It takes courage to participate in athletics.  You are “putting yourself out there” for everyone… spectators, family, friends and foes alike to watch, judge, critique, etc.  It is easy to sit in the stands and grouse about how your team is lacking, or how your school’s players are “not very good”.  It is much harder to compete, take the risk, do the work, and be a Doer!

It takes courage to be a coach, to put your product (your team) out for evaluation every Friday night or Tuesday or Sunday afternoon.  I chuckle inside when other teachers worry/ complain/ get angry about being “evaluated” once or twice a year.  Coaches not only get evaluated during those two “official” teaching evaluations, but also every Friday night when they put their team on the field.  The evaluation is done not only by school officials, but parents, community members, students, and the media.  In addition to these “evaluations” many of us also get evaluated almost daily by our Activities Director and/ or administration… watching practice, checking grades, monitoring your teams behavior while they are at school.  And it is ALL GOOD!  It comes with the job; it is what we signed up for, and generally keeps us on our toes.  So why do we do it? Why do we decide to compete, to coach?

This is a excerpt from Seth Godin’s blog yesterday about being a spectator as opposed to a Doer:

The spectators foolishly assert that if everyone was a doer, a leader and a maker of ruckuses, then there’d be no one left in the audience. As if those that do require an audience.

The alternative to being a spectator involves failure and apparent risk. It means that you will encounter people who accuse you of hubris and flying too high, people who are eager to point out the loose thread on your jacket or the flaw in your reasoning. The spectators in the stands are happy to boo, happy to walk out when the team is struggling in the third period, happy to switch if the bread or the circuses cease to delight.

Why on earth, they ask, would they want to be anything but a spectator?

And yet, those that have foolishly picked themselves, stood up, stood out and made a difference, can’t help but ask, “and why would I ever want to be a spectator again?“

And yet, those that have foolishly picked themselves, stood up, stood out and made a difference, can’t help but ask “and why would I ever want to be a spectator again?”

Indeed!

Pick Yourself – Be a Doer, Be a Competitor!

Tomorrow – Bench Press video and tips.

Notice that the blog address has changed – simplified!  I have my own domain:

youcandomore.net    (.net NOT .com!)

Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com

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