Tagged in: Coaching Development, Move Live Learn Blog, Physical and Health Education

Punishing with Exercise = Tres Uncool

Embrace new strategies for more successful coaching

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Coach: “10 pushups”.

Me: “Who, me?”

Coach: “Yes, 10 pushups. You just yawned while I was speaking.”

Me (thinking): What did I do? 10 push-ups. I didn’t even think anything of it....

The year? 1993. The venue? Nova Scotia Provincial U-18 select level soccer team. The coach? Pretty incredible tactician. He went on to coach the Canadian National Team...not bad, eh?

Okay - now, your turn. Think about it. What are the first few memories you have of a coach punishing you (and/or your team) with exercise (I have way too many to list but the yawning one makes me laugh more than the others - it’s better than rolling my eyes)? I heard some doozies from my partner at supper the other night. Apparently, many of our former coaches didn’t get the memo. [What memo?]  You know, the one that all coaches get about youth and university sport - and, their purpose being solely about development, life skills, and health-related & skill-related physical fitness. Don’t get me wrong! We had many awesome coaches whom we think very fondly of - we just aren’t sure that all our teammates would say the same about each of them. Moreover, when I hear of punishment with exercise in 2013, I am honestly confused. Have we not evolved more than this?

We (my partner and I) are among the lucky ones. We kept at it - exercise. We love working out. In fact, it becomes punishment when we can’t work out after taking a few days off (and yes, we love our days off too).

Let’s face it, a lot of youth sport coaches aren’t exactly getting paid millions for volunteering (get it?). But, if they are going to be out there volunteering their time, I sure hope they’ll find this post in their inbox somehow. You see, these folks are well intended. They are likely only mimicking what they experienced as youth sport participants. But, that does not make it right.

We seem to think old school is so great. Well everyone, there are reasons (um, statistics) as to why some of these unsafe or illogical practices have changed. Older generations can laugh at us - but if you are an evidence based person, you may want to read on.

What is the research telling us now? Using exercise as a punishment does not motivate people to grow into physically active individuals (SHOCKING, I know).

Why it is wrong to punish with exercise?
It sends a clear message that exercise is a bad thing. That health related physical fitness is associated with negative experiences, thoughts and actions.

It sends a clear message to kids that you don’t have time to get to the real problem, nor time to show them how much we care about their growth as people.

Stop. Ask “Why?”
Why are you late? Did something happen beyond your control?

Why are you not trying? Perhaps you are ill, frustrated, going through a tough time...

Why are yawning? Maybe you have a part-time job that kept you up late and then had to study for a test after that…

I talked to a great friend and former colleague about this. I coached varsity girls soccer at the Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia with Coach Bill Rider. Bill is head of the math department and was a D1 soccer player at University of Richmond. He’s brilliant. I loved coaching with Bill because of the community he established with our team was always so warm and fuzzy (my partner Jim calls this ‘Amandaville’). Yes, the team was compiled of excellent soccer players - but, more importantly, there were a LOT of smiles and laughter each day at practice and games- during fitness and during skill development and when both were combined (as they most often were). Bill recently retired after 21-years at the helm of this dynasty program. Coach Rider’s thoughts on punishing in sport with exercise...

“Punishment via fitness/exercise shows both a lack of understanding about the efficacy of punishment and a lack of creativity regarding dissuasion. If you make the losing team do sprints, you can only justify it if their fitness kept them from success, and even then, once losing, they probably unconsciously started saving their energy for the sprints. If a kid is being disruptive in practice and you make them run, you haven’t solved the problem, but rather you’ve just avoided dealing with it. That pretty much ensures that it will happen again.”

Look around coaches - we can do better.
Many people are reluctantly spending big money on personal trainers, health coaches, fitness programs that they buy to play in their DVD players (but unfortunately too often gather dust) because they need/crave motivation to exercise. Why? Partly because we have normalized exercise as a negative and as a punishment. This is not a good thing. We have glorified movie scenes (Miracle on Ice, anyone?) that promote this type of behavior. I don’t think exercise alone keeps one healthy. And, I’m not sure the USA would have lost to Russia in the miracle on ice had they not had to do repeat sprints on their skates while their coached yelled “again.”

Fitness aids athletes’ success - undoubtedly. I’m certainly not going to argue with that nor am I suggesting we coaches back off on the fitness. Fitness also promotes healthy body sizes, increases positive self-esteem, and positively impacts mental resiliency. Fitness activities should be woven throughout practices and physical education lessons to help teach student athletes about the importance of being physically fit and to help increase their chances of success in physical activity and in health. But, we can facilitate fitness activities in a much better way than the old school mentality of fitness in sport and physical education (for more on how ‘physical education ain’t what it used to be’, click here.).

Let’s do better!

Let’s plan our practices in a way that aren’t boring (hence, less yawning).

Let’s plan them in a way that weaves fitness into activities that are fun, individualizes (when necessary), and involve friendly competition among collaboration.

Let’s talk to our students and athletes if/when they are late to determine what is really going on with them.

Let’s build a community that does not pit the team against the one player who might need that team more on that day more than ever before.

Let’s stop normalizing these old-school tactics that we seem to think prepared us so well for life. I’m one of the lucky ones to love exercising so much. I’m not going to lose sight that my love for working out is normal in society - people look at me like I’m nuts every day.

We can do better.

We must do better.

Youth deserve better.

Want some fun ideas on how to make fitness enjoyable for youth? Follow Dave Kitter (AKA: @youthfitnessguy) on Facebook and Twitter. He likes to rant (in a good way) and has some great videos on his website to get you started. Ted Temertzoglou (aka: @LifeisAthletic) is brilliant at fostering fun physical fitness experiences in quality physical education, too. Kelly Thompson (at St. Francis Xavier University) is among the best of the best in terms of having kids moving, smiling, and developing an incredible amount of physical fitness. Me? I love planning a fun, fast-paced, logical practice any chance I get!

What if more is needed?
If an athlete needs to compose herself/himself, then maybe some time away from the practice is needed. See the difference? Acknowledge something is up. Give the person space. Find time to follow up. Don’t let emotions get the best of you. Don’t ‘kick’ a kid when he/she is down.

Thanks for reading and thanks for caring and thanks for coaching youth sport!

How do you plan practices in ways that inspire participants to work hard and to show up on time?

How did being punished with exercise as a youth impact your physical activity behaviors as an adult?

  • Exercise as punishment seems like such a no brainer and yet I hear people, good people, go to the ‘old school’ and pick out a dose of exercise to stop kids ‘wasting their time and mine” (no not me). I was reading a book the other day where one of the character’s said “there are right ways of doing things that just can’t be stepped around”. Now he was talking about honour and “doing the right thing” but this sword cuts both ways in this blog. Firstly, exercise is seen as “the right way” and people go to their pockets and pick out a punishment without even thinking. Yet, it seems to me that there are right ways of doing things that can’t be stepped around and that means that expressions like “red door and back” need to disappear from youth and community sport and physical education as they are just wrong. Great blog Amanda…thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    • astanec

      Dear Ashley – thanks so much for your comment – I really appreciate it. What book was this (sounds like an interesting read!)? I wrote the blog for precisely a reason you bring up. I think most of know different, we just get so busy and caught up in the day to day that we don’t often have opportunity to reflect and adjust on such topics. I hope this helped some folks to do so – I know that your comments certainly will. Thanks again!

  • The problem with exercise as punishment is it works. It’s hard to argue against the fact that 100 pushups will deter someone from talking during instruction. It works! I hear this from PE teachers, coaches,and parents on a regular basis. But I think Rick Mercer said it best “you can get a cat out of a tree by shooting it, but there’s probably a better way.” I remember my parents making me write lines when I got in trouble, I still hate hand writing to this day, and my students will tell you it did not help my hand writing skills one bit. I wonder what would have happened if they had make me shoot on the net for an hour when I did something they didn’t approve of. Amanda, your post for me brings up thoughts about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We know from a gorge of research that extrinsic motivation works, but often turns what we are doing into work, it becomes a means to an end. I try not to use the term exercise, as to me it brings about extrinsic notions of fitness, of getting in shape, of losing weight etc. How do we get students to see movement as more then a means to an end? More than about fitness, or winning? This is even more difficult as “A” countability policies want to reduce our learning to measurable outcomes that disregard intangible aspects like joy, curiosity and fun.

    • astanec

      Dear Lee – thanks so much for your comment. It does “work” if your goal is to short-term get kids moving “faster” or more “intensely”. I love a) that you bring up Rick Mercer and b) what he says! I tell students and clients (through my health coaching) that the goal of their physical activity should be joy, connecting to nature and/or enjoying alone time, and the sense of accomplishment that it brings. The numbers on a scale, etc. are just results of what happens when those other goals are the focus. I am not sure all will ever get it, but I think you’ll agree that those who we can reach and help make all this hard work worth it, eh? :)

  • Despite the fact that it’s 2013, teachers at our school still prescribe writing lines as punishment for “bad behaviour” and withhold recess as a consequence for any number of infractions.As a parent, there’s nothing I can do about this other than stand up and be called a squeaky wheel. The administration hides behind the excuse of “professional judgment” and lack of policy.Discipline and the experience of natural consequences are necessary for kids. But when old school mentalities only serve to de-motivate, there’s really very little that anyone from outside the school can do to change the culture and promote positive reinforcement.

    • astanec

      Dear Jimmy – thanks so much for taking the time to comment on my blog post. I think it’s really backwards when recess is taken away from those who arguably need it the most. Lack of policy is a big issue, but administration should always advocate for their students while having the teachers’ backs as necessary. I hear your frustration as an “outsider” to the school system, but applaud your willingness to take a stand for all kids. They need people like you! Punishing for bad behavior is quite different – as you say – than having natural consequences for poor decisions. I really appreciate your comment!

  • Of course community building and feeling safe in your PE or coaching class is important – you want kids to enjoy your class and come back and work hard because they see value in what you are offering them! I think that sometimes we can motivate kids by having ‘extra’ pushups or other such as long as what you are offering is because of a negative behaviour or other (eg. I count to 5 – pretty slowly – when my class needs to come in for a discussion point, if they are not really focusing on coming in then the class will have some kind of punishment – 5 pushups that we all do – including me! and I have to do this maybe one time and now they all rush in…) but I won’t punish for yawning or being late – those aren’t anything (hopefully) to do with me or my class. I agree that we need to build a class and foster positive relationships, but I also think we need to be careful not too forgiving with kids – sometimes we need to see what we are doing as teachers – so I totally agree we need to plan our activities and sessions carefully so that it is our problem that things are not working out, not the kids. And we as teachers need to look at the big picture – what are other teachers demanding of our kids too – are we expecting too much this week because of exams? And take action to keep a balance for our kids. A great post, thanks for sharing.

    • astanec

      Thanks for your thoughtful post, Mel! I agree that we need to hold students accountable. If not, we are not preparing them for their experiences outside of PE. At one time, I (too) would participate in some of the fitness activities with the athletes. However, I really wasn’t getting to the point of the problem. I found that when I changed my approach to planning my practices and made more of an effort to communicate with my athletes, the issues that initially arose stopped. I appreciate your balanced response to both sides of the argument – your students are lucky to have someone who sees the big picture from different perspectives! :)

  • Your tweet today led me here Amanda – solid article and good comments showing both sides of equation. Any blog post that can elicit a Rick Mercer follow up is a good one. A quick question in regards to the research – what is/are the prevalent/important studies/evidence in regards to lack of effectiveness of physical activity as punishment / management strategy @ higher level training? In conversations amongst PE peers there is sometimes a theme that we need to be very careful w/ this in PE class; but it is more ‘acceptable’ at the team sport level. I would like to examine the studies in this area.