I was recently reading about a story on the news where apparently a high school in what is BY far my favorite state in the US of A - the Lone Star State - has been placed on leave because he made kids do 300 - 400 pushups as punishment for something, and the kids ended up in the hospital - and he got put on leave.
Now, these weren't your regular kids - they were apparently kids on the high school football team of all things.
Of course no further details are forthcoming on the incident, what prompted the punishment, why it happened, the kids background, none of it.
I've got a feeling the media is looking to spin this into more of a witch hunt and demand for yet more mollycoddling in today's already weak and pathetic society (though its good to know some hard asses and old timers like us are doing what we can to change things - I dont know what the background of this is, if YOU reading this do, let me know - but I'd personally say well done coach!) ...
Anyway, 300 - 400 pushups in an hour as punishment?
In one freaking hour?
Thats EASY PEASY! And I bet the coach didnt make them do styles of pushups I teach you in Pushup Central - which at the age of 42 if I can rock out 500 pushups every day with the sun blazing down on me - with no "water bottle" handy by the way - then so can high school athletes.
I dont know if these kids were like a former friend Charles who claims up and down he's "big but not fat" - and that he "wrestled" in high school so has huge legs, but when PRESSED on it, he admitted that "football was more his jazz". (and the way he said, exactly the same way Glyn denied having all the strange, or maybe not, fetishes and sexual preferences etc we all have - deep down inside ... like dude, at least be honest, that is a START)..
Weightlifting is big in football, probably those idiotic machines too these days - Herschel Walker would have a coronary. Hehe.
And so these kids, I've no idea what their physical fitness levels were like, but Id hazard a guess and say atrocious given they were athletes - and that they were what most kids unfortunately are these days - dumbphone addicted mollycoddled BRATS.
This goes both ways, of course, Ill tell you more beneath - but get any weightlifter doing the routines and exercises in Pushup Central, and they might end up in the hospital too if they haven't conditioned themselves for those workouts - or Battletank Shoulders workouts (as customers have said "not for the faint of heart!!") - or if they dont, as is shown in the books, WORK UP TO IT!
You dont jump straight from a perch on el couchola for years to do 500 pushups a day, for one.
I still remember Charles Mitchell, whose an avid Pushup Central customer and ex cop telling me about how the fingertip pushups in there are FAR tougher than what his karate instructor taught him.
And they are!
Knuckle pushups are taught a lot in karate which is great, but nothing beats fingertip pushups - although some instructors do teach em - I remember a Korean dude who reportedly did 50 fingertip pushups daily (in college) and was a black belt or something at .. karate, I believe.
Anyway.
My thoughts and memories on all this - if I'd have to say it in one line - same as I've said above
Kids, and society in general have turned into molly coddled, dumbphone addicted idiots and WEAKLINGS.
Very few real men and women left out there.
Back in high school, I remember the PE "final exam" when I was 17 - how the girls threw the shot put farther than I did, how the guys beside me exhorted me to do better - but I couldn't - I had no fitness background growing up, I was not strong or conditioned though I sure as hell had ambitions to be, but those ambitions were CRUSHED by my mother who believed in the usual "studies rule" rot - and "he thinks he's soooooo strong!" every time I wanted to do something physical.
Goes both ways though like I said, my reading habit which got inculcated in me due to sheer necessity - well, thats held me in good stead as you can tell - both communication wise and writing wise! I'd often have my favorite novel in my desk drawer beneath my school books when I was supposed to be preparing for exams. Hehe. Turns out the chip off the old block does something similar too, but anyway - fitness - well, I remember being sore for days after that exam which involved a run too in the heat.
Little did I know years later I'd be hiking hills daily in extremely hot and humid "tropical jungle like weather" (one minute it rains, the next minute the sun's out - so hot - that the clothes stick to your back again!) where people were literally fainting around me, and I'd be dripping trails of sweat up and down that hill.
THIS is hill climbing, as Kelly, a student of mine rightly said!
The same father who once mocked me for "wanting a pipe attached to the heavens" every time I wanted a water break during tennis on Sundays (which I hated - but loved the swimming!) - then said "you're a bonafide fitness maniac now!"
Seeing me do pushups shirt off in the park out there - I sometimes wonder what they think. Hehe.
Back in eighth grade, when the beatings administered at home for cutting class or what not did not work, I remember my teacher menacingly glaring at me in school, telling my parents - or me, rather "I'll take care of you HERE the next time!"
And our punishments were nigh brutal, my friend - the punishments we got in school?
Being forced to stand in awkward positions for hours, worse than kneeling on rice and such, repeated blows to the back of the head (ugh, I hate that!) - being hit with implements and such - all when we were KIDS - today's kids would go straight to the hospital for sure with some of that, so when he said brutal, he meant it.
Then again, in their days brutal meant getting beaten at home if they showed up one minute late from play ....
I gotta say though, though my dad and myself dont like each other to the point we avoid each other by walking in opposite directions when we see each other - even in a setting like a wide open park - he's OK when it comes to FACTS.
Put facts in front of him, and he will put his like or dislike of the person aside, and acknowledge facts - which I do as well if required, so I can respect that.
He might not be the ideal father, or know how to teach - but thats OK. I picked up the slack on that one!
Anyway .........
On that note, exercise as punishment?
I remember teaching kids at Hanlin School in China, I've taught kids for YEARS - and in PE class and what not, they were supposed to be playing soccer, and instead?
They'd be coming up to me doing pull-ups!
Why?
Certainly not because I told them to.
Hell, I was happy enough with them playing soccer - it gave me more time to work on my pull-ups, which being I was the only instructor there in any sort of shape to do pull-ups - I did, and the rest of the teachers just stood around and looked.
And the kids of course like the little monkeys they were, showed up wanting to imitate me, and long story short - pictures of me with those kids in my arms getting the over the bar are likely still floating around somewhere in that school.
Not that I didn't teach them well academically - like my Taekwondo instructor once said "hey, I study too!" - there's pictures of me with those kids on my lap learning English (Admittedly I was missing my own daughter a lot during those days, but thats life - happens!).
My daughter's basketball instructor is a great guy, solid teacher, and genuinely likes working with kids.
And he makes them do exercises that are GOOD for them at their age.
He teachers all age groups...
And the kids of course find every excuse to show up late to skip running or what not ...
There's only so much he can push, of course, or some idiot mother will show up demanding to know "why you're torturing my fat child".
Society these days.. ugh.
So back to the current case - more details please, and I've got a feeling much like cops are made the target of witch hunts for simply doing their damned jobs - the coach is being villianised here as well.
If I'm wrong, write back, tell me why, I'll gladly "eat my words" if warranted.
Like a great English journalist had to do back in in the day - 1983 - when India won a cricket World Cup no-one gave them a snowballs's chance in hell of winning -so much so that India wasn't even granted passes to the hallowed "Lords" (the home of cricket, much like the MCG in Australia) - that was only for the white boys apparently, with the West Indies having barrelled their way into the club a while back.
Interesting, these tales.
The great Tony Greig claiming he'd make the West Indies grovel in front of England, then after they hammered the Poms, Grieg literally went down on a knee in public and groveled. Hey. Great guy, I love him - and thats what you gotta do! (i.e. back your talk up).
Same thing for English journo, after India won that world cup, he literally put his words in a glass of wine and drank it. Hehe.
Those were the days, Indian captain Kapil Dev - even after winning a world cup they went to bed hungry because no-one had money for food (despite playing for the national team), everything around was closed, at training they'd only get VERY limited rations ...
Yet, they did.
My.
No wonder Kapil hates the molly coddling as much as I do ...
Anyway.
Pushup Central, my friend, is not for sissies and crybabies - if you aint the sort that can deal with old school brutal workouts, dont get it!
But coach in TX - hey, if someone knows his number or email, send it to me- I'll send him the link - he would LOVE the book - and its EXACTLY what is required for kids these days, especially those claiming to be athletes.
And thats that - - back soon!
Best,
Rahul Mookerjee
PS - I've said it before - if you're going at a good cliip, you do 500 pushups in one HOUR (ie approx 15 minute blocks for every 100). Or thereabouts. And 300-400 in an hour, even in hot weather, easy peasy. Pah!