True Character Is Coming Out

Quick Family Update:

What a busy day. Jenn and I just got back from an all day business meeting with a business coach. I am heading over to the school for a meeting to get organized for the D.C trip that I am going on with my daughter Jae and her class. Bailee has girl scouts and both Jae and Bailee have an event at the school- I think it is kind of like a Bizzare or something like that. Brennen is just hanging out biding his time.

True Character Shows It's Face

Character. This is not a political statement this is a statement of what's really going on in my opinion. This certainly is evident in the presidential campaigning but is true in any situation. The great thing is that anyone can change who they are even in the heat of battle when their ugly side comes out.

If you are following the presidential debate at all you have noticed how ugly it is getting. One party is stretching the limits of human decency because he feels the pressure. He isn't using the issues that are most concerning the people. I could go into a 2 day long post of what is wrong with how this campaign is going and what is really needing to be heard. My point in this is to tie it in with how ahtletes, coaches, and parents handle tough situations.

I have to admit I have done some things when I played sports and coached in my early days that make me cringe now. I let the heat of the moment get to me and I acted poorly toward officials and athletes (nothing real bad, but behavior I certainly would not condone now).

I think one of our roles as a coach is to teach our athletes how to handle their emotions in tough times. How to show restraint. I can remember playing in a tennis tournament one year and I was playing poorly. I missed an easy shot and simply had enough. I turned and threw my tennis racquet against the fence. Now my parents and some friends were there and saw the entire thing. I can remember in the heat of the moment I didn't care who saw it. But shortly after the match was over and my rational side started to creep back in I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I can recall being in many other tennis tournaments from that point on, playing poorly again, but never allowing myself to reach that level of poor sportsmanship and ugly display.

When I was a young head basketball coach at the age of 23- I was full of excitement and enthusiasm, but I didn't always channel it well in some games when I felt officials were calling a bad game. Not only did I not show my players how to act properly during bad calls, I didn't represent myself or my school real well. My point is I let my emotions get the best of me and realized I had to work hard on changing my behavior when things were not going well or when in difficult times during a game (this could apply to non-sport situations as well).

Over the years I have been put in some pretty tough situations that caused me to be extremely angry. Some I handles better than others, but for the most part I really used my past experiences to display the type of control and character I would want my players, children, or peers to display. My point is I have learned from my past and have made important changes to try to always display the type of behavior that is important during the heat of battle.

So, I guess my point of this bpost is that we all have an opportunity use what is happening in the presedential campaign to teach our children and athletes what is right and wrong. Using political strategies to help your party that are truthful and important is good. But the campaigning strategies that have been used lately are frankly poor choices of human behvior toward another human being.

I have learned so much from my personal past and have been able to apply it toward the type of behavior I want to always display, and it has given me a good foundation to help teach my children and athletes of how to handle situations when they are angry.

I am certainly not trying to preach, I am simply sharing my observations and personal experiences and hopefully it helps you or someone you know.

Yours in Speed,

Lee

PS: Hope you have a great weekend! And good have fun cheering for you post season baseball team. GOOOO Yankees! Oh wait, scratch that. I forgot, they are sitting home watching the games just like me:)