Almost my entire life I have been around the sport of
baseball; playing it, watching it, and even help coaching it. The knowledge of
the game has always come pretty easy to me and has formed into my identity over
the course of my life. My father has always coached my little brother, who is
10 years younger than me, from six years old all the way up to 14. Just last
year, my dad asked me to come on as an assistant coach because he needed help
coaching my brother’s travel team. Even considering I had not been around the
sport in several years, I accepted the offer because I always thought it would
be fun to coach with my dad and would love to help him out.
Going into my first coaching gig, I knew very well that
coaching is completely different than playing, and I was right. I knew that
teaching the game to these kids would be difficult from time to time and would
take a lot of patience. Some kids were
fairly experienced while others were still new to the game and that was where I
struggled the most and had to make some adjustments from a coaching
perspective. Teaching the kids that were still new to the game and learning the
basics really brought me back to the roots of the game and had me going way
back to what I had learned when I was 6-8 years old.
James Paul Gee explained it well on page 7 of “Literacy,
Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction.” He stated, “Therefore, ironically,
while you can overtly teach someone linguistics, a body of knowledge, you can’t
teach them to be a linguist, that is, to use a Discourse. The most you can do
is let them practice being a linguist with you.” This applied well to the
current discourse that I was experiencing because I was capable enough to know
that I could teach my players the knowledge of the game but I had to be patient
enough to know that not all of them will apply that knowledge to how they play.
I did experience a lot of “mushfaking” while coaching. In
times where I did not know the proper instruction to teach the kids, I would
say something that my dad would say because I did not know anything else to
say. This would be my example of “make do” because my resources were very
limited and I had to do my best to get by which would be instructing how my dad
would instruct, in the best way possible. This was my discourse experience, and what I
learned here is something that I will take with me after I graduate or when I experience
another discourse. I am positive I will experience discomfort in the future so
now I know how to respond to it. We are always growing and learning new things
and we do not know yet so it is up to us to decide how we want to handle this
adversity.
http://jamespaulgee.com/pdfs/Literacy%20and%20Linguistics.pdf
https://pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/272057/1-s2.0-S0890406500X00345/1-s2.0-
Hi Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that you applied your love for baseball and took it to another level of coaching. I am sure it was a lot different trying to coach young kids. What I really liked about your blog is when you said you used the things your Dad had said when he coached and applied it to your own coaching. What a great example of being an apprentice. Your right that learning to mushfake it is a great skill that will be applied throughout our lives. Your new discourse as a coach and the knowledge from playing the game is a great example of taking your original discourse and applying to a new one!
Hello Jacob,
ReplyDeleteIt's really great how you leaped at the opportunity to coach even though you knew it would be difficult. Coaching is really rewarding and it's a lot harder than most people realize. Every single athlete is different, so as a coach you do have to adapt to each kid individually. I like how you incorporated Gee's quote to your own experience and talked about having patience with the kids, because it's a very important quality to have as a coach since not all kids learn at the same pace. I've helped coach soccer but it was junior college girls, so it was challenging in the aspect that they didn't want to listen to me since I was only a few years older than them. I would have rather coached younger kids honestly! I like your positive outlook on the challenges the learning a new discourse, that alone will help accomplish other future goals and discourses.
Thanks for sharing.
Chloe
Hey Jacob,
ReplyDeleteI also coached younger kids before and can relate to your adjustment period. You constantly have to adjust to the different understanding and skill levels each individual your coaching has, on top of juggling the multiple personalities to form a cohesive team. You don't only have to adjust your patience and discourse to the kids you are coaching but the parents as well at times. However, I found it to be an extremely rewarding experience and seeing positive results for the individual players' and team development was amazing to see.