Blog Post #42, March 17, 2009

Category: Teaching

Dancing With The Stars? C’mon, Swen. What does that have to do with sports, teaching, and fundamentals? Wait! Hold it! Before you X this page, hear me out. What I learned from the show is possibly the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned about why we coach sports. In fact, it is a fundamental reason we are involved in youth coaching.

Year after year, the Dancing With The Stars roster contains actors, professionals, comedians, singers, athletes, and others. From the very first season of the show, the judges have noticed differences between these groups, particularly in the area of motivation. I believe it was the second season when a judge made the comment: The advantage the athletes have is they know how to practice and push themselves.

In the past years, the show included athletic greats like Emmitt Smith, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Monica Seles. This year, it is blessed with Shawn Johnson, Olympic gold medalist; Ty Murray, seven-time all-around world rodeo champion also with two bull-riding world titles; and Lawrence Taylor, arguably the greatest defensive player in NFL history with two Super Bowl rings.

OK. You don’t watch the show. But your wife does, right? Do yourself a favor and, next Monday night, sit down with her for an hour or two and just observe. She’s going to mainly watch the dancing. But what I want you to pay particular attention to is the segment just before the dance: The part where they show the couple practicing. There you will see the difference between the athletes and the other groups.

More than any other group, the athletes are out of their element, with the possible exception of skaters. In fact, their excellence in sport works against their ability to learn dance. But you will see an amazing determination to overcome that.  During practice, you will see huge human beings, who are used to physical contact, explosive movements, and animalistic behavior, try to move with gentle contact, smooth maneuvers, and sophisticated dispositions, completely opposite of what they have been trained to do for years. You will see them fall, get disgusted, and want to give up. But they don’t. At the brink of throwing in the towel (a point they have been at many times before), they will get up and try it again and again and again. Even when they are convinced there is little hope for mastery or even getting to a point where their dancing is considered respectable, they will keep going.

Where does this come from? You already know. The character to never give up has been drilled into them from an early age by coaches that would not let them give up—coaches that understood, if they allowed a child to give up in sports, they would give up in life. These teachers held back the urge to abort the painful procedure they were subjecting their players to, and pushed them through it because they knew, once on the other side, the student will never be afraid of paying the price for success again. 

During the early episodes of Dancing With The Stars, the athletes will almost always be the underdogs, but because they are conditioned to practice, they improve more than any other group. This year, Lawrence Taylor is receiving very low scores. When you watch his practice sessions, you’re going to see a very unhappy person, extremely hard on himself, utterly frustrated, and  disgusted with the lack of ability to make his body do what his teacher is demonstrating and asking for. But, you will also see him ignore his body, get up, and try again. Not surprisingly, from week one to week two, he is the most improved. This will continue. Why? Because Lawrence is a competitor? You may call it that. But the real reason is; Lawrence Taylor is not afraid of practice.

When he played football as a youth, his coach trained him to fight through disappointment, failure, and pain. In the process, Lawrence learned failure is a valuable tool that makes one take inventory and make changes. His coach proved to him, when you fail, learn, try, and fight, you will overcome. And now he’s on the dance floor, with the same challenges he had as a youth. He needs no coach. He’s trained. 

So now are you going to watch Dancing With The Stars? Good. You’re going to be amazed at Gillis Marini’s natural talent and Belinda Carlisle’s grace. Oh, they may have a head start, but they have no idea what is coming behind them and gaining ground. Shawn Johnson is already showing incredible improvement. But watch out for Ty Murray and Lawrence Taylor, athletes that were trained by youth coaches that loved them enough to make them work through seemingly insurmountable obstacles and allowed them to discover the reward, waiting on the other side of hard work. You’re going to see Lawrence Taylor grimace, fall, limp, and be frustrated. But you’re also going to see him get up because he’s been trained to go through anything, knowing that mental and physical pain is a small price to pay compared to the reward. With all due respect, no other Dancing With The Stars contestant is capable of knowing that. 

And they say sports doesn’t teach character. Like Ty Murray would say, “Bull!”