I Coach Kids

My TBI occurred just as I got my California teaching credential. Disability payments came in for some years before I began to substitute teach, and then was hired to teach in my own classroom. As they say, I worked back into being employable. I began teaching in Boise, Idaho after many years of substitute teaching, but before No because he was a lover of track and field, and saw potential in a one time national class athlete who had been stripped of her physical prowess in a car crash, but was willing to work hard to succeed at whatever she attempted.

I worked under him for some years, and did well.  He was a true mentor, and once said he would help me write a book about my journey.  He was also very supportive of my coaching career as I was hired to coach long/triple jumps at the high school close to my elementary school. But, then he resigned to become a minister.

My next principal was married to a high school administrator who had been a Canadian national class triple jumper, so I assumed she would be supportive of my coaching as well.  But, Idaho 5th and 6th graders run track, in an after school program, and I think the principal had me pegged as our elementary school track coach.

After her 1st year at my school, she asked if I was going to help out, again, with the high school track team that spring, or if I would coach our school's team? I answered, You know, I can teach academics to 5th graders, but I have no experience coaching them. And, I don't just help out at the high school, I am a paid coach. I went on to explain I was going to coach hurdles that year. Hurdling is a complex event most no nothing about, but I had run the event in 2 Olympic Trials, AND had coaching experience. My comments fell on deaf ears; it was not what she was hoping to hear, and she was not happy.

I moved back home to Kalispell, a few years later, and began coaching middle school cross country, and then basketball, and finally was hired to coach hurdles. We're now in week 3 of our short track season, and I am working with the kids who want to be hurdlers. I am happy.  We start with more than 100 athletes and they rotate from event to event, trying everything. In essence, I have 3 large groups of athletes for 20 minutes at a time, and need to teach the basics of hurdling so that they can decide if it's something they'd like to pursue.

Everyone who has ever coached knows that your gifted athlete is not always the kid who wants to work hard, and that those who want it most, and are willing to do anything it takes, may have very little innate athletic ability. I add to that, the fact that I coach cross country, and know that many of my hurdlers will actually be more adept at running distance. So coaching can be tricky.

My method is to take them all, encourage anyone who is willing to listen to me and attempt to do what I ask of them, my way. To the kid that says, Oh, I do it this way, because it's easier. I simply say, That's the wrong way, and if you don't want to try to do it right, you can find another event.
I haven't had to say that in a long time, though.

I have been at the middle school long enough to have coached some kids four seasons, in total; 2 cross country (in the fall) and 2 track (spring) seasons. Of course, I come to love some of those kids, but I must admit there are 1st days of practice when I say to myself, and perhaps other coaches, Hasn't he/she moved on to Flathead/Glacier yet? He/She can't STILL be here! Those are when I am glad I only have them 7th and 8th grade. But more often, I find myself wishing I had them longer.

And when they are with me they are my hurdlers. After they go on to high school, I watch the Interlake for track results to see if they continued, and whether or not they are improving, and all I can hope for is that they are still having fun, and their coaches see a love for track I hope I helped develop.

Untangling Me

Don't know if I've talked about my new obsession. It started with drawing. Mom is an accomplished painter so she provided me with more than a few spiral bound sketch pads, some pencils and a couple of cool erasers. Coincidentally, Dan's dad Dick, was also an artist. Using some of Dick's vintage how-to art books, I started doing some stuff.  At the start, mom was in a treatment facility because of her broken hip, and later was in another for the compression fracture in her low back.  I didn't want her to be alone, and I wasn't working, so I spent hours, next to her bed, drawing. 

Drawing was the farthest thing from my mind during my TBI recovery. Therapists began teaching me to write left handed, before my release from the hospital, but a friend's young son suggested I try with my right (I had been right handed.) I did, and was able to write lists, sign my name etc. I've used my compromised right hand, to write, for years, but I most often keyboard. To type, I use my entire left hand, then hunt and peck with my claw (right hand.) I refer to it as my claw because it will hold on to anything in it's grip, forever.  I have to make a very conscious decision to release what's there. So, yes, my right hand works but not quite right. 

The question was, then, could I draw?  Well, I tried many different styles, and after more than a year of drawing A LOT, I've learned that I really just love doodling.  Zentangle, to be more exact. The Zentangle result is an abstract drawing that uses repeated patterns, and the Zentangle Method is actually trademarked. It uses 3.5 in square white squares, called tiles, and the drawing is done in black ink. 

In the beginning, I knew nothing about Zentangle, but now I know that it was intended to make the act of drawing pleasing, and meditative. That's exactly how it works for me. To start, I copied some of the drawings pinned on Pinterest. 

Wikipedia calls Pinterest a personalized media platform (it's on the internet) where, after registration, users can upload, save sort and manage images - known as pins. I think of them as a bunch of ideas of things to try to make, images I enjoy, and items I call an if-$-was-not-an issue want.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I was doing a lot of it. I still was practicing real drawing with a pencil and eraser, but to relax, I would fall back into doodling.

Sometimes I am just learning a new pattern, but I incorporate it into some large space I'm filling.  Dan will peer over my shoulder, chuckling, Wow, now that's a lot of things!  Other times, I am filling in the outline of an object, and I try to somehow match the patterns to the object.  I've come to realize I'm doing some strange variation of Zentangle; I don't create 3.5 inch squares (tiles) and I use a lot of color.  

The color comes from markers. I use to swear the best marker was the Flair, but as soon as I saw they ran/smeared when another marker was used over it, I moved to the Sharpie. Sharpies come in different sizes which was helpful, and many colors so I became a Sharpi-o-holic. Then there is the fact that I love a bargain, so my marker collection includes many pens I have found on clearance racks. 

I don't like to erase, so most of the time I just grab a marker and go, and on most actual drawings, I try to incorporate some doodling. We now have the answer to my question:  Yes, I can draw.

Now the question is, WHY can I? I can't comb my hair, my hand is stiff and much of the time uncooperative (large motor skills = not good.) It actually feels like it is part way asleep; kind of numb.


And finally, WHY do I do it? I do it for myself.  I do it to relax.  And, yes, it is almost meditative.