Every Monday and Wednesday afternoon I head to a nearby elementary school to coach Girls on the Run. Girls on the Run is a program started a few years ago in North Carolina as a way to empower young women. The goals of the project include not only a healthier lifestyle and exercise habits but also ways to deal with common problems faced by 8-10 year-olds such as self-esteem, confidence, peer pressure, bullying, friends and setting goals. Every practice is about an hour and a half long and includes discussion and games related to a certain topic (yesterday was "gossip") followed by a workout.
The workout involves about 30-40 minutes of activity (preferably running) but girls are allowed to walk, skip, jog etc. as long as they stay moving. The program began in March and goes all the way until the end of school and culminates in a 5k race at Grand Valley State University. So far, the program has been a lot of fun but also a pretty intense time commitment. Luckily, I have a co-coach and we have some junior and assistant coaches from the neighboring high school. They help a lot with crowd control and being positive role models for the girls. We have a full roster of participants (17) and I have quickly learned that it can be REALLY challenging and a bit maddening to quiet down a giggling, squirming gaggle of pre-teens constantly. We've quickly learned how to channel that energy into physical activity and have practice outdoors as often as we can.
Lately it's been difficult knowing how to motivate the girls who simply want to walk laps. It quickly became apparent which girls are in the program to run and which ones are there because it's essentially free child care. Yesterday, the motivation problem was solved with glitter stickers. For every lap completed, a girl earned a sticker which she could put on her shirt to keep track of her lap count. However, if she ran the entire lap (1/3 mile) then she would earn a special glitter sticker. Suddenly, everyone was running laps in order to earn the special stickers - it worked amazingly well!
Now we just have to think of some additional creative ideas to get us through the month of May - any suggestions?
Cute quotes from the girls so far:
"Can we stay after practice late to show you our praise dance?"
"Can I run one more lap so I can reach my goal?"
"Are we going to have GOTR next year because I want to do it again."
"At first I hated running, but now I kind of like it."
"Can we make up our own skits about bullying at the end of practice?" [after seeing Megan and I act out a bullying scenario]
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