having fun – like creating a “lemonade lounge” for a reward zone during conditioning, rewarding them with jumps on trampoline for performing a routine successfully, or occasionally letting them take turns being “coach” during conditioning. And sometimes we get out a bag of Skittles, smarties, or other little treat and use those as incentives to master a correction a little quicker.
My daughter’s swim coaches use Skittles in a different way. They use them as a code for what stroke the kids practice next. Each swimmer gets a skittle and then checks the white board for the color coded key. The coaches mix it up each time they play the game – sometimes one color is a dramatically more difficult task than another, but the kids still love it. They quickly eat their skittle, then jump in the water to perform the task assigned to the skittle they just ate. As soon as the task is accomplished, they are back for another one. It is definitely one of my daughter’s favorite training games.
While I have outlined how the swim coaches play the Skittle game, you can certainly adapt this game for ANY sport (or even kids chores around the house for that matter) and make it a fun addition to your athletes’ training.
