School and college sports

[belfastboy]

I read Thomas Tutko...he stated that sport does not build character it reveals it. In that moment I committed to teaching process not outcome. We can always , coach and players, control process but it is folly to think we control to any degree outcomes.

 

[Ticklishchap]

I read Thomas Tutko...he stated that sport does not build character it reveals it. In that moment I committed to teaching process not outcome. We can always , coach and players, control process but it is folly to think we control to any degree outcomes.

I like the statement about sport not making but revealing character. It makes a lot of sense. However I can also say that I have realised as an adult man how much of my character was shaped by participating in sport, especially as there was so much emphasis on it at my boarding school. This includes the element of compulsion I described above, when I was told I had to go on playing Rugger despite the pressure of examinations. This showed me that academic goals weren't everything and there were other values that were just as important. I also learned a lot of collaborative skills which have been helpful to me in unexpected ways.

 

[Ticklishchap]

One other thing I learned from Rugger practice in particular was tolerance of cold. ‘This is freezing your bollocks off, I know’, one of our coaches would say to us (with a measure of enjoyment) when we were standing around listening to him. He was not wrong!

 

[Edward]

One other thing I learned from Rugger practice in particular was tolerance of cold. ‘This is freezing your bollocks off, I know’, one of our coaches would say to us (with a measure of enjoyment) when we were standing around listening to him. He was not wrong!

Doubtless he was properly dressed for the cold, though.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Doubtless he was properly dressed for the cold, though.

I recall that he often wore two military Woolly Pullies (aka commando sweaters), Army and Navy, one on top of the other. During periods of standing around listening to him talk (or rather shout), we could also wear our Woolly Pullies from Corps over our Rugger shirts. My interest in that type of sweater dates from that time: I started a thread about them on FL, which is still going strong.

 

[Ticklishchap]

It's an unwritten rule that's blowing in the wind!

Maybe the cold was one of the reasons for all those farts.

 

[Ticklishchap]

One other aspect of this was that I recall being treated very leniently in terms of discipline because I played Rugger and that was considered very important to the school. It was not at all fair but I'm afraid I used it to my advantage as did others who were similarly favoured.

 

[Ticklishchap]

It's an unwritten rule that's blowing in the wind!

Looking back at that time I’m amazed I got any academic work done at all.

 

[2jakes]

I also like the statement about sports not making but revealing character.

In early tennis competition, I had negative feelings towards my opponents.
I was fortunate to chat with two world champions.
Basically, I learned to treat victory & defeat the same.
To respect my opponents who brought their best to the competition.
Making the end results more sweeter. Win or lose, I gave it my best shot.

 

[belfastboy]

I also like the statement about sports not making but revealing character.

In early tennis competition, I had negative feelings towards my opponents.
I was fortunate to chat with two world champions.
Basically, I learned to treat victory & defeat the same.
To respect my opponents who brought their best to the competition.
Making the end results more sweeter. Win or lose, I gave it my best shot.

In the years I coached baseball would always talk to the boys about the competition. The competition is never your enemy and we need to respect them and thank them for in the end they are our friend. It is the competition that is trying to kick our ass and in the process make us better For that they need always be thanked and we need be grateful for them.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Agree with both posts above. The interesting thing was that the competition could feel much more intense when playing for a House team against another House (the School was divided into Houses) than against another school. It was the same at university (divided into Colleges) with the difference between playing for the College and playing for the University against another academic institution. Inter-House and Inter-College rivalries were stronger. Part of the process of appreciating was to put into perspective and remember that ultimately we were all friends.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Slightly going off on a tangent: I should know this, having so many American friends and colleagues, but at college (university level), what names do you have for your semesters? We call semesters ‘terms’ and generally have three in the year. I went to one of the older British universities as an undergraduate and we called our terms Michaelmas (winter), Hilary (with one l! - spring), Trinity (summer). Other universities use more prosaic names corresponding with seasons. What words do you use in the US - or does it vary between Ivy League and non-Ivy League?

 

[Harp]

Slightly going off on a tangent: I should know this, having so many American friends and colleagues, but at college (university level), what names do you have for your semesters? We call semesters ‘terms’ and generally have three in the year. I went to one of the older British universities as an undergraduate and we called our terms Michaelmas (winter), Hilary (with one l! - spring), Trinity (summer). Other universities use more prosaic names corresponding with seasons...

M,H&T christen are occasionally found within the quarter slices but seasonal semester tags are more typical.

 

[Ticklishchap]

M,H&T christen are occasionally found within the quarter slices but seasonal semester tags are more typical.

I’m interested to know where these terms are found within ‘quarter tags’. Are they associated with only the oldest colleges or Ivy League schools? Or is it more random rhan that?

 

[Ticklishchap]

Perfect school Rugger game weather here today!

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Perfect school Rugger game weather here today!

Very True

 

[Ticklishchap]

Very True

I spent years playing Rugger in the cold - and listening to lectures from games masters on technique, etc.!

 

[belfastboy]

I also like the statement about sports not making but revealing character.

In early tennis competition, I had negative feelings towards my opponents.
I was fortunate to chat with two world champions.
Basically, I learned to treat victory & defeat the same.
To respect my opponents who brought their best to the competition.
Making the end results more sweeter. Win or lose, I gave it my best shot.

Early in my coaching (volunteer baseball) career I took a course from Thomas Tutko a sports psychologist popular in the 1970's. He may have been the one who coined that phrase about sports revealing character or at least the first to take credit for it! I learned a ton from him and began instructing my players about respect for opponents and rather than viewing them as enemy switch it over to viewing them as friends doing a service in trying to beat us. Who else but a friend demands the best from us? We don't have to like them, but we need respect them for pushing us to be better.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Early in my coaching (volunteer baseball) career I took a course from Thomas Tutko a sports psychologist popular in the 1970's. He may have been the one who coined that phrase about sports revealing character or at least the first to take credit for it! I learned a ton from him and began instructing my players about respect for opponents and rather than viewing them as enemy switch it over to viewing them as friends doing a service in trying to beat us. Who else but a friend demands the best from us? We don't have to like them, but we need respect them for pushing us to be better.

I remember your Thomas Tutko reference last year (?) and I commented on it at the time expressing interest and agreement. The problem with school and college sport was when it was taken too seriously- by the team itself and by the coach or games master. One of the advantages of the Rugger teams I was part of was that sense of humour gave us perspective: we were too busy laughing at ourselves (much to the coach’s chagrin) to become fanatical about the sport.

 

[Edward]

Slightly going off on a tangent: I should know this, having so many American friends and colleagues, but at college (university level), what names do you have for your semesters? We call semesters ‘terms’ and generally have three in the year. I went to one of the older British universities as an undergraduate and we called our terms Michaelmas (winter), Hilary (with one l! - spring), Trinity (summer). Other universities use more prosaic names corresponding with seasons. What words do you use in the US - or does it vary between Ivy League and non-Ivy League?

Oxbridge aside (where maintaining the appearance of ostentatious anachronism is part of the marketing strategy), most UK universities in recent decades have modularised (to ever increasing degrees; the dominant fashionable model by far is now the American credit system, the goal being to present the students with the illusion of ever more choice - whether they want it or not). The two-semester model is now the standard across the significant majority of tertiary education providers now, with the "third term" as once would have been largely reserved for postgraduates to complete dissertations, and undergraduates to put in the hours at whatever side jobs keep a university education (almost) affordable. Rumour has it that the government are once more discussing the notion of a two-year undergraduate degree, based on axing the Summer break, though (as was the case when this was last raised during the Blair era) if they must persist with the tyranny of REF culture, there is simply no way the profession will accept such a notion. (Nor - as a matter of best practice - should we. Increasing modularisation has achieved nothing but an increase in cramming, exam focus, and 'teaching to the test').