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Archive for the ‘Value of Sport’ Category

107. Winners and Losers.

I was recently given a copy of Winners & Losers: Rants, Riffs & Reflections on the World of Sports by Bob Latham. My first impression, admittedly based solely on the title and not being familiar with Latham’s column in Sports Travel magazine, was that it might not be a great fit for Sport At Its Best.  But as I read, I began to see how Latham views sport in a much bigger context, one that goes well beyond who wins and who loses.

Yes there were essays about fun topics like, if you could go back in time to a particular sporting event, which one would you choose?  And yes it’s also a book about sport in other venues or parts of the World that you might not otherwise come in contact with but I think ultimately it’s a book about the truism that the real story and the real value is often a little less obvious.  For example,

“In tennis, the manner in which the victor and the vanquished approach the net and exchange greetings may tell me something about them.  But if the camera cuts away to girlfriends, boyfriends, coaches or celebrities in the crowd, we miss pivotal parts of the moment that we wouldn’t miss by being there.  Is the body language frosty?  Do the players make eye contact on their way to the net?  The graciousness of Roger Federer comes out when you see him console early-round opponents, not just the better-known later-round ones.”

The payoff for being a collection of short stories is that it’s easy to read – Latham makes his point and then moves on to another time and place.  The main reason I would recommend the book however, is because it speaks to something missing in the North American mainstream sports media, which is true variety.  Most people are so much into the local professional sports that you need to really dig deep into the sports section to find the first article about anything else.  If you’re someone who likes something different, you’ll like this book.  If you’re one of those people that really likes your home team and little else, then snap out of it!  There’s a whole world of incredible sports, events, and athletes that you might find fascinating.

For me personally, I really enjoyed watching last years World Cup of rugby.  As big and strong and fast as the athletes are, they also have a respect for the game and their opponents that comes out in a way that you don’t often see.  Here’s another quote from Winners & Losers,

“I wish that sportsmanship and respect for your opponent weren’t antiquated notions.  In that regard, I wish that all youth sports teams throughout the world had seen these traits exhibited at the Rugby World Cup in Lyon, France.  There, top-ranked New Zealand played the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, Portugal.  After an overwhelming victory by New Zealand, players from both teams stayed on the pitch to kick a soccer ball around – New Zealand’s world-famous rugby stars playing pick-up soccer against the Portugal unknowns; it was quite a sight.

“I wish that all sports in the world had the ethos of rugby, a sport in which the eventual world champions, South Africa – after eliminating Fiji from the tournament – remained on the field for some 15 minutes while Fiji saluted and then entertained the crowd with a Fijian war chant, so that the two teams could leave the field together.”

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Here’s a story about a hockey player that had to play in net for the Erie Otters when both the regular and backup goalie’s were unavailable.  It isn’t a story about a great performance but it is about guts and being a good teammate.  For all those who would tell you otherwise, sport isn’t about winning, it’s about giving it your best shot.  The reality is that for some, their best isn’t that competitive, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of a standing ovation and a first star selection.  Thanks for the link Ted.

*****

ST. CATHARINES, ONT.—It was a game Connor Crisp will never forget.

After allowing 13 goals on 46 shots for the Erie Otters on Sunday, he was named the first star.

The 17-year-old centre — who hadn’t played at all this season, following shoulder surgery — was never supposed to play net. But he got pressed into action as an emergency replacement when starting goalie Ramis Sadikov was injured in the opening minutes of a 13-4 victory by the Niagara IceDogs.

“Well, I’m a road hockey goalie, ball hockey goalie, but that’s the first time I’ve put on goalie equipment and played on ice since I was 5 years old,” said Crisp.

Here’s a link to the rest of the Canadian Press story: http://tinyurl.com/7rzowmx

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99. Promoting Olympic Values.

This is the presentation I made to the 3rd Session of Olympic Medalists at the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece a few weeks ago.  If you’re a regular reader of Sport At Its Best then you’ll recognize a lot of the material.  It’s a long one but it does summarize a lot of what this blog is about.  Hope you enjoy it.

*****

I’ll begin with a story.  A friend of mine named Bob and I were talking about sportsmanship and the value of sport and it reminded him of a time when he attended Ridley college in southern Ontario.

“…there was a football match being played against our arch rival.  Well, you have heard of the old sleeper play were you take three players off the field and send back two into the huddle hoping the opposition doesn’t notice the missing player crouched down near the sideline pretending to be part of the crowd.  Well this is what our team did and it looked like the trick was going to work.  When out of the crowd near this crouching lad came this bustling old man, dressed in his suit and black teaching gown and wielding his cane high above his head.  He gave the lad a couple of good licks with the cane while yelling in his booming voice,” We don’t play like this at Ridley! We don’t play like this at Ridley!”  It was the dreaded head master.  Well whether we won the game or not I cannot recall but the lesson of play the game fairly and properly, as I said before, was reinforced and has lasted me a lifetime.”

There are undoubtedly those who would argue that the old sleeper play isn’t breaking any rules and getting caught by it is a valuable lesson in its own right.  Times have certainly changed since Bob attended Ridley college.  Hitting a kid with a cane is a bit outdated but good leadership is not.  The point of this story is actually twofold.  First, I think it takes some courage to interrupt a high school football game to make a point about actually earning what you achieve.  I worry that there aren’t enough people around these days that would risk being embarrassed in front of a student population to make the point.

Second, Bob will be turning 76 years old this year. This is a lesson that has lasted Bob 60 years.  And in his own words Bob has “tried to live his life by that standard.”  To me this is a very powerful illustration of the impact one person can have on the lives of others.  What an absolute privilege it is to be in a position to have such an effect.

Before we can discuss the promotion of positive social values, we first need to understand the purpose of sport in our society, the benefit of sport for our youth as well as the lessons that sport has to teach.  We also need to understand why we participate in the first place.  In the world of business, it’s the norm to have a mission statement and a number of value statements that guide the actions of a company.  With respect to individuals, most people probably have a rough idea, but it is a valuable exercise to actually sit down and determine what you stand for, what your values are and what message you want to project.

What is the Purpose of Sport?  

Why does sport exist?  Is it just to see who was faster, higher, or stronger or does it actually serve a purpose?  What about for your kids?  Would you want them participating in sport even if you knew they could never qualify for an Olympic Games, let alone win a medal?  Even for most Olympians, the answer to this last question is ‘yes’.  I believe Olympians are great supporters of sport because they’ve experienced first hand the great joy that sport can be in a person’s life.  For a young person, finding something that you love to do that is active and healthy for both the mind and body is a great gift.

Sport is also a great teacher of values – dedication, perseverance, sportsmanship, and teamwork, to name only a few, are all lessons learned through sport.  As a member of your community, we need to be aware of the purpose of sport for our youth and encourage the positive lessons.  Jim Peplinski, who is a former captain of the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League believes that if you focus on the personal development of kids, you actually get better athletes as well.

“Sport can make people great athletes…  Or sport can make athletes great people.  If you approached sport with the goal to do your best and enjoy it, would you play longer?  Would you be better rounded?  Would you get more out of sport?  Would you be a better person?  And maybe become a great athlete too?  I believe so.  Get good at a sport, be a better athlete.  Get good at what makes you good at a sport, be a better person.  You win both ways.”

What is the Purpose of Olympic Sport?

Why do Olympians compete?  Is it for the money or fame?  For the most part it’s not about money.  There are certainly exceptions like some downhill skiers, some track athletes who can make in the millions of dollars but the overwhelming majority of Olympic athletes make very little money.  In Canada for example, a reporter for the Globe and Mail found that of all the Canadian gold medalists from Vancouver/Whistler, excluding teams such as the men’s and women’s curling teams and the men’s hockey team which are all professional, more than half of them listed their expected income for 2010 as being $25000 – exactly the amount given to gold medal winners from the Canadian government.  That’s just the gold medal winners!  The majority of Olympians aren’t as lucky and without question, amateur athletes would do much better financially if they weren’t athletes.

As for fame, if you’re good enough to win a medal then you do get a lot of attention for a short period of time, once every four years.  Again, there are certainly exceptions but in my opinion, neither fame nor fortune are great motivators for Olympic athletes.

So why compete?  This is a question that you really need to ask yourself.  Many athletes might answer very quickly that they compete “to win”.  The more Olympians I ask this question, the more I’ve come to realize that the better you are, the more it becomes about the challenge.  I believe what motivates Olympians is the challenge and trying to be the best, knowing that failure is a possibility.  If there was no possibility of failure, there would be no reward in success.  If it was just about winning, wouldn’t we seek out weaker opponents and not the biggest stage, which is the Olympic Games?

Bonnie Blair competed for the United States in long track speed skating in four Olympic Games beginning in 1984 in Sarajevo and ending in 1994 in Lillehammer.  In that time she won five gold and one bronze medal, amazingly defending the gold medal she won in the 500m in Calgary for two more successive Olympics, an extremely rare accomplishment.  This is a woman who has done a lot of winning in her career but if you ask her, she’ll tell you that one of her most satisfying moments as an Olympian was finishing 4th in the 1500m at the Lillehammer Games.

“In Lillihammer, given the three races I took part in, the 500, the 1000 and the 1500, the 1500 was my best race.  It was a personal best by over a second, it was an American record, faster than I had gone ever, so to me that was like winning a gold medal even though it was 4th.  Now I don’t want to take away from the two gold medals that I won because those were thrilling and exciting races but if I have to look at pure athleticism, and goals of skating there at the games, that was my best race and I was 4th.  And I was just as proud of that 4th place finish as I was of the gold medals.”

At that point I asked her if she would go so far as to say it was her best race in terms of her personal satisfaction?  “Yes, yes,” was her answer.

“I look at that 1500 and that was the best I had and it was 4th and that was something that I was really proud of.  When I was in the media room and they were throwing microphones in front of me and they were saying, “aren’t you disappointed?” and, “you just missed a bronze!” and it wasn’t [disappointing for me].  I was very happy with what I did.”

Olympic sport is about being the best you can be – the pursuit of excellence.  If you’re lucky enough to be one of the best in the world then being your best might be good enough to win an Olympic medal but your motivation and ultimately your satisfaction will relate to your personal performance relative to your ability and the challenge you face.  Young people need to know this.  There are a lot of mixed messages out there as to why people do what they do.

How Do We Promote Olympic Values?

There are many different ways to promote positive social values.  You can speak to schools about your experiences or you can support an existing charitable organization or perhaps start your own!  Regardless of how you go about it, there are two steps that are necessary to make it happen, 1) believe in the importance of promoting positive social values and 2) lead by example.

1. Believe in the Importance of Olympic Values

Living in Calgary has afforded me the opportunity to see first-hand that many of the most successful athletes from my country are that way at least in part because of values and/or attitudes about sport and about life.  I’ve also had the pleasure of competing against some of the great athletes of my sport (skeleton) because of their belief in sportsmanship and because of their attitude, as described by the credo, “may the best one win.”

When I think about great sportsmanship and great champions, I think of a guy by the name of Gregor Staehli.  Gregor is a skeleton slider from Switzerland and to begin with, he is the most successful athlete in the history of the sport I competed in.  In all, he has won a total of 8 World Championship medals as well as two Olympic medals.  These are astounding totals considering they have one race a year to determine who is the World / Olympic Champion.  I won’t try to guess how many World Cups he’s won over the years but it’s a lot.  Probably the single most impressive statistic about Gregor is the fact that if you averaged every one of his World Cup races over his entire career including his rookie year, he averaged a 4th place finish!

Obviously he’s been tremendously successful in his career and when you’ve won that often and for that many years, what value does competition still hold for you?  What makes you keep training to get better?  Clearly the answer has nothing to do with winning yet another medal or trophy.  The answer, I believe, is the challenge.  And this is a very key concept – when you realize that the great joy of sport is in the challenge, then the better the competitors are, the greater the challenge, and the greater the reward if you are able to ultimately succeed.

Another way of expressing it is like this – if there was no challenge, if it was easy, there would be no reward.  How exciting would it be for a guy with Gregor’s resume to beat a rival because they had a bad day?  For him, is that something worth writing home about?  No.  So here’s the key point: when Gregor Staehli wished you luck, he truly wanted you to have your best race.  Then, if you did and he beat you, that meant something.  As a consequence, I can tell you first hand that it created a great atmosphere to both compete in and achieve your best in.  Competing against Gregor was an honor and pleasure, and on the few occasions that I was able to beat him, he was always very sincere in his congratulations.  I’d even say that after my first win at the World level, what made that experience even greater than it already was, was the support and sincere happiness that some of my competitors had for my success and Gregor was a big part of that.

As an Olympian, if you’ve lived what I’ve described, then you know first hand how important your sportsmanship and values are as well as those of your teammates and competitors is in terms of creating a sporting environment in which everyone can achieve their best in.  If you have any desire to promote positive social values, you need to believe in it with respect to everything you do.  As an Olympian, sport is such a big part of what you do and it’s why you have a voice in the first place so train and compete with sportsmanship and all of the values that sport teaches us.

2. Lead by Example

I talked about Bonnie Blair earlier and her successes and a performance that she was very proud of that didn’t win a medal.  I was put in contact with Bonnie originally through a friend of mine named Moira who was a teammate of Bonnie’s for many years.  It wasn’t until after I had interviewed Bonnie that I talked to Moira about what it was like being Bonnie’s teammate.  According to Moira, Bonnie was the consummate team member and she led by example.  Even as the most decorated American winter Olympian at the time, Bonnie never conducted herself as being any different or better than any other member of the team.  Moira made the point that athletes these days often arrive late or leave early from training camps and that would be the last thing that Bonnie would have done.

There was one incident in particular that Moira shared with me that illustrated how Bonnie was a leader within the team.  Around the time that the Berlin wall came down, it was rumored that the former East Germans had been taking performance enhancing drugs.  Bonnie happened to be near by when Moira saw her results after a 500m race.  Moira made that comment that although she had finished 8th, she would have finished 3rd if you “exclude everyone who was cheating.”  I’m not insinuating that drug use doesn’t happen but it is a well-documented fact that successful people take responsibility for their performances and unsuccessful people look to others to find excuses.  According to Moira, when Bonnie heard her comment, she made it clear, that kind of attitude was not acceptable on the U.S. team.

Moira also gave Bonnie the great compliment that the coaches had very little work to do in terms of inspiring teamwork and sportsmanship within the team because this was simply how Bonnie and certain other team members such as Dan Jansen, conducted themselves.  With this in mind, I have talked to the senior athletes on the team that I coach on a number of occasions to impress upon them the importance of leadership within the team.  Jon Montgomery, who won Olympic gold in skeleton in Whistler, has really taken this to heart and has truly led the team from within.  It’s so much easier to get the team motivated to do a little extra work when the Olympic Champion is saying, “come on guys, let’s get to it!”

I began this presentation with a recollection of a friend from his high school days.  I’ll now conclude with the story of my elementary school volleyball coach who inspired me to conduct myself according to Olympic values.  Mr. Little was a teacher and volleyball coach at Bridlewood Junior Public School when I was a student there in the late ‘70’s. What was so cool about Mr. Little was that he was actually a volleyball referee at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

Montreal was my first exposure to the Olympics and immediately it had a powerful effect on me. To this day I can clearly remember watching many of the events including Nadia Comaneci getting her perfect 10′s in gymnastics and Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon. I can also remember the high jump in which fellow Canadian Greg Joy won a silver medal behind Jacek Wszola of Poland but ahead of the heavily favored Dwight Stones of the United States. Watching those and many other events, I knew somehow I wanted to be a part of that.  I didn’t even care what sport it would be in – they were all great.

At the time you can imagine what it was like for us on the volleyball team having a coach that had played such an important role in that event. It was pretty special.  During one particular practice we were arguing as to whether a ball was in or out when Mr. Little called us over and told us about a match at the Olympics in which he had been a backup referee sitting at the official’s table immediately adjacent to the court.

As the story goes, there was a rally that ended when one team spiked the ball toward the opposing team’s baseline. Although very close to the line, the ball was out but was incorrectly called in by the line judge. The player that hit the ball actually went to the referee and explained that he had hit the ball out and that the call should be reversed. At which point a player on the opposing team, having overheard this, stepped forward and stated that he had touched the ball on the way out and that therefore the call was correct. I don’t know if Mr. Little actually said it or not but his inference was that the player who claimed to have touched the ball, hadn’t.

Whether he had or hadn’t, the interpretation is the same. There was respect for the opponent and the game and the process to the extent that both players were willing to give up a point they felt they hadn’t earned. I don’t believe Mr. Little specifically stated whom the teams involved were but I understood that they were elite teams of the competition who were vying for medals.

Like my friend Bob talking about his high school football days, I don’t remember how we did as a team that year or even if we won a single game, but I remember that story. Being so enthralled by the Olympics and hearing a first-hand account from someone who was not just there, but an integral part of it, was extremely impactful to me. I remember thinking at the time ‘this is how Olympians act’ and I still feel the story is an illustration of sport at it’s absolute best. The athletes Mr. Little talked about clearly had a great deal of respect for the game, the officials, their opponents and the process. And it’s also a great expression of the value they placed on the relationship between how hard you work for something and your own personal satisfaction. On their respective journeys to the medal podium, neither wanted to accept a single point that wasn’t earned.

This story remains an inspiration for me and also like Bob, I have tried to live my life by this standard.  My belief is that it was no coincidence that the athletes in Mr. Little’s story were World-leading athletes vying for medals at an Olympic Games.  This is a very personal story about the power that the Olympics have to shape social values.  If you are an Olympian then you have been given an opportunity to impact the lives of others simply because of what the Olympics represents.  Take that very seriously and share your passion in a positive way.

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I witnessed a relatively small and yet very positive show of sportsmanship a few weeks ago.  I happened to be coming into the Talisman Centre here in Calgary on a Saturday afternoon just as a girls’ volleyball tournament was ending.  I couldn’t tell you if they were school teams or club teams but they would have been junior high or early high school age.  They were taking down all the other nets and the activity was limited to one court in the far gym – it was the final of the tournament.

Parents were there, as were siblings and friends to watch as the match approached its conclusion.  There was loud cheering after every point, and as is the norm in volleyball, the teams came together in the middle of the court after every rally to either congratulate each other after winning a point or to refocus themselves after giving up a point.  What really caught my attention though, were two seemingly minor details as to how the teams conducted themselves at the end of the match.  One thing they did that I had never seen before was to lie on their stomachs, all in a row, and bang their hands on the floor to cheer on their opponents as they received their medals.  And like the players themselves, the families and supporters of the athletes also showed their appreciation for the opposing team during the medal presentation.

I also noticed something a little bit different with respect to the handshake.  As is often the case, the teams lined up in a show of sportsmanship at the conclusion of the match.   What I really appreciated in this case, was that it wasn’t just two lines walking in opposite directions with a hand held out.  They were taking their time.  They were talking to their opponents and I can only speculate as to what they were saying but the point is that they were actually talking.  There was a lot of nodding, smiling, and the occasional hand placed on the opponent’s shoulder.  This showed there was a mutual respect between the two teams.

To many, this might seem like a minor detail.  There are those who would say that the main thing was the handshake itself, and even if it’s just a case of two teams touching hands as they walk in opposite directions, it’s still a sign of respect and sportsmanship.  I would agree, but this was a little more – a little more mature, a little more respectful, and a bit surprising to me given how young the athletes were.  At times like this it’s a little easier for the victorious team to be gracious, but if anything, the losing team was showing a greater appreciation for the victor, and thereby in reality, showed their own maturity and character.

And as is pointed out in the NCAA commercial, the vast majority of the participants will soon be professionals in something other than their sport.  In other words it’s important to see the big picture.  In the day-to-day world of the average person, how often do volleyball skills come into play?  Not nearly as often as the qualities these two young teams were displaying in the process of playing volleyball.  Even if a few of them eventually make it to an international level, the benefit of being a part of that team, learning about discipline, learning about focus, learning what it means to build character and show sportsmanship will ultimately outweigh any physical skill they’ll ever learn.

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I wrote a letter today to show my support for KidSport as a potential recipient of Sport Canada funding.  KidSport who provide funding to allow children to participate in organized sport is about inclusion, it really has nothing to do with elite sport, yet there are many elite athletes such as Olympic gold medalists, Cassie Campbell, Kyle Shewfelt and Catriona LeMay-Doan who advocate for the organization.  I believe this is so because elite athletes are keenly aware of the great benefit and joy that organized sport can be in a young person’s life – a joy that can last a lifetime.

In my own case, I retired after the Torino Olympics in 2006.  Since then, sport has remained a very important part of my life.  I participate in mountain biking regularly throughout the summer and have even entered a few team events over the last couple of years.  As a 215-pound former power athlete, I’m not even remotely competitive at mountain biking.  I participate because sport, as it has always been, remains a great source of joy in my life.

Getting out and just trying to get better and having fun is what continues to drive me to participate, but even at the Olympics, I ultimately competed because it was fun.  The fact that I am leading a healthier lifestyle now at age 44 is only a result of the fact that I’m still doing something that I love to do.

This is why I am a supporter of KidSport.  If there’s anything that I can do to help give a kid the opportunity to participate in organized sport who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance due to the costs involved, then I’m happy to do it.  Support from Sport Canada means more kids would get that chance.

To learn more about KidSport Canada, refer to the Links section of this blog.  To write a letter of support for KidSport in their quest to obtain Sport Canada funding, e-mail us here at sportatitsbest@shaw.ca before February 9, 2011.

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At the moment I’m just finishing a book called Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage by Richard Stengel (as quoted below).  It’s not a book about sport or history but it does refer to both in describing Mandela’s leadership skills.  As was shown in the movie Invictus, Mandela used rugby as a unifying force in the racially divided nation of South Africa.

“Rugby came back into Mandela’s life when he became president.  Job number one for him was to be the father of the nation, the patriarch who united white and black around a common vision.”

“When the threats of harmony were greatest, in 1994 and 1995, Mandela used a curious tactic: He turned to sports as a way of healing the nation.  For years the ANC (African National Congress) had done everything it could to get the Springboks, the national rugby team, banned from international play.  And they had succeeded.  Now Mandela sought to have the ban on them lifted, and he became instrumental in bringing the rugby World Cup to South Africa.  He thought rugby could be the great uniter, and not a divider.  He began a charm campaign to win over the rugby establishment.”

Mandela showed great insight in to the potential that rugby had to unite black and white when it had in fact done the opposite for years.  It’s no exaggeration to say that in a very pivotal moment in South African history, Mandela deterred a movement to have both the Springbok’s name and colours changed.  To black South Africans, the Springboks had always been white South Africa’s team but Mandela knew that a team seen as representing the black citizens would be just as polarizing.  In much the same way that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had done decades before, Mandela sought to win his opponents understanding.

“In his most famous gesture of reconciliation, Mandela wore the Springbok jersey and cap to the rugby finals at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park Staduium in 1995.  When he strode out before the game to greet the team captain, the mostly white crowd began to chant, “Nel-son, Nel-son!” It was one of the most electrifying moments in the history of sport and politics.”

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Today’s post consists of two short videos of Kyle Shewfelt and Beckie Scott talking about the value of sport and the lessons they’ve learned through sport in their lives.  Remember these athletes both had long careers and the conclusions both have come to have taken a long time to realize.  Hope you enjoy it.

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46. All Sport One Day

In June of last year the Calgary Sport Council teamed up with two recreational facilities in Calgary for an event called All Sport One Day (www.AllSportOneDay.ca).  The event was about exposing 6 to 12 year-olds to sports that they might not otherwise get the chance to try.  Each of the two founding facilities (WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park and Cardel Place) offered several sports to choose from and after registering online, kids could come in and try them for free on the day of the event.

Last year the first All Sport One Day was a huge success.  Not only did the 500+ positions fill up within a few days of the first announcement but the event itself was great fun and well received.  There were a few factors that went into creating that environment, probably the most significant of which was the staff of the facilities themselves as well as members of the individual sports organizations involved in presenting the sports.  As is always the case, the front line coach or instructor has the most direct impact on the experience of the participants.

The Calgary Sport Council also goes to significant effort to make sure there are several Olympians that visit the facilities and actually participate in some of the sports with the kids.  One of the goals of the organizers is to make that first experience really enjoyable and memorable for the child and having some Olympians on hand doesn’t hurt.

This year, as a testament to the strength of the program, All Sport One Day has grown.  The two founding locations have now been joined by four others for a total of six participating facilities.  The number of sports offered as part of the day has also grown to over 30.  In the end, the number of kids who are able to come out and try a new sport is the truest measure of the success of the program and this year’s event which will happen on Saturday June 19, will have space for approximately 1200 kids – over twice the number who were able to participate last year.

So what’s the goal of the event?  What do we hope to achieve?  We may find down the road that an Olympian or two were actually introduced to their sport through All Sport One Day but the purpose is more important that that.  It’s about fun.  It’s about being involved and being a part of something, and hopefully it’s about finding something you love to do.  Ultimately it’s about living a healthier and happier lifestyle through physical activity and this is why fun is a key component.

Certainly cost can be an issue for many kids depending on the activity and so the Calgary Sport Council has partnered with KidSport (http://www.kidsportcanada.ca/) which is an organization that helps kids overcome financial barriers to participate in sport.  I believe that the success of this event and the tremendous growth they’ve experienced in only one year shows its value for the Calgary community.   All Sport One day is a model for other programs like this across Canada and around the world.

Join us if you can!

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A friend of mine named Bob is in his mid-seventies now.  We were talking about sportsmanship and the value of sport and it jarred his memory about a time years ago now when he attended Ridley college in southern Ontario.  In an e-mail he recounted an experience that has stuck with him throughout his life.

“At the same school with the sports motto as mentioned previously (it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game), there was a football match being played against our arch rival.  Well, you have heard of the old sleeper play were you take three players off the field and send back two into the huddle hoping the opposition doesn’t notice the missing player crouched down near the sideline pretending to be part of the crowd.  Well this is what our team did and it looked like the trick was going to work.  When out of the crowd near this crouching lad came this bustling old man, dressed in his suit and black teaching gown and wielding his cane high above his head.  He gave the lad a couple of good licks with the cane while yelling in his booming voice,” We don’t play like this at Ridley, We don’t play like this at Ridley”.  It was the dreaded head master.  Well whether we won the game or not I cannot recall but the lesson of play the game fairly and properly, as I said before, was reinforced and has lasted me a lifetime.”

As another friend of mine rightly points out, it’s not enough to simply enroll our youth in sport and hope they learn the great lessons sport has to teach.  As parents, coaches, and even as senior members of a team, we need to take an active role to ensure the right lessons are reinforced and the negative behaviors are discouraged.

We don’t play like this at Ridley! We don’t play like this at Ridley!

There are undoubtedly those who would argue that the old sleeper play isn’t breaking any rules and getting caught by it is a valuable lesson in its own right.  Times have certainly changed since Bob attended Ridley college.  Hitting a kid with a cane is a bit outdated but good teaching practices are not.  In my opinion it takes some courage to interrupt a high school football game to make a point about fair play and actually earning what you achieve.  It’s a lesson that served Bob well and I’d imagine the vast majority of his teammates close to 60 years now.

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There was a book I picked up at a little magazine shop at the airport once called The Power of Kindness by Piero Ferrucci.  It looked interesting and was along the lines of some of the books that I had been reading at the time.  The book turned out to be really easy to read and made it’s point very clearly.  The point was there is a great advantage to being a positive person.

The chapters are all positive human qualities such as humility, trust, respect, gratitude and so on.  What I found most compelling is how the author made references to research that shows positive people lead healthier and happier lives.  For example,

“…empathy does not only resolve problems; it helps us feel better.  Studies have shown that people who are more capable of empathy are also more satisfied in life, healthier, less dogmatic, and more creative.”

Or, more to the crux of the argument,

“It has been shown that our thoughts influence each cell in our body.  Thought affects blood pressure and therefore the blood flow to every part of the body.  The quality of our thoughts is felt throughout our organism.  Will we make them thoughts of hatred and revenge, or love and happiness?

“In a famous experiment, subjects were asked to remember two experiences of betrayal, one in which they were betrayed by a parent, another by a partner.  Meanwhile, they were hooked up to various stress-detector machines that checked their blood pressure, heartbeat, muscle tension in the forehead, and galvanic skin response.  The findings were revealing.  It was immediately evident that the people fell into two distinct categories: high and low forgivers.  Not only did the low forgivers show higher measurements of stress, the high forgivers had fewer health problems and had seen their doctors less frequently.  In another study, it was shown that those who forgive, besides enjoying better physical health, suffer less from anxiety and depression.  Forgiveness promotes physical and mental health.”

And it goes on describing actual measurable relationships between various forms of positivity (kindness, loyalty, honesty, generosity, patience, etc.) and not just physical and mental health, but physical and mental strength.

“It has been shown that our thoughts influence each cell in our body.  Will we make them thoughts of hatred and revenge, or love and happiness?”

Dr. Wayne Dyer, a renowned teacher of enlightened thought, in one of his PBS specials summarized the relationship very succinctly with, “positive makes you stronger; negative makes you weaker.” He paused in his presentation and repeated himself because it’s a very key concept that for some reason we don’t totally buy into.  Think about that – we totally accept as a scientific fact that negative makes you weaker.  We know that tension and stress and negative emotion can cause high blood pressure, ulcers and a myriad of other health issues that can easily manifest themselves into life threatening illnesses like heart attach and stroke over a period of time.  And yet we don’t totally buy into the fact that the opposite would be true as well – that positivity makes you stronger.  In fact, kindness and other very positive attributes are even seen as weaknesses at certain times in certain venues as it is occasionally in business and sport.

“Positive makes you stronger; negative makes you weaker.”

What I’ve noticed personally, as I wrote under the Origins section of this blog, is that really successful athletes in the vast majority of cases are also really positive people.  A skeptic would say that a positive person is positive because they are successful, but from what I’ve seen personally in the cases where I’ve actually known the athlete since before they achieved their Olympic successes, they had always been positive.  In fact, they had always been essentially the same person – very positive and therefore having an attitude that made them a stronger person.  The bottom line is that if you want to emulate successful athletes (if not successful people) positivity is what you should strive for.

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