The Intersection of Literacy, Sport, Culture, and Society

2014 NCTE ANNUAL CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, DC

SPONSORED BY:

THE NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT

“Writing the Game: How Athletes and Coaches Use Writing”

by Rich Kent

University of Maine WritingAthletes.com

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Athletic Team Notebooks The Basic Sections …

Preseason Thoughts: The  prompts  on  this  page  of  the  Team  Notebook  help  athletes  think  about  the  previous  season  and  the  upcoming  season.  Athletes  write  about  their  preparation  and  goals  for  the  season.  Writing  Preseason  Thoughts  takes  the  average  athlete  10-­‐15  minutes.  Depending  on  the  number  of  athletes,  a  coach  will  read  and  perhaps  take  notes  on  the  collection  in  15  to  30  minutes.   Competition Analysis I: The  prompts  on  this  page  help  athletes  reflect  on  a  game  or  match.  The  one-­‐page  reflection  takes  an  average  player  3-­‐5  minutes  to  complete.  Depending  on  the  number  of  athletes,  coaches  will  read  and  perhaps  take  notes  on  the  collection  in  10-­‐20  minutes.       Competition Analysis II: The  prompts  on  this  page  assist  athletes  in  writing  about  a  game  that  a  team  watches  together.  The  two-­‐page  observation  takes  athletes  approximately  10  minutes  to  complete  and  may  be  used  as  a  discussion  guide.  Coaches  may  read  and  perhaps  take  notes  on  the  collection  in  10-­‐20  minutes.       Postseason Thoughts: The  prompts  on  this  page  help  players  in  thinking  about  the  past  season  while  making  plans  for  the  future.  As  with  Preseason  Thoughts,  an  athlete  may  take  15-­‐20  minutes  to  write  out  these  thoughts  and  a  coach  may  read  and  perhaps  take  notes  on  the  collection  in  15-­‐30  minutes.       Athlete’s Notes:    These  pages  are  for  keeping  notes,  sketching  plays,  and  storing  information  like  handouts  from  the  coach.  The  pages  may  be  blank  pieces  of  paper  or  the  coach  (or  players)  may  create  any  number  of  different  page  styles.  Also  in  this  section,  for  travel  or  select  teams,  a  coach  might  include  directions  to  venues  as  well  as  background  information  on  the  teams  to  be  watched,  schools  to  be  played,  or  tourist  sights  to  be  seen.      ©  Writing  on  the  Bus:  Using  Athletic  Team  Notebooks  and  Journals  to  Advance  Learning  and  Performance  in  Sports  by  Richard  Kent  (2012,  Peter  Lang/USA  &  the  National  Writing  Project)        

Richard  Kent,  University  of  Maine,  WritingAthletes.com      

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Falcon Soccer Preseason Thoughts

Player:  Jonathan      Grade:  11   Phone:  364.2953  

Email:  jonathan@email.com     Address:  Porter  Avenue  West  

Parents/Guardians:  Rylee  and  Christian    

Phone:  364.2953  Cell:  416.8111          Parent/Guardian  Email:  home@email.com  

My strengths last year as a player: Last year I felt confident in the air. I loved winning 50-50 balls. I’ve gained a lot of confidence on the pitch these past couple of years. I understand the game better—I can see how attacks are developing and I know what to say to my defenders. I bet if you asked the forwards from other teams they’d say I’m good at delaying. I love playing against great players (Remington from Telstar)—I used to get scared, now I get up for them. My weaknesses last year as a player: My communication wasn’t the best. Like you said, young players think about themselves & don’t talk much—experienced players speak up. Thanks to the summer matches I already have better talk. My left foot was squirrely… Not this year! My preparation for this season has been the following: Winter soccer, summer matches, and camp. I coached community center summer soccer. I did the deal! I’m prepared. Bring it on. My goals for this season include the following: Talk, composure, & leadership on and off the pitch. Last year our team strengths included: Moving to space. Staying composed during physical matches. We liked each other! Last year our team weaknesses included: What can I say, we were young. Not really a weakness but like you said our age defined our play. We didn’t have the strength to finish a lot of our attacks. Not this year! Light it up! I am taking the following classes this fall: Physics Pre-Calculus Writing Center English US History Psychology Other thoughts: I’m psyched we have friendlies against Class A teams like Lewiston—playing up will help us. I know it’s a pain BUT, everyone likes the spaghetti feeds at your house. The first 11 will help with clean up and everything. I guarantee we’ll make it through the second round of the play-offs this year. We’re ready.

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What coaches say about Team Notebooks  "The   notebooks   really   helped   my   coaching.   The   players   were   able   to   …  objectively   view   what   they   did   well   and   focus   on   what   needed   to   be  improved.  The  sheets  did  assist  in  open  communication  between  coaching  staff  and  players.”  

       –Matt Grawrock, Head Coach Southern Virginia University

   "With   the   use   of   the   Match   Analysis   I,   we   were   able   to   address   issues  individually  that  we  would  not  be  aware  of  otherwise.    It  was  also  such  a  great  learning  tool  for  the  players.”              

       –Amy Edwards, Head Coach Gonzaga University

   "Team  notebooks  create  a  different  way  for  players  to  learn.”  

       –Mike Keller, Head Coach University of Southern Maine  

   "Writing   provides   another   avenue   for   strengthening   the   player/coach  relationship.”                                                          

           –Brian Bold, Head Coach Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake HS  

   "I   like   to   have   my   student-­‐athletes   write   about   their   experiences,   be   it  about  practice,  a  game,  or  even  an   injury.   It  helps   them  to  analyze   their  play,  thought  processes,  and  feelings.  It  brings  more  meaning  to  what  they  are  experiencing.  Writing  …  is  a  reminder  of  what  we  all  are  playing  for  and  working  towards.”  

           –Nicole Moore, Assistant Coach Dartmouth University  

 ©  Writing  on  the  Bus:  Using  Athletic  Team  Notebooks  and  Journals  to  Advance  Learning  and  

Performance  in  Sports  by  Richard  Kent  (2011,  Peter  Lang/USA  &  the  National  Writing  Project)    

Richard  Kent,  University  of  Maine,  WritingAthletes.com  

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Athletes’ Journals

A journal provides an athlete with a place to set goals, reflect, grapple with issues, keep track of training ideas, and record results as well as plan, scheme, ponder, rant, question, draw, and rejoice. As with Team Notebooks, there is no one right way to utilize an athlete’s journal. Ultimately, an athlete’s journal is about an athlete’s learning. Journal Prompt: “Tell about your most humiliating day as an athlete.” A 17-year-old Swedish exchange student living in Michigan writes the following response:

I easily remember the most humiliating day as an athlete. It was about three years ago when my team had an away game in a suburb called Rinkeby. Rinkeby is one of the suburbs in Sweden with a lot of crimes and problems. It is also a suburb with a majority of immigrants. In my team, almost everybody has their roots in Sweden (I’m one of the few who doesn’t). Everybody on the team also comes from pretty wealthy families. A lot of my teammates has a lot of prejudice of Rinkeby. Before the game everybody was joking about how we would get robbed after the game after we easily had defeated the team. When we arrived to the field the win seemed even more obvious. The field was a joke. Not as big as it should have been in our age, not grass, no nets in the goal and the team we were playing didn’t even wear the same cloths. We expected an easy victory but we were SO WRONG! The team, called Benadir, gave us a lesson how to play soccer. On a shitty field in the middle of nowhere they played like the Brazilian national team. They played with us, making cool tricks and scoring beautiful goals. At the end of the first half the score was 10-0 and we couldn’t believe what we just had experienced. After some yelling from our coach we got back out for second half. We played a little bit better, scoring two goals (I scored one) but we still got beat by 16-2. After the game, instead of robbing us, the players were really nice to us and behaved like a winner should. We were so embarrassed and all of us didn’t say a word on way back home. This really proved us wrong about prejudices. I will never forget that loss.

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Glimpses from a World Cup Ski Racer’s Journal

“Yoga poses and stretches”

“Heart-rate”

©  Richard  Kent,  University  of  Maine,  WritingAthletes.com  

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What athletes say about writing in Journals and Team Notebooks.

“Journaling helped keep us accountable for what we wanted to achieve, and in a way helped us to reach our goals,” explained the Stanford University senior. “Putting it all in writing helped remind us what we were working toward every time we opened the journal to make a new entry.”

Meg Hostage, Stanford University NCAA All-American, PAC-10 Diving Champion

 “I like free writing… it’s a meditation, trying to open up the mind and go for it.”

David Chamberlain Nor/Am SuperTour Ski Champion US Nordic World Championship Team

“No one likes skiing with a cluttered mind, so put it on paper and free some space.”

Carter Robertson Alpine Ski Racer

"Writing down your feelings in a notebook or journal can help clear out negative thoughts and emotions that keep you feeling stuck.”

     Serena Williams Tennis Champion, 23 Grand Slam Titles

 "I look back at [my notebook] to see what I was doing when I was hitting well — how far my feet were spread out, how much of my weight I kept back, how I positioned my hands.”

David Wright New York Mets

 “Writing makes you learn about yourself. Knowing yourself physically and mentally as an athlete is very important. Writing made me think about what I was doing well and what I need to work on. This will make my training and motivation much better. Writing down what I need to work on after video was really helpful for me.”

Chris McKenna Alpine Ski Racer

 “I kind of enjoy writing … so whenever I’m on the plane I’m sure I’ll go through a couple of pages and write down all the moments and experiences that I’ve had …”         Michael Phelps, Olympic Swimmer “Ready to write his final journal entry”

–NBC News    

©  Richard  Kent,  University  of  Maine,  WritingAthletes.com  

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