Building Relationships through the Zones of Regulation

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At the beginning of every class I check-in with my students. I want to see how they are feeling both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Check-ins help me build relationships with my students and lets them know I care about them. I want them to understand that I am always there to listen and support them and that I authentically care about them as a person.  Currently, I do this through the Zones of Regulation which is an amazing visual for both my students and me.

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The Zones of Regulation is a systematic approach used to teach students self-regulation by categorizing all the different emotions they are feeling into four colored zones. The red zone is used to describe feelings of anger, rage, feeling out of control, feeling terrified, etc. The yellow zone describes feelings of frustration, fear, anxiety, excitement, etc. The green zone is where we would like our students when learning. This zone is depicted by feelings of calm, focus, and feeling ready and eager to learn. The blue zone is used to represent feelings of sadness, sickness, boredom, tiredness, etc.

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Sport is Back: Let’s Make it a Success

In the sporting landscape, there are at least two current paradoxes that are of interest to athletes, coaches, and key stakeholders. First, particularly in the United States, there has been great diversity in the degree to which sport has been affected by the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic. Some sports and states have endured seasons cancelled and venues closed while others have moved forward with more modest adjustments. A second noteworthy paradox is that while more people have been homebound during 2020 and 2021, they have been clamoring for information on how best to proceed whenever sport does return, yet finding quality information can be elusive. This presents a confound in that researchers simply haven’t had the time yet to produce high-quality scholarly work on the effects of SARS-COVID-19 on the sporting landscape though that in no way lessens the need. Therefore traditional academic outlets of books, textbooks, and peer-reviewed journal articles are not yet caught up to the realities athletes and coaches are currently facing. Many academic conferences, typically a quicker route to quality information dissemination, have been cancelled or reduced due to the pandemic, too.

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Ultimately, parents of athletes, coaches, and the athletes themselves are collectively in a similar situation: Where to find quality information on how to return to sport after a season was canceled or how to cope with significant modifications to their sport experience. There is no shortage of questions that could be addressed and due to the breadth of the Internet, no shortage of possible sources for information. This all culminates into the community need for quality information to be available, free of charge, and for that information to be from true experts in the sport field. PHE America serves as a conduit for quality information dissemination and one organization that has created a breadth of quality information throughout the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic is Sanford Health based in Sioux Falls, SD. Within Sanford Health is the Sanford Sports Science Institute and Sanford POWER Performance Lab both of which focus on improving athlete performance.

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Celebrate PE: A Month Long Social Media Campaign

We’re making March all about PE: why it’s so important, how it’s made a difference during the pandemic, and how families can advocate for PE moving forward. Join Active Schools for #PEMovingForward, a social media campaign to celebrate PE! Follow along on Facebook and Twitter throughout the month for stories, resources, and activities to help make sure PE is a priority.

PEMovingForward v2What Is It?
Launching March 1, Active Schools’ PE: Moving Forward campaign (#PEMovingForward) is a social media campaign aimed at parents in order to highlight the importance of PE—and PE teachers—for improving kids’ physical health, emotional health, and focus and to urge parents to advocate for PE in the coming school year(s).

Each week of the campaign, which runs from 3/1-3/27, has a theme that includes a way for supporters to get involved in the messaging or take action.

  • Week 1: Show Us Your PE – people can post stories, photos, videos, etc. of what PE has looked like for them this year using #PEMovingForward.
  • Week 2: Thank a PE Teacher – people can tag their child’s/students’ PE teacher or school and give them a shout-out.
  • Week 3: Raise Your Voice – people can learn how to advocate for PE.
  • Week 4: Take Action for PE – people can download a template letter to help them reach out to their principal and/or school board to urge them to prioritize PE next year.
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Nurturing the Coach-Athlete Relationship

(3 Minute Read)

The coach-athlete relationship stands as a central pillar in the quest for understanding how interpersonal dynamics affect athletic performance. Indeed, the interactions between coaches and athletes are widely recognized as an important antecedent to both positive and negative sport outcomes (Choi, Cho, & Huh, 2013; Lafreniere, Jowett, Vallerand, & Carbonneau, 2011; Poczwardowski, Barrot, & Jowett, 2006).  Moreover, coach-athlete relationships are acknowledged as important in contexts ranging from youth sports (Smoll, & Smith, 2006) to elite international competition (Jowett & Cockerill, 2003).  The purpose of this article is to explore two important aspects of the coach-athlete relationship that can inform coaching practice.

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How the Pandemic Changed Professional Networking

(3 Minute Read)

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Networking is crucial to professionals in teaching and coaching. COVID-19 has forced everyone to adapt and adjust in many areas personally and professionally. These effects have also transcended to networking communication. Before the pandemic, many people utilized virtual networking avenues frequently due to time, distance, and comfortability. Now, virtual networking has become the primary type of almost all communication.

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Northwest Student Sport and Exercise Psychology Symposium

Free Virtual Symposium!

The Movement and Sport Sciences Division at Lewis-Clark State College is pleased to host the Annual Northwest Student Sport and Exercise Psychology Symposium, an AASP Regional Conference.

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The symposium will be held virtually on Friday, April 9, 2021. This year’s symposium will feature addresses by dynamic and accomplished professionals, as well as various student presentations. Our goal is to make the 2021 NWSSEPS an enjoyable and educational experience for students of sport and exercise psychology in the Northwestern United States.

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Advanced Rock-Climbing Moves to Try

(2 Minute Read)

If you are a climbing wall instructor or physical educator with climbing as part of your program, you know firsthand that some people are natural climbers. They instinctively put their bodies in the optimal positions to get across or up the climbing wall, while others need direct instruction.

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In order to help climbers progress, it’s good to know what to look for so that you can help your climbers improve over time. In the early stages, climbers should work to master the following basic climbing technique.

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