{"id":7696,"date":"2010-04-13T09:30:29","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T15:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/?p=7696"},"modified":"2010-04-13T12:55:16","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T18:55:16","slug":"are-playing-sports-stupid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/letters-to-the-editor\/are-playing-sports-stupid\/","title":{"rendered":"Is playing sports stupid?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/editorlogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7697\" title=\"editorlogo\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/editorlogo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a>By Cedric Harris<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dear Editor: <\/strong>Last month while I was visiting the Island I overheard a young woman saying to her companion, &#8220;People who do sports are stupid\u201d, so I replied are they? She continued, \u201csee how sports in Dominica a waste of time and energy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She went to say that she competed in various sporting events for her past school and she got nothing out of it but teachers calling her tomboy, megzo, stupid etc. All her comments were negative even pointing out that playing fields are scarce to come by in Dominica now.<\/p>\n<p>I then formally introduced myself and told her I\u2019m a Physical Educator\/PE teacher and a former national middle\/long distance runner of Dominica. She\u00a0 said to me that this is an easy job and anybody can teach PE there is no qualifications for teaching that subject. The teacher just make you play and you can\u2019t learn anything in PE. I obviously disagreed with her because I knew better and told her PE teachers should be well rounded in knowledge about the way the body functions. I told her if her PE teacher had taught her well she would not be making such a statement. I went on to say to her I use the three T\u2019s with my students: tell, teach and train, making them well rounded of their sporting knowledge and experience.<\/p>\n<p>Have you come across this attitude yourself from young people\u2019s? Do you think sports are stupid too?\u00a0 Are you scared to tell someone that you are an athlete?<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Oh right,&#8217; they&#8217;re thinking. &#8216;An athlete, A jock, stupid.&#8217; There are many opportunities out there now for an athlete of all disciplines so continue playing, but it is essential to strike a balance with academics.<\/p>\n<p>Sports are important.<\/p>\n<p>And when people give me that look, I say:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Brains are just as important to an athlete as brawn, you know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, sure,&#8221; they reply.<\/p>\n<p>So I enlighten them about all the things that my athletes need to know as an athlete. I use words like anaerobic, aerobic, plyometrics, target heart rate, and per iodization, etc. I talk about nutrition and psychology and biomechanics.<\/p>\n<p>I go on to describe the health benefits of playing sports such as: It helps your heart, lungs and other body systems grow stronger and healthier. It will also help you manage stress better because on the field of play there are rules, and not obeying them during play time can cost you or your team the game. It also help with self confidence, cooperation, communication and sportsmanship. You also get to strengthen friendships and being on a team you get a feeling of worthiness.<\/p>\n<p>When I am finished, they look at me with surprise and new respect. &#8220;You sound more like a scientist than a coach,&#8221; they laugh.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I take pride in what I do,&#8221; I reply.<\/p>\n<p>At present the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth affairs recognizes PE as a CXC subject where the high schools have a syllabus to follow. Furthermore, students have been actually taking\/writing PE as a CXC subject in Dominica and doing well. By not being too critical, what\u2019s next for those students who want to pursue coaching can the state college implement such a program?<\/p>\n<p>My comments were motivated by this young woman\u2019s statement because I have seen the lack of enthusiasm by some students because of the lack of interest of the PE teachers and coaches. There are many young men and women who when leaving high school would like to begin a career in coaching but are neglected from the system. Our primary schools should ALL have a PE teacher because at that level the sporting fundamentals need to be taught. Kids get into high school not knowing the names of their basic muscle groups. Also hating sports especially athletics because during their primary years they were never trained correctly such as the importance of a warm up and not being overloaded with events. At this tender age sports participation is fun so why not nurture the talent from there? It is said that a mediocre coach tells, a good coach explain, a superior demonstrates, but the great coach Inspires.<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s get serious about our sports in Dominica by strengthening the base by having PE teachers trained at the elementary level which will help with the outcome at the secondary sporting programs. And youngsters will not have to say that, \u201cplaying sports is bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;\">Harris is a Physical Educator<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;\">IAAF Certified Coach<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;\">Graduate Student Sports Science<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;\">Olympian<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Cedric Harris Dear Editor: Last month while I was visiting the Island I overheard a young woman saying to her companion, &#8220;People who do sports are stupid\u201d, so I replied are they? She continued, \u201csee how sports in Dominica&#8230;","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":7697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is playing sports stupid?  - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/features\/letters-to-the-editor\/are-playing-sports-stupid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is playing sports stupid?  - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Cedric Harris Dear Editor: Last month while I was visiting the Island I overheard a young woman saying to her companion, &#8220;People who do sports are stupid\u201d, so I replied are they? 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