Remember the Fun
As we begin the new year, it is an exciting time for everyone. In the recreation business, we finalize the coming year’s master calendar that contains all of the programs, tournaments, and special events that we will have a role in for 2008. Coaches, parents, and young people look forward with great anticipation to continuing the soccer and basketball seasons, the start of the rapidly approaching baseball and softball seasons, and even begin to plan for next fall’s football season.
For recreation employees, it sometimes seems as if we don’t finish one event, program or tournament before it’s on to the next. As the parent and/or coach of a child who plays sports, it may seem the same, particularly if you’ve been doing it for a number of years. My advice to everyone involved, including myself, is to remember that it’s supposed to be fun.
I’ve found a great way to remind myself of that. Behind City Hall in Ridgeland, we have practice fields, and they are typically used by the youngest age groups who play soccer, baseball, and softball. I watch those tricycle motors run around and into each other for a little while, laughing and having fun playing ball, and I remember why I chose this profession. Also, I have a built-in reminder in my youngest son, Bryce. He loves to play ball, and I enjoy watching him play with his friends. He is quite knowledgeable about the rules of football, baseball, basketball, and soccer, but I think my favorite part is when he and his friends aren’t sure about a rule and they make one up. I’m tempted to correct them; then I remind myself that part of the fun at that age is making it up as you go along.
I remember playing games as a child like Half-Field, Country Jake, and other adaptations of baseball, basketball, and football because we didn’t have enough people or space to do anything else. We just loved playing ball so much that we’d make it up as we went along. As a pre-teen, I won countless Super Bowls, World Series, and NBA Championships right in my own front yard, all by myself; bouncing the ball off the house, throwing passes to myself when there was no one else around, and making the winning shot as time expired.
If you are coaching a sport, or working with your own children in the yard, your goal is to teach them the game and to help them improve. Remember, too, that you should be teaching them to love the game, as well. That may mean finding time in each practice to do something that’s just fun, and maybe even a little silly. Remember, we’re all supposed to be having fun out there.