Thursday, October 6, 2016

Exercise as Punishment in Sport/ Physical Education





The coach of an elite peewee team in Montreal was suspended for punitive training after a loss, something that goes against the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.


The coach of an elite AAA peewee team in Montreal has been suspended by one of the most successful and prestigious hockey organizations in Quebec for allegedly forcing his 11- and 12-year-old players to do anywhere between 100 and 500 pushups in full equipment after a recent loss.

 read the article:
 .thehockeynews.com/news/article/kids-coach-suspended-for-forcing-pushups-after-defeat

interview: with-the-coach-louis-isabella

PE STUDENTS: open the links above to find out more about the story.  Do you have anything to share about your experiences with exercise being used as punishment?  Or perhaps something you witnessed or know about through friends and family? What is your opinion of this tactic in sports and education/PE classes?  Should this be allowed in schools and community sports?  Why or why not?  Should there be limits or a total ban? Why do you think it is used and what would you say to adults that choose to use this as leaders in sport and education? ...for some other viewpoints, look at the comment section in the hockey news article.


further research/opinions
position_statement_on_use_of_physical_punishment_english.pdf

Physical punishment of children in sport and recreation

17 comments:

  1. When I was in elementary school, my teacher would have students do five push-ups if they were late. I once had to do it and I couldn't. Ten minutes passed before he simply had me do fifteen jumping jacks instead. There was one person who liked P.E. and a few times intentionally got in trouble just to show off.
    I think this *shouldn't* be allowed anywhere because it not only harbours a bad attitude toward P.E., but also because it can be embarrassing for those who are physically incapable.
    I think it is used because the person whose team lost likes to take it out on the players and the people who use this tactic are complete sadists.

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  3. I feel as if this tactic is unnecessary and futile through personal experience. Based on my observations in the past, using physical activity for punishment only causes the outlook on P.E to turn negative. I think that the players should not be punished for doing their best, even if that means that they did not win. As someone who enjoys playing sports, I am not very good at them. That does not mean I do not try my very best, but that my best is less than of others. The fact that i am punished for having done my best is unfair and cruel to me and anyone for that matter. Making someone do large amounts of exercise is not only unfair, but also exhausting. 11 and 12 year old kids should not be doing such extreme exercises, as it is bad for their physical health, and makes it more difficult for them to win.

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  4. I have been forced to do conditioning as part of a punishment before. Our acro teacher plays games with us and whoever looses has to do 50 burpees. We hold handstands, chest stands and elbow stands and we all compete to see who can hold it for the longest. If you come down you have to start your burpees or whatever the conditioning it is. The winner of the game doesn't have to do any conditioning. I usually win the elbow stand competitions however I dont usually win the handstand competitions. It is very tiring to do all the conditioning after holding difficult positions for ling periods of time already. After the "losers" finish their conditioning we play again and the losers have to do more conditioning if they dont win. It is a but frustrating since obviously the person who didn't do the conditioning will have more energy to hold the positions so they will win again and we will have to do even more work. However I see the benefits to this. It can motivate us to push through and hold our positions for longer because we dont want to do conditioning. The conditioning will make us stronger in the long run. I think this should be allowed in sports but only to a certain extent.

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  5. PE should not involve any sort of physical punishment as it makes it less enjoyable and seem like a chore.

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  6. As a football player, I can 100% to the punishment of the kids. Beng punished with exercise is something that shouldn't be totally banned, but used with moderation. Obviously, making 11-12 year old kids do 100-500 pushups is relentless, but if a team suffers a loss, a little running or pushups to motivate them to work a little harder can be beneficial. There had been times where my team and I had played horrible: not blocking, terrible tackling, dropping balls, and making stupid decisions that cost us the game. The practices after this were a relentless amount of conditioning with a side of coaches screaming. We were forced to run suicides, hold plank, and do multiple push ups till we all collapsed. Only to do it all over several times. These were tremendously hard on all of us; we ran till some kids would fall to the ground or throw up. By the end of the long hour or so, we would all be pink in the face or in tears - these are 13 year old athletes. The pain of that much exercise was excruciating and it tended to make our team scared because we didn't want to go through it again. Players would get nervous and make mistakes in the games all because we didn't want to go the another hellacious practice. However, the hard work played off and we were all in better shape. It helped. But I don't believe that extreme physical punishment for not performing your best or simply losing a game is necessary. Condition the players, that's fine and healthy. But instead of pushing kids till the collapse in tears or throw up, coaches could be helping the players understand the loss and how they can improve. That's why I believe that punishment with exercise should be used in moderation. A coach shouldn't kill the kids, but maybe push them a little harder to strive to win the next game. Extreme conditioning for punishment is definitely not the way to resolve the problem of losing or not performing. It could've been the coaches fault and he/she wouldn't want to be run to tears.

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  7. This in my opinion went too far! There’s no excuse for any coach to be giving out a punishment for any like that no matter how old you are. Personally, I’ve only been on one sport team and that was soccer and we got to do 10 push ups and 15 sit ups as a 10 year old. I also do think that punishments like that should be in moderation and not over the top. Overall, I think the punishment was too extreme and should have been in moderation.

    -ETHAN LARSEN...

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  8. This is insane. Even making grown men do this many push ups after you just played in full equipment is asking too much in my opinion. Even if you lose a game you shouldn't be forced to do physical punishment, maybe you might have a harder practice and work on the things you didn't do well in but nothing more especially to kids in this age group. For me after a bad game our coach will tell us what we did wrong and we worked on it in practice the next day but that's all that happened.

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  9. Wow.. that is way too far for young kids aged 11-12. I've been "punished" after loosing many softball games my coaches would make my team run flag poles which i thought was no right making us do it at the game because it jus makes us feel bad. Although, running flag poles is not nearly as bad as 500 pushups in full gear. I think a better solution would be keeping the punishements to practices or just doing it for fitness not to punish for the loss of a game.

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  10. He definetly went to far, in how he acted towards the team, and their punishments. If you lose a game you make sure to teach them what to do differently not scare them into not losing. Losing is a part of the process, you should lose more than you win. I have been on 2 teams like that. The first team was not so bad they used it to where it was bearable, and not impossible to stand. But my second team was not bearable my coach made people throw up including me, and also pass out my making us run laps, suicides, ex.... for an hour just if we overthrowed a ball or didnt make the right play. That was whey overboard but otherwise if it is moderatly used it is ok.

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  11. I have not witnessed nor have I been subjected to this type of punishment from my teacher and I am glad that I haven't. This is a brutal punishment especially and is even wore when you realize these are kids taking the hit. It not only affects you physically but affects you mentally and physiologically to the point where you are terrified to lose due to the outcome. Creating punishments like this can also make the person lose their love and interest for the sport placing them in a bad headspace before practices and games that can affect other areas of their life. Although I do not always approve of this idea, I don't think it has to be completely eradicated and can be used in healthier ways. First of all, informing the players of the punishment instead of throwing them headfirst into it is better since they know the stakes and can better prepare themselves. Second, I think the punishments should be less harsh and more suited to the players standards. For example, in a warm up routine or exercise they are only able to do 10 reps, make them do 15 reps or something similar so that the goal isn't totally unreachable or dire I think that this is used in sports and physical education as a punishment of sorts because they are generally exercises people dislike doing. This causes them to work harder during a game or practice so that it wont have to get to that point.

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  12. I think this is awful .Kids should not be punished by doing physical activities. If they do get punished they may start view exercise in general as a punishment and may affect how they look at viewing exercise in the future .They may see it as more of a chore rather than something that is a benefit to their health

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  13. I have not witnessed any and have not been subjected to this type of punishment.
    This punishment was a physical and mental pain given to the children which was extremely wrong.
    If the coach thought that the punishment was necessary then the punishment should have been to maximum 20 or 25 reps only.

    Extreme punishments like these not only create fear for losing but also takes away the importance of failure behind success and great lessons. The love and excitement towards the game of all those kids who faced this punishment might have have drastically dropped.
    Overall, the coach went too far! No one should be made to face intentional physical pain to this level for any reason.

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  14. I personally have not no experience undergoing exercise as a form of punishment. However, I recall back in elementary school when the teachers threatened to make students run laps if they were late for gym class. My opinion of this tactic in sports and education/PE classes is that it is ruthless and dehumanizing. It should not allowed in schools and community sports because it does more harm mentally and psychologically to the individual than it actually benefits them. Such actions create an atmosphere in which mistakes and failures are unacceptable, even though, as humans, we are not 100% perfect. Instead, they should be embraced in order to aid our personal development, and thus there should be a total ban on exercise as punishment. However, I believe it is used because people may view it as discipline, much like a parent does to their child to discourage negative behaviors.
    I would say to adults that choose to use this that whether it does or doesn’t correct behavior, there are more effective ways to do so without risking any emotional (or physical!) harm towards the individual.

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  15. This punishment should not exist, it will make bad effect to students. Students will think they are failure in sport, it will make they lose their confidence. What the teacher should do is encourage students to let them know failure is not a bad thing.

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  16. This is not the right way to treat kids. Children should not be punished by doing physical activities. The man went too far with the punishment. This could allow kids to grow a negative self-esteem about themselves or make them even grow negative behaviors.

    -sobat

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  17. In elementary school, my teachers would threaten students with rextra laps if they were late to gym class or if the student was talknig to much during another class. I don't recall any of the teachers going through with the threats, but that was because the idea of doing extra laps was more than enough for us to be quiet. This tactic should not be used, especially with children. When I read the article, I gasped when it said that the coach would make the 11 to 12 YEAR OLDS, do 100 to even as high as 500 pushups. These aren't full grown adults, they're kids. Kids make mistakes, and sometimes they're off their game. Adults make mistakes too. So no matter the age, this tactic should never be used. It can make physical activity a chore, instead of something everyone should be doing willingly and enjoy (at least most of the time). I think there should be a total ban because it can impact the person's approach or willingness to do physical activity.

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