“Hey, Coach! If you were going to punish us, how would you do it?”

“Huh?” I glance up as one of my sophomores, new to the team, looks over the workout plan for the week. “Why would I punish you?”

“You know, if we mess up.” (Full blown ‘I dare you grin’ here). “It’s not like you can make us run like other sports because that is our sport. How would you punish us?”

She’s not wrong and as a PE teacher, cross country coach, and avid runner myself, this is one of my biggest pet peeves–running, or any form of physical activity as a punishment. I roll my eyes but she’s not done, she really wants to know. On the surface my coaching is processing workouts, race plans and results with my girls, but there is much to be done with mental processing and empowerment. Here we go!

Me: “How are you going to feel if you mess up?”

Her: “Bad.”

Me: “Are you going to mess up on purpose?”

Her: “No, but I’m sure I’ll mess up sometime.”

Me: “Everyone messes up. I still mess up race plans and for sure know better. What are you going to do if you mess up?”

Her: “I’m going to try to learn from it and race better next time.”

Some might say that runners are a different breed or that my sport is different. Maybe, but thinking back to my days coaching volleyball, the method was always the same. Mistakes happen, athletes rarely–if ever make them on purpose. We would try to figure out the problem, fix it, and learn from it. Running and fitness was used for conditioning to become better movers, allowing us to heighten our level of play. Mistakes were used to make a practice plan. One designed to create better movement patterns or quicker reaction times. Sometimes drills were designed to build confidence–never to tear it down.

In a recent conversation with a basketball coach I expressed my frustration of running being used as a form of punishment. They explained a drill that used running ladders to create pressure on free throw shots in order to simulate a game experience. One player at the line, the rest on the baseline. A missed free throw resulted in running a line for everyone on the team. Each miss, add another line.

Last season I was pressed to send my number one runner to the Roy Griak Invitational, considered to be the premiere invite in the Midwest. Good exposure for college recruiters and high level of competition for high level experience. Instead I kept her at the home 2 mile dual invite. I wanted her to rip a fast time and have the chance to participate in Homecoming activities, a chance to be a kid a little while longer. Like most of her meets, she was out front by herself the entire race pushing her pace alone. Her first high pressure invite was the state meet, where we talked through & visualized a race plan to work through the trickiest parts of the course. That day, she executed her race plan with precision and won the state meet.

She told me all the time she spent running or racing by herself taught her the mental strength to follow through with her race plan instead of getting caught up in the pressure of the race start where so many make their mistakes. She went on to take 10th at Nike Regional, 8th at Footlocker Regional, and 15th at Footlocker National. The mantra was to “Run Brave”.

I jokingly threw a few punishment ideas at my sophomore, all of which she laughed at. It wasn’t until I said I would lower her vdot that I got a real response–this would mean she would have to run slower in practice. Smile gone she told me she had worked really hard for that vdot and that I couldn’t do that. Pleased with her pride in herself, I quickly reassured that I would never do that. There are times that I do need to lower a vdot but I never want my athletes to feel it’s because of something they have done wrong. Sometimes those things are out of their control and I never want them running scared, only ever with pure joy and determination. Running is a gift and I want them to appreciate that.

If you coach a sport, I urge you to check your methods. Use your time to teach your athletes movement and confidence. Use mistakes to learn and practice how to move forward. Teach teammates to support and build each other up in high pressure situations. And above all, cultivate the joy of their natural tendency to run and play.

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Allisha Blanchette, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this post with the following:

Teach Your Students How to Fail by Patrick Noel

Intersectionality in Health Education: Leading with Love and Equity by Dr. Cara Grant

Empathy in Education: The New Norm? by Ryan Fahey

Eliminating Exclusionary Practices by Gary Zaharatos

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?