Social Influences on Sport Participation

As you grow and develop in a sport, the influence of other people will become more and more integral in determining your commitment to that sport.

For instance, in running Cross Country, the camaraderie of your teammates goes a long way towards how far you are willing to push yourself. A supportive and understanding Coach will also help you grow as an athlete. But ultimately, your true desires will unveil themselves, especially in such a sport as Cross Country. If it is not something you absolutely feel connected with, and are striving to improve in, it will be hell for you. A popular saying from my old High School team was, "Our sport is your sport's punishment!" which was true. Running has come to be looked at as something to be avoided but it is that toughness and grit that kept me coming back day after day. It is the sweat of hard work that my teammates and I experienced each day, and together we persevered when at one point or another, none of us thought we could have.

It is clear now, that although I was happy to start Cross Country, it is only because of my Father and our middle class lifestyle. Those influences are ultimately why I decided to get out and try it, because both our parents and our family's economic situations are the reason as to sport participation.

Running at it's Start

That was it, the last moment I would ever have to be in middle school. From this point on I would be a high school scholar, at least that's how I thought of it. But that wasn't the only thing I was focused on going into high school. My father, as most other father's do, would always talk about his high school athletic career. Specifically Track and Cross Country. So when it was my turn, naturally I wanted to follow in his footsteps and join the team.

The only other organized sport I had ever played was little league baseball, and after seeing my teammates cry and wine, I was not very eager to go back. So, as season approached for Track I became very excited to see just how far I would be able to push my limits as an athlete.

I trained hard, and my father even came out to some of my practices, making me run even harder. Then the day I had been awaiting for finally arrived. I real race in against real competition to see how I would stack up.

We lined up at the start line, I waited nervously, asking the other runners what place they thought they would come in. One responded with "I'm not racing anyone, I'm just racing the clock." moments later the gun went off and so did I. Exploding from the blocks I ran with everything that I had, and realized that this was the moment I had been waiting for. for so long.

First post! This is some exciting shit!

In case the title wasn't blatant enough, I'm pretty excited to get this thing rolling.

Today's post is centered around the competitive side of Cross Country Running.
If you're unfamiliar with how Cross Country works:

Races are typically 3.1 miles long (5K) over many different types of terrain. There are seven runners to a team, and only each team's top five runners score points. Each place number is equivalent to the amount of points that the runner earns, and the team with the lowest amount of points wins (think golf).

Here's the Wikipedia Page if you'd like to further educate yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_country_running#Strategy

Alright, now to the real meat and potatoes of this post; Communication!

There are many ways to run a race. As the race begins and you look around to your competition, you think to yourself, "Should I go out hard, lead the pack and mentally break the other runners? Or should I keep a steady pace throughout and pick off runners as they fall back? Maybe a combination of the two?" In either case it comes down to the non-verbal communication that ensues between you and the other runners.

In pacing along side someone you are saying "I'm here, good luck shaking me off, because when you start to waver I'm leaving your ass behind!" This method can either be grading or motivating on a runners perseverance, depending on the individual.

You could try to speed past someone and break their mental will to hold you off, or maybe even work with another runner to simultaneously motivate the both of you, with the hopes of ending the race in front of them. You may even try to silently sneak up behind someone so as to not tip them off of your proximity.

In any of these cases, a dialogue occurs between the two runners that can either make or break a race. In other sports, communication is verbal through trash talk, but Cross Country is largely through the body language. Is the runner showing signs of fatigue? Good form? Confidence? All of these tell competition something about a runner's mental state, when your goal is to break theirs.

As this is my first entry, I'm sure the format and content will vary as I become familiar with posting.

Finally, Here's a clip from "Get Him To the Greek" where P. Diddy explains the art of non-verbal communication discussed in today's blog.