Greenbriar Dr 3 (online-audio-converter.com)

The speaker talks about their experience coaching and teaching a young girl named Paige. They worked on bike handling skills and the girl was eventually able to pick up a water bottle while biking. The speaker reflects on the joy and pride they felt in helping Paige develop her skills. They also discuss the importance of allowing individuals to figure things out on their own and the value of perseverance and humility. The speaker mentions their own mother as a role model and reflects on the lessons learned from her. They also mention their mother's struggle with early onset dementia and the challenges and lessons that come with being a caregiver. Okay, well I'm so glad we're here together, and I want to ask you about a day in particular when you felt like you taught something or coached a person in a way that is memorable. So having coached all of my life, I don't remember not coaching, coming up through the ranks coaching different athletic programs, helped actually pay for college. And it wasn't until I moved to Houston that I founded Otter Tri Team, and that has taken on different shapes and colors. And one child, Paige, her mom sought me out, and I ended up working with her remotely for almost a year. And we would meet in Memorial Park twice a month to work on different skill sets so that she had that contact with me as a coach. Because she lived on the other side of Kingwood, so they couldn't consistently come to otter practices. And we were working on bike handling skills, and cycling, I, wow, what happened? Cycling, I'm just going to continue talking to the audio until you come back. Cycling requires a lot of skill and balance, and we were working on different skills related to triathlon, changing body position on the bike, getting on the bike, getting off the bike while the bike is moving. Great skill to learn is being able to pick up a water bottle off the ground while you're biking. And she and I spent quite a long time, and she would miss the water bottle. We actually started in the grass, so that way if she fell, she's just falling in the grass as opposed to on the concrete or macadam, which would tear up her knees and her legs. And we were using cones, and I used different size top hats so that the athlete gets used to bending and reaching different levels to be able to pick up the cones. And from there, we moved to the black top, and she would knock over the cones, she would bump into the water bottle, and I still have the video of her the first time when she was able to reach down and scoop up the water bottle. And I just remember the excitement that she had, that she had the skill and the ability to be able to navigate the bike. Fast forward, Paige has moved to a different team and a different project, and she reached out the other day, and would I serve as a, or provide her a reference or letter of recommendation for college, as she's now looking to pursue academics in that capacity. So, I was humbled. So, tell me about that day, like is there anything you remember about that day, was it hot, cold? It was sunny and hot, and it was before, because Memorial Park this summer repaved that part of the bike loop, so we were in a parking area of the picnic loop in Memorial Park, and I had blocked off the area with some cones, and I had put cones paste so she could bike a little bit, try to get a cone, bike a little bit more, pick up another cone. So, she's working on transfer of body position as she's balancing on the bike. And you said something about a top hat, what is it? So, a top hat is a cone that's shaped like a triangle, they're called top hats. Wow, and so she, did she have difficulty with it at first, how long did it take? We spent a good 30 minutes just working on the balance of bending down. We initially were on the grass, and I would say we were on the grass for a good 10 to 15 minutes, and I just had cones sporadically pasted of different heights, so that she could practice different, how deep she had to get to the cone to be able to pick it up. And then when she was able to clear all the cones, we moved to the blacktop. And I start on grass because we want to allow that freedom to remove the fear of falling. You fall on blacktop, you usually tear up your leg or your knees. Did she fall? No, no, but she might because you're on the bike and you're bending down to pick something up off the ground while you're still pedaling on the bike. And how fast is she going on the grass? This is done at a very, very slow speed. So balance is a much higher necessity, a bigger skill set in this, because you're moving more slowly, you have to be better skilled at your balance. Yeah, balance is harder when you're moving slowly, right? And she picked it up in about 30 minutes, so you said that you documented when she was finally able to pick it up, you had it on video? Yeah, I still have it on video. At one point in time, I had put it on the website, you know, when I was talking about bike skills, you know, just that action of her scooping, bending down and scooping up the water bottle. And what does that video look like? I mean, what is it that you captured in that video that you feel... Her bike wheels moving, her feet pedaling, and her bending down and picking up the water bottle. I have also in the video, but not on the website, because I like to protect my kids, because unfortunately there's a lot of ugly people out there, the elation on her face when she was actually able to complete the skill. And it was just like shock and excitement and, you know, some disbelief, because it is a hard task. And how do you feel when you see that on her face? I'm like, wow, I did that. Not that I'm doing the skill, but I was able to articulate the directions as to what she needed to do to be able to successfully complete the task. In coaching, similar to teaching, sometimes it's about just giving a couple directives and letting them explore and allowing the freedom for the individual to figure it out. And I keep learning as a coach and even as a teacher that I have to keep my mouth shut and take a step back and allow them that failure, so to speak, because that's when we learn And sometimes we want to right away jump in and fix things for people, and in that, then they don't have the freedom of saying that they were able to do it, somebody else did it for them. And how does that translate for you into you writing this letter of recommendation for her? What is it that you kind of took from that moment? Her persistence. She's not one to give up. She's not going to give up. She may circle back and redirect. She may choose a different pathway. But she's going to dig deep until she solves the problem. She is going to celebrate the successes, as we all should, you know. And it was pretty cool because in her excitement, she was still very humble about it. It wasn't like, look at me, look at what I did. She was like, wow, that's so cool. Can we do it again? You know. And it showed me that not all athletes are all about themselves, too. That, you know, I'm influencing kids to overall be better people. There's some value system being transmitted. Yeah. Is that something that you have always been in touch with as an athlete? Or do you think that that's something that is kind of evolving? I probably had some finger on a pulse of it throughout my entire athletic and coaching career. The ability to articulate it and really put my hand on the pulse of it has evolved more recently. I'm much more in tune with the fact that not all of the kids I coach are going to compete in the sport in high school, or let alone college, or go to a higher level. Some of them are here, are with me for a social aspect, which is equally as important. And so at the end of the day, it's about how am I helping these kids be better kids or better people. And I use triathlon to do that. Some of them may go to college and race. Some of them, you know, may carry on. I have some talented kids. I have some kids with two left feet. But I'm like, you guys rock, because they're out there doing hard things. And that's what life is, just taking on each individual challenge. Did you have someone in your life like that? My mom. In what way? Well, my mom became a breadwinner when it was unheard of for the women to be a breadwinner. My dad worked in the steel industry, and Bethlehem Steel folded. And so he was in and out of work, and my mom was carrying the load. She also taught me to never apologize for what we don't have, to be grateful for what you got, because we're all on different paths. And she also, she retired from teaching. She taught middle school science and computers. And she has two master's degrees. I remember a summer that she would go spend summer learning down in Virginia. And then she went to night school. So, like, you know, the quest for continuing to learn has been instilled in me. And I'm not saying that it had to be a college pathway, or it should be, because we're all on different journeys. Some of the learning I get are, you know, reading different articles written by colleagues and stuff. So, just that constant quest to keep learning, keep exploring new things. And unfortunately, now she's at the point in her life, early onset dementia. And, you know, it's kind of cool sometimes, because I can have the same conversation with her every day. So, if I've got something going on, I can work it out. But at times, it's very challenging, because I'm like, I just told you that. But I can't say that, because then that frustrates her. Yeah. There's... Yeah, there's... I'm kind of thinking this in the direction maybe not really wanting to go, but... There's a lot of lessons in... There's a lot of lessons in... About life and being a coach and a teacher, but it's also being a caregiver, supporting someone through... There are kind of echoes through the... People with Alzheimer's don't learn, right? Right. They're doing the opposite, right? And kind of honoring that, too. Yeah. Right? Learning doesn't always look like... Right. You know, like an upward trajectory and decline isn't always... What is it? It isn't necessarily a downward trajectory. Right. It can be kind of more circular. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because my mom also is having Alzheimer's, and so... Mm-hmm. People compare people with Alzheimer's to children, but they're not... Children are in a different... It's a strange... Yeah, yeah. Mirroring of the vulnerability, but also, but not the... Mm-hmm. Growth. Right. You know? So... But it's a beautiful thing to be vulnerable in a way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You want to stop recording? Yeah. Okay.