Running Tips for People Who Aren’t Runners

I’m a fairly big guy. Not huge, but at 5’10 and just over 200 lbs, no one seems to be overly surprised when I tell them that I played football in high school and rugby in/after college. However, many people seem a bit surprised when I tell them that I run on a (semi) regular basis. In middle school and high school, I ran track with my primary event being the half mile, but it wasn’t until a massive growth spurt during my junior year that I really began to look out of place during that event. There’s something about a 220 lb linebacker running next to 150 lb track stars that brings to mind images of an elephant running next to a herd of gazelle. In high school, I ran track to get in shape for football season. In college, I ran to keep in shape for rugby. But now, I’ve finally figured out that I kind of just like running. Rather than it being a means to an end, it has become something that I look forward to at the end of a day. Even though I identify myself as a not-a-runner (“No, I’m not a runner.”), I still have some completely inexpert, but practical, running advice for people who also aren’t runners.

The Three Things I’ll Miss the Most About Teaching

Depending on the source you believe, between 40% and 50% of teachers will leave the classroom in their first five years. In just over a month, I will be adding to that particular statistic by leaving teaching, possibly permanently. This will have been my fifth year teaching and the decision to change careers has not been one that came easily. It seems like each year there are more and more articles published in which former teachers and soon-to-be former teachers explain all the reasons why they are leaving teaching. At this point, it has all been said, often by professionals more eloquent and intelligent than I am.  If you want to know some of the reasons that so many teachers are leaving, Google “Why teachers quit” or check out this article, or this one, or this one. While those three articles range from informative to regretful to scathing and all have some viewpoints that I have shared at one time or another, I would rather end my tenure by reflecting on the three things I’ll miss the most.

1. The Kids (Most of the Time)

First off, it is time to admit that not all students get along with all teachers. Just like with adults, there are people you like and people you do not like. However, for the most part, I really like a lot of my kids, especially the ones who fly under the radar. By that I mean the kids who show up, do their work, laugh at my corny jokes, and are generally successful. Those are the students I feel bad for as I have to stop what I am doing and discipline the same students for the eighth time in a week.

This is what you get for assigning homework.

Realistically, even some of the students who are “problem children” are some of my favorites. As a grown up ADHD kid, I fully understand the ones who are bouncing off of the walls and need to roam the classroom a bit more. Teaching primarily freshmen over the past five years has allowed me to see some very bright and interesting young people (especially the problem children) mature and develop into impressive young men and women. I will really miss trying to push kids out of their comfort zone and helping guide the ones who are willing to take that push and run with it.

The Three Things It Took Me Years to Realize that I Learned From My Little Brother’s Death

First off, apologies for another late Wednesday post; the personal gravity of my topic this week has caused me to spend a lot more time planning, editing, and revising (PDREPing, as it were). This post is something that I feel inclined to share, especially given the emotions and feelings that I know many of my friends are currently experiencing. There is also the fact that yesterday my little brother, Alex, would have turned 27. It’s been just over eleven years since he died in February of my senior year of high school. Being a stereotypical man who invented the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn, I bottled up a lot of the things I was experiencing at that point, so I am still processing them to this day. I attempted to throw this stuff in a list, but so many of the feelings and ideas are intertwined that it became complicated to differentiate the points. So I guess you should hold onto your butts, because here we go…

I promise there will be no Velociraptors…this time.

1. No Matter Your Age, Death Ages You Further

I was seventeen years old when my brother died in a car accident. I can tell you almost all the details about that day from the CD I was listening to in the car (Powerman 5000…leave me alone, I was in high school) to how long I was in class before being pulled out (less than fifteen minutes) to the way my little brother looked in the hospital. I wasn’t allowed to see him until after my parents arrived at the hospital, despite the fact that I got there almost an hour before them. I still remember what I was told by my father and a coach that I respected greatly: this has made you a man.

It sounds melodramatic, but was more than a bit true. I forced myself into a stoic portrait of all the manliest men that I had seen in movies and on TV. You know the scene in which a man turns from a situation and the camera catches a single tear fall from his eye? That is what 17 year old me thought I was doing. That also meant reading a eulogy at my brother’s funeral, acting like I was not destroyed by the situation, and bottling away all shows of emotion that I could possibly hide. It wasn’t until I arrived at college that I realized how much I really had been changed by the situation. I certainly don’t claim that I was the model of maturity throughout my college years, but I felt as though I carried an extra weight throughout those years. My ability to compartmentalize the situation helped me, but not everyone is me…

Why Your Kid Should Totally Play Rugby

With rugby a year away from making a return to the Olympics, it is time for United States to embrace the sport as another opportunity to dominate (or at least partake in) international competition. “But Benn,” you say, “What does that have to do with me?” Well, person-who-doesn’t-read-the-title-of-blogs, you can help by getting your kid involved with a local club. I have been involved with rugby as a player and a coach for the last decade, starting within a week of my arrival at Christopher Newport University. In that time, rugby has had a major influence on my life, from helping me find a group of solid friends in college to helping me help kids fit in at the high school I teach.

It’s Football without Pads! 

Except that it’s not. Sure, there is an odd shaped ball and there is tackling, but that is about where the similarities end. Parents regularly ask me about this and I tell them all the same thing: football is a game of position and rugby is a game of possession. In rugby, the best tackle is not necessarily one in which you lay out the other player or prevent his forward progress, but rather a tackle that allows you to get back into the game quickly. If that means that a 300 lb prop is running with the ball at a 175 lb wing, no one faults the wing for performing a slip tackle; essentially tripping up the opposing player and allowing him to gain the extra yard in exchange for ensuring a tackle. The wing certainly appreciates the opportunity to get up quickly enough to steal the ball and make a scamper up the sideline.

Additionally, to coach tackle rugby (the younger ages are typically touch rather than tackle), a coach must be level 200 certified. A level 200 certification requires a concussion course, a course on the basic rules of rugby, and a class in which coaches are taught the basics of safe rugby tackling and coaching. Safe tackling is one of the first things that I teach players and I do not allow players to participate in any full contact drills until I or another level 200 certified coach have given the player direct instruction and have seen the player tackle safely. The way in which rugby players are taught to tackle caught the attention of one of the more arguably forward thinkers in the NFL, Pete Carroll, several years ago.

Surely the lack of pads would cause more unsafe play and an increased number of injuries though, right? Well, according to the National Safety Council, not so much. Even if you allow for the difference in the sheer number of participants in both sports, rugby has a much lower rate of injury in the United States than football. The presence of a helmet and pads can lend a feeling of invulnerability that just is not present without pads. The lack of a helmet also takes away a potential weapon as Hines Ward, commonly viewed as one of the toughest receivers in the history of the NFL, states in an interview.

There are strict rules against unsafe tackling in rugby. Penalties include the oft reprimanded high tackle, tackling without an attempt to wrap, and dump tackles and can result in anything from a warning to a red card. According to the International Rugby Board, high tackle can be called if the player attempts to tackle an opponent “above the line of the shoulders even if the tackle starts below the line of the shoulders.” A tackler must also wrap up the other player, rather than delivering a spear or the flying shoulder/helmet combo often seen in football. A dump tackle can be called any time in which a player’s opponent is lifted off of the ground and opponent’s feet are failed to be put back on the ground before the rest of his/her body. All of these rules ensure that safety is of paramount importance, especially at the youth level.