Sports Therapist For Hire

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Versus a traditional sports psychologist whose primary objective is improved individual performance. A sports therapist strives to help players in team sports get along with one another. Which, in theory, should translate into improved team play.

Given the number of professional basketball players with mental health challenges, why don’t NBA teams have sports therapists on their staffs? Or maybe they do already?

No one should expect Steve Nash to figure out what’s going on in Ben Simmons’ and Kyrie Irving’s heads (and hearts). In fact, the New Jersey Nets should have a few sports therapists who specialize in working with elite athletes on their staff.

Related. The Los Angeles Lakers want to bring Russell Westbrook off the bench. Which raises the already high odds that the Lakers-Westbrook divorce is going to be a doozy. Yes, you are correct, there’s been plenty of Russ drama already, but buckle up for more. The Lakers put the “fun” in dysfunction.

Another prediction. The revamped Lakers will spend the season looking WAY up at Golden State and Denver. Bold, I know.

Teaching My Ass Off

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Just because I’m oldy and moldy, some might think I should call it a career. But the passion for the classroom still burns bright. I woke up at 2:30a.m. with these thoughts rattling around. Don’t call it a lecture, that’s demeaning. It was more of a homily/sermon.

  • all we’re doing is practicing “thoughtful inquiry”and learning to have “true fun” with ideas— playfulness, connection, flow
  • the cutting and pasting of ideas/approaches to life from other especially thoughtful people
  • social infrastructure . . . we are products of our environments, you are the company you keep
  • how closely have you read the key content, how closely have you listened to your classmates’ ideas, how much time/energy have you invested in examining your inner life?
  • epiphany—a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure

How closely has the student-writer read the key content?

  • there are no references to any of the author’s key concepts . . . the paper could’ve been written completely independent of the reading—35%
  • the student-writer briefly touches upon the author’s key concepts—55%
  • there are repeated, thoughtful references to the author’s main idea(s), the student-writer’s thinking is changed— a little or a lot—as a result of their careful consideration of the author’s main ideas; the student-writer’s ideas are nuanced and demonstrate an appreciation for complexity—10%

My Students Evaluate Their Parent(s’) Parenting

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In response to a chapter on the downsides of “hyper-intensive parenting” in Ruth Whippman’s America the Anxious.

I’ve just started chipping away at the behemoth pile of essays, so this may be coincidental, but a theme of tough-minded, strict disciplinarian parents is emerging. The 18 and 19 year old students are mostly appreciative of their hard ass parent(s).

Except for one little thing, as a student who moved to the Pacific Northwest from Mexico at age 8 explained. She wrote eloquently about being afraid of her mom and emotionally stunted because she never had anyone to discuss her feelings with. A lot of the time she’s not sure what she feels, and when she has some modicum sense of them, she doesn’t know what to do with them. And she concedes, she’s wholly incapable of asking for help.

I used “little” above facetiously because emotional intelligence is THE BIG THING. They think their future success hinges on picking the exact right academic major or getting good grades. But their relationship success, professionally, but especially personally, will hinge in large part on their ability to calmly and constructively discuss their’s and other people’s feelings.

What say you, should I tell them or just let them discover that on their own through inevitable trials and tribulations?

Molly Seidel—A Case Study For Our Times

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Things aren’t always as they appear. Or maybe that saying needs updating. . . things rarely are as they appear.

Case in point, Molly Seidel, Olympic medalist, who is especially ebullient in public.

From Runner’s World, “Molly Seidel Want You to Know That She Still Struggles.”

Another reason to error on the side of kindness.

Friday Required Reading

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Maggie Haberman, New York Times political correspondent and author of “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” is controversial. As Kara Swisher says in this interview with Haberman, many on the right and left loathe her. I follow Haberman on Twitter and have been intrigued by the lefty vitriol directed at her. Intrigued to the point of not knowing what to make of it.

But after listening to Swisher’s interview with Haberman, I’m much more sympathetic to her. I found Haberman’s explanations for why she withheld some information from her regular reporting in the Times—the overarching lefty critique—convincing enough to give her a pass.

After reading this excellent review of Confidence Man by Laura Miller in Slate I’m even more inclined to give Haberman a pass.

Miller’s review is so clear and insightful, I’m requiring it. If you start now, you’ll finish before the Mariner game begins.

Election Math To Ponder

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Approximately 10.8 million people live in Georgia, a Southeastern state in the (dis)United States. Approximately 60% of those 10.8 million, or 6.5 million, are over 30, the age at which one can serve as a U.S senator. Approximately 55% of people in Georgia are Republicans. That means the Republican Party chose Herschel Walker from among 3.6 million Republicans age 30+.

Apple Is Selling Fear

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So says Michael Gartenberg.

After outlining Apple’s new safety-oriented product enhancements, Gartenberg concludes:

“The implied message is: ‘If you want to live, buy our stuff.’ Apple now sells devices the way First Alert sells smoke detectors. 

Sadly, he’s absolutely right. 

A prediction. Apple’s new “life-saving” product enhancements will lead to increased rates of anxiety and related mental health issues. 

Apple is a company that prides itself on being socially conscious, better than the rest.

How disappointing.  

Will It Into Existence

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Trump “will be convicted of multiple felonies“.

George Conway:

“I don’t believe that Trump is going to plea bargain. I think he could go to prison, but it is more likely that he will serve home confinement. In all likelihood, he will be convicted of multiple felonies. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a perp walk, but I don’t think it’s a fantasy either. There’s a good chance that Trump will end up with a felony conviction. I know he has cut deals in civil cases, but that’s just writing checks. To reiterate, I do not believe that Trump will plead out. This all goes so much to the core of Trump’s identity that he will try to tear the country apart before he settles one of these criminal cases.”

My bet. . . no prison, no home confinement, no convictions, and definitely no perp walk. And no second term. The one prediction I find most convincing. . . he will try to tear the country apart.

Market Returns To Ponder

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“The S&P 500, the most widely followed proxy for the U.S. stock market, has returned a negative 22.7 percent, including dividends, this year through Thursday, according to FactSet. In the same period, the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index, the most widely used benchmark for the broad, diversified investment-grade U.S. bond market, has returned a negative 14.4 percent.”

From, “Bonds May Be Having Their Worst Year Yet“.