Time Change

The teenagers have disappeared.  I might reconsider going up to Austin High School (in the picture above) to pass out flyers to try and build that class up.  I spent one miserable semester at this school back in 1975.  Allegedly, the school has improved.

The football/baseball/basketball coach at LaFollette told me that the kids show up in droves for activities during the summer months.  But once the clocks are turned back an hour, the weather gets cold, youths find excuses not to show up.  The kids under 12 are still fairly consistent about showing up at the gym. But the teen class has been non-existent for a few weeks.  I'm disappointed because I had a good group of teenage boys for awhile.  They were showing up more than the younger kids were.  Now it's the opposite.

Some of the younger kids are pushing to spar each time they are in the gym.  They're only allowed to spar two days out of the week (one kid wanted to know if that was my rule, and yeah, it is).  Saturday was originally scheduled to be the sparring day, but you know what?  Hardly anyone shows up in the gym on that day.  The past couple of Saturdays have been quiet.  In an attempt to make it fair, I had to have sparring during the week when I know some, if not all, will be in attendance.

At least the younger kids are slowly getting into the habit of doing their own workout.  I still have to gather everyone to do floor exercises during the last few minutes of the class.  Luckily, most of the kids are used to doing the same exercises in their gym classes at school.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take a stronger stance with the one kid in class who thinks the world revolves around her.  I don't want to be like some of the other coaches who scream and yell to have order.  But this one kid tries my patience.  I'm always having to take a deep breath to keep my voice even before I request that the kid pay attention and stop being disruptive.  It was suggested to me to just send her out of the class for time outs.  But others have done that, and yet, her behavior never changes.  I've tried everything I know to reason with her, but reasoning with an eight year old seems to be impossible.  Maybe those who are parents can give me some suggestions?