NECN Appearance on Andover Sports Hazing and Parents' Right to Question Coaching Credentials

In the aftermath of a hazing incident at a summer basketball camp, two Andover High School students have been expelled, the franchised basketball camp (Hoop Mountain) has been kicked off the college campus where the camp was held, and a legal investigation is underway as well. I appeared on NECN's The Morning Show (NECN is the regional cable news network for New England) to discuss how parents can try to prevent, and protect their children, from hazing by asking questions of and about coaches and camp counselors.

(Note: I am in fact 36 weeks pregnant here. I don't always look like this! I will be able to show my son his first-- in utero-- television appearance someday though.)

For more of my thoughts on protecting youth from potentially predatory or untrustworthy coaches, teachers, and camp counselors, check out this piece on the need for state coaching certifications, this piece on summer camps, and this on questions you should ask of all your child's afterschool instructors.

(Also, in case we needed any more disturbing reminders about who we allow around our children, this story came out today about a children's casting agent sexually abusing kids [I guess it shouldn't surprise me that you can become a children's casting agent and never go through a background check to make sure you aren't a pedophile.]).

Shrinking and Pinking: Skirting Controversy

It seems that often when there's a woman's first in sports, there's some sort of controversy shortly after.  Case in point? Women's boxing. Last month I wrote about the inclusion of women's boxing as an Olympic sport for the first time (for another inspirational story about how this came to be, check out this story about Irish boxer Katie Taylor).  But now the men who run boxing want to make sure that these female boxers wear skirts while they compete. Why? Well, first of all, they claim it's hard to tell men and women apart when you watch a match (I'm not quite sure why this is a problem though).  They also feel, according to a great piece by Christine Brennan, that skirts make female boxers more "elegant."  Polish coach Leszek Piotrowski is quoted as saying, "By wearing skirts, in my opinion, it gives a good impression, a womanly impression."  If you recall, badminton faced a similar controversy over the summer... Which lead them to reverse their decision on women having to compete in skirts at the Olympics. Hopefully the same will happen when it comes to women's boxing.

Then again, at least female boxers have a chance to compete in London next summer. Women's racewalkers don't have that opportunity-- skirts or not.  American Erin Taylor-Talcott has qualified for the US Trials in the 50k, but even if she performed well enough to qualify for the Games (which it appears in unlikely), she would not be able to compete in London.  Because the 50k speedwalking event isn't tremendously popular among men, it seems like giving women an opportunity makes sense. Perhaps in the next quad?

In my home state of Massachusetts there has also been recent controversy because of (lack of) parity between women and men. In this case the issue is allowing boys to compete on a girls sports team. No, not field hockey, which I've discussed before; this time it's swimming. Because many schools only have girls' teams, boys are allowed to compete on those teams. This year a female state record in the 50 free was almost broken... by a boy. If a male had broken the record it is unclear how that would have been handled.  But this is likely a situation that will come up again so some decisions should be made in advance.  I can't help but think that if a girl could possibly break a boys' record we would likely applaud that achievement, so is it fair to punish a boy who doesn't have a similar opportunity?

At the same time, it is wonderful to applaud women's achievements. As various major league baseball decisions are made for next season it's worth noting that the Dodgers recently hired Sue Falsone as the first female trainer in MLB. I'm guessing she won't be wearing a skirt during games though.

Developing the All-Around Child (from BostonMagazine.com)

I was honored to participate in an "online roundtable" panel of experts over at Boston Magazine related to overparenting.  The question I was asked to answer, along with four experts in psychology and social work, was "Are We Overparenting Our Kids?" This roundtable was tied to a feature story written by Katheine Ozment called "Welcome to the Age of Overparenting."  (Note that I was especially thrilled to have a seat at the virtual table with Jerome Kagan, who I met as an undergraduate when I received a fellowship in his name/honor to support research related to childhood.) At the annual College Board conference this fall, the dean of admissions at Harvard, William Fitzsimmons, revived some parental panic. According to The New York Times, he told an assembled crowd that successful Harvard applicants are “good all-rounders — academically, extracurricularly, and personally.”

This wasn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last, that gatekeepers like Fitzsimmons induce hand-ringing, acid reflux, and sleepless nights among credentials-concerned parents — even if their children are still in elementary school. In the fall of 2008, Fitzsimmons similarly set off alarm bells in affluent suburbs around Boston when he was quoted in The Boston Globe, saying, “Even fifth-graders in Wellesley, Newton, and Brookline, who as adults will face international competition for jobs, should begin beefing up their academic résumés if they want a shot at an Ivy League education.”

It’s clear that for millions of upper-middle and middle-class American children today, waiting until high school to prove one’s mettle would be a mistake. The college admissions race requires far more advanced preparation, orchestrated and monitored by involved parents who ferry their scheduled kids from school to music lessons to sports practice to private tutoring to home, repeating the cycle day after day.

Of course, it is tempting to denounce these preoccupations as the hyper-fixation of neurotic parents who are living through their children. (See: Controversy, Tiger Mom, Amy Chua) But are these parents crazy?

No. (Though at times they may exhibit questionable behavior …)

Their children face very real bottlenecks through which they need to pass if they are going to achieve in ways similar to their parents. And the probability of that outcome appears to be less than it once was.

Media coverage of recent low college acceptance rates only fuels parents’ anxiety, reinforcing the competitive culture, even among the preschool set. This is partly because of the 15 year-long rise in the number of high school graduates — which is peaking right now at around 2.9 million. And it’s not just that there are more students, but also that more of them are applying to particular schools. Last year Harvard saw a 6.2 percent acceptance rate, with almost 35,000 applicants.

Based on my research of families with elementary school-age children who participate in competitive chess, dance, and soccer, it would be a mistake to think that parents fixate on college admissions every Saturday afternoon. Instead, they understand the grooming of their child as producing a certain kind of character and a track record of success that is valued during the long march toward the pursuit of advanced degrees, like JDs, MDs, MBAs, and PhDs. But were parents to think in directly instrumental terms about that thick admissions envelope, they would not be far off the mark: activity participation, particularly athletics, can confer an admissions advantage, either through athletic scholarships or an admissions “boost.”

That U.S. colleges and universities consider admissions categories other than academic merit is rooted in history and is uniquely American; I argue that it is part of the reason that highly competitive and organized afterschool activities are more common here. Jerome Karabel in The Chosen shows how the “Big Three” of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, developed new admissions criteria in the 1920s to keep out “undesirables,” like Jews and immigrants. This new system valued the “all-around man,” who was naturally involved in extracurricular clubs and athletics.

Middle- and upper-middle class parents today understand the importance of this “all-around (wo)man,” and consequently may seem to overparent their young kids to get them on the right track. But given the history of college admissions in this country, and current state of affairs, can you blame them?

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS ON BOSTON MAGAZINE'S WEBSITE!

'Aunt Flo" and the Female Athlete (from BlogHer Sports)

No, not Flo-Jo (aka the legendary Florence Griffith-Joyner—still considered the fastest woman ever). I’m talking about our monthly visitor, curse, and any other number of nicknames/euphemisms we women use to describe our menstrual cycles. As women gain access to more opportunities outside of the home, and outside of the bounds of the traditional “separate spheres,” we still have to acknowledge some biological differences between men and women. That women menstruate and men don’t is one of them.It’s a question that economists and psychologists have recently pursued, particularly as it relates to earnings.  This paper, by a group of psychologists out of the University of New Mexico, finds that exotic dancers earn less during menstruation but more during the fertile phase of their cycles. Another paper by University of California, Davis economists finds that naturally cycling women exhibit more risky behavior (than men) in the marketplace during their fertile phase.

While menstruation affects all women at some point in their lives, it is a particularly tricky issue for female athletes. You want to get your period, but it can also impact performance.

CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING ON BLOGHER OR KEEP READING BELOW!

Why does a female athlete want to get her period? Well it’s not ideal to develop amenorrhea.  Amenorrhea is defined as not getting your period for at least three consecutive months.  Menstruation is a sign of a healthy body, so the lack of menstruation can mean that a female is underweight, which can impact bone density (making her more susceptible to breaks in the short-term and osteoporosis in the long-term), and also impact energy levels.  This is known as the “female athlete triad.”  It is of particular concern when it comes to sports that emphasize a slim physique—like gymnastics, figure skating, dancing, and diving—and sports that emphasize endurance—like swimming and long distance running.

Last month, as part of my monthly blog series on female athletes called Shrinking and Pinking, I wrote about elite runner Lauren Fleshman. Fleshman finished seventh in the 5000m at the World Track and Field Championships. This impressive woman wrote candidly on her blog about the finals being on the “absolute worst day of the month for my cycle.”  On the one hand it is great news that such an elite runner gets her monthly visitor; but, as she notes, it also means bloating and water retention that can make her four pounds heavier, thus impacting her running.  She solicited advice on how to handle this, and received many comments on her posting.  Some suggest using synthetic hormones to control and manipulate the cycle to help manage the impacts on performance.  Clearly, this is not something that male runners have to fret over.

A recent study on female rowers finds that overall endurance is not effected by estrogen fluctuations related to the menstrual cycle (though we may feel more tired, perhaps our bodies can still perform consistently if pushed).  Yet, changes in hormone levels still matter depending on the type of athletic activity.  For example, there is evidence that our joints loosen at certain times of the month.  So, when jumping, we may land differently, putting us at risk for injury.  Some have hypothesized that this could be a possible explanation for the higher rates of knee injuries, particularly ACL tears, in female athletes.

None of this is to say that women can’t be superb athletes and that they shouldn’t compete!  Prior to Title IX this had been a concern so some pushed aside questions of biological differences and impacts on athletic injuries and performance.  Now that women athletes have proven themselves it is time to think seriously about ways to improve female performance, cognizant of some biological differences between men and women.

Understanding how to train to accommodate monthly bodily changes means continuing to research both the female body from a scientific and medical point of view and a practical point of view.  Having athletes like Lauren Fleshman, draw attention to this issue is significant, as is the fact that a range of researchers are interested in the question of how the menstrual cycle impacts female performance.As always, more work remains to be done—including making sure that girls understand how important it is to know their own bodies and not starve or overtrain in pursuit of some unattainable perfection.>Aunt Flo may sometimes not be welcome, but she is an important monthly visitor and female athletes should start learning how to welcome and deal with this visitor before puberty hits.

Pint-Sized Phenoms: Moving Musicians and Athletes

This month's featured Pint-Sized Phenoms include both athletes and musicians-- with accompanying moving images. Let's start with 17-year-old high school senior Trent Glaze. Trent has Muscular Dystrophy.  But that didn't stop him from playing for his Ohio high school's football team, as captain, and scoring a touchdown.  Watch this heart-warming story:

For more on Trent, click here.

C.J. Senter is another impressive young man. At ten-years-old he already has his own fitness videos, making him the Justin Bieber of the youth workout video circuit. Don't believe me? Check out those screaming elementary school-age girls as they see his muscles and eight-pack:

For more on C.J., click here.

14-year-old Mark Boylan also wanted to be an athletic hero with adoring fans-- specifically a jockey.  But after growing too tall to be successful, he turned to music (incidentally another great way to get girls to scream for you).  Music allows him to incorporate his continued love for the sport of horse-racing.  Mark wrote an original song for the Breeders' Cup, which ultimately brought him from his native Ireland to Kentucky to perform live at the recent event.

For more on Mark, click here.

Jay Greenberg writes original music, too. Except he actually writes symphonies. Basically in his head. A student at Juilliard at 12-years-old, he's being compared to Mozart.  60 Minutes recently did a segment on this impressive pint-sized prodigy:

Finally, I couldn't resist including this photo of adorable two-year-old Dominic Ricci that I recently came across in The Boston Globe. Dominic has already scored an 82 in candlepin bowling, without the use of bumpers. That is much better than yours truly! I wonder how good he'll be at age four, once he doubles his life experience?!