Thursday, July 24, 2008

Your'e Going To Wear That?

Now this is not really relevant to diving, but I heard this idea from JEN REHBERGER (a former diver of mine) who has coached high school and summer league diving with me for many years in the Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky area. I liked it so much, I thought I would share it with you. At the end, I will tie it in to diving with another "Moose" Moss classic that IS very relevant to diving.

Recently, Jen and I were judging a local Summer League Champ Meet and between events we were talking about our children and some of the joys and concerns of raising them. Jen told me that her husband Jeff tells their two children the following:

"You can wear whatever you want outside of the house but whatever you do decide to wear, please know that I will show up at school to pick you up in front of all your friends DRESSED THE EXACT SAME WAY."

WOW!! That is good -- there is quite a bit of incentive for their children to dress in a manner deemed appropriate by their parents.

Getting kids to do the right thing is difficult. Among other things, it takes time; it takes patience and it takes discipline. The same could be said about coaching diving. One of the most difficult things to do while coaching diving is getting your divers to do what you want them to do, the way you want them to do it all the time. This also takes time, patience and discipline.

To end with the immortal wisdom of legendary diving coach Robert "Moose" Moss: "The secret to getting a kid to do something they don't want to do, is to give them the choice of doing something they'd rather do less."

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