Boosting Student Mental and Brain Health Is Easier Than You Think

Student mental health is the number one concern among K-12 teachers and administration. Mental health and learning are connected in many ways. Mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression disrupt learning and hinder cognition. Often this disruption enhances the effects and challenges students face. On the other hand, the academic challenges often lead to self-esteem issues, effectively compounding the effects of mental health disorders.

Over a year of online learning and isolation has contributed to the concern around the mental health of students. The return to in-person learning has heightened recent concerns. Students who were once able to maintain focus long enough to read and work, or focus can’t seem to sit still. Many schools have taken necessary steps towards increasing their mental health resources and improving school culture. While these steps are of great importance, there’s another opportunity that is often overlooked.

Jumping Rope Leads to Greater Well-Being

Well-being is an umbrella term that includes the physical, mental, and emotional health of an individual. It’s well-known that physical activity can increase well-being. The release of endorphins aids in reducing stress and improving mood. However, there is a growing body of research that finds high-intensity interval training (HIIT)has a profound effect on well-being, especially in adolescents. Jumping Rope is one of the most beneficial, accessible, and simple HIIT workouts there is.

One study saw a decrease in stress and increase in well-being among adolescents engaged in HIIT workouts twice a week for 25 minutes when compared to the control group. As an added, if not equally important benefit, the academic performance of the students who completed HIIT workouts twice a week improved.

The application and implementation of the jumping rope lends itself to several other practices that enhance a student’s sense of well-being. For instance, incorporating opportunities for student autonomy, competence, and connection by allowing for things like music choice, specific technique selection, the incorporation of challenging but achievable exercises, and facilitating teamwork. These elements all contributed to better overall well-being of students.

Can Jumping Rope Actually Make You Smarter?

Jumping rope has many well-known physical advantages. However, the mental and cognitive benefits are not as recognized, but they should be. While jumping rope won’t allow you to magically recall things that were never learned, it will improve brain function in multiple ways.

What if I told you jumping rope can increase learning and promote academic achievement?

Sounds too good to be true, right? Fortunately, it’s not. Here’s how it works. The coordination involved in jumping rope generates new neural connections in the plastic brains of adolescents. The exercise activates both hemispheres of the brain. This leads to an improvement in skills such as spatial awareness and working memory. It also increases attention and overall cognitive ability. When these skills are enhanced and applied, it has positive effects on learning and academic achievement. 

But that’s not all. Jumping rope causes the brain to utilize more neurons. Neurons are the little information messengers that send information from one area of the brain to another as well as throughout the entire nervous system. The more neurons that are dedicated to tasks like reading, math, or science, the faster the brain can process information. Although processing speed is not an indicator of intelligence. However, slower processing speeds present challenges when attempting tasks related to planning, goal setting, decision making, starting tasks, and paying attention.

Conversely, faster processing speed increases the ability to do simple or formerly-learned tasks with ease. The faster the processing speed, the more efficiently you are able to think and learn.

Let’s put all this in practical terms. A faster processing speed from jumping rope can lead to increased ability in:

●      Recognizing simple patterns

●      Engaging in visual exploration tasks

●      Test taking

●      Basic math

●      Applying logic (even in stressful situations)

Some challenges brought about by slower processing speeds can look like:

●      Taking longer than average on assignments

●      Difficulty following instructions

●      Poor test performance

One study found connections between fitness level and task performance of students. Students who were more fit also demonstrated increased attention, concentration, and time on task. In addition, struggling readers showed improved reading skills.

Instruction time is valuable. Students have so much to learn in so little time. It seems like there’s always something contending for their learning time. But if setting aside as little as an hour a week for jumping rope could improve learning in the classroom, wouldn’t the hour be worth it? Think about how much more curriculum could be covered if student time on task increased across the board or if students became more skillful at applying logic.

What a dream, I know!

Take The Next Step

Now that you’re aware of the immense benefits jumping rope has on the overall mental health and brain function of students, it’s time to take action. If you’re wondering where to begin, below are a few pointers if you’re planning to begin implementing jump rope into the school day.

1. Start slow. Students new to jumping rope can find it challenging. Begin with the basics. Allow students to become familiar with the rope, the movements, and the tempo before engaging in more difficult jump rope exercises.

2. Switch it up. Once students begin to develop their skills, vary the routine. This can be done in many ways. The introduction of alternating legs, increasing speed, or incorporating a more advanced technique are all ways to appropriately challenge students and keep students engaged.

3. Record the progress. As I’m sure you know, nothing motivates students like a visual representation of their progress. Find a creative way to track and record individual improvements.

If taking on the task of introducing a jump rope program all on your own seems a bit too daunting, Rope Release has a jump rope program that can fit your needs. We are an educational consulting company. Our focus is innovative program strategy, design, development, management, and evaluation. Whether you’re an educator, administrator, or stakeholder, Rope Release is available to partner with you to get students active and engaged.

Visit us to speak with one of our consultants. We are excited to bring innovation within the arenas of culture, education, and sport.

8 Reasons to Jump Rope - An Easy, Affordable and Effective Way to Achieve Your Goals

It’s no surprise that there are physical benefits to jumping rope, but the extent of the gains may surprise you. This seemingly simple exercise you probably learned on the playground as a child has the potential to meet any fitness goal from fat loss, to increased endurance, and even enhanced athletic performance. But did you also know jumping rope helps your mental fitness too? Whether the mental benefits are your main draw to the sport or an added bonus to the physical benefits, this holistic exercise can and should be incorporated by any and everyone. While one or two of the eight benefits we’re about to cover may not be new to you, there's sure to be more than a couple that surprise you. Let’s dive in.

1.   Burn Calories - Fast

You may be someone who’s looking to burn as many calories as quickly and safely as possible. Maybe you’re looking for a way to take your already intense workouts to the next level. Regardless of your motivation to burn calories, jumping rope is your best bet.

Did you know that jumping rope burns more calories than running? It’s rare to find someone who truly enjoys running, so this should be music to your ears! It’s not too good to be true. In fact, just 10 minutes of jumping rope can burn the same amount of calories as running an 8-minute mile. Which is excellent news for those who have zero desire to run that fast.

Let’s put it another way. You burn twice the calories jumping rope as you would walking, swimming, and jogging. If your main goal is to burn fat, why not go with the most efficient cardio exercise? Replace that morning walk, dip, or run with a quick jump or better yet, add it into your workout as a warm-up for compounded benefits!

2.   Improve Heart Health

You might have heard that diet and exercise can do wonders for your heart, but the benefits of jumping rope for heart health are multifaceted. Jumping rope not only lowers your resting heart rate, it decreases blood pressure, reduces stress, and even has the potential to reverse bad cholesterol all while lowering your risk of cardiovascular disease (the number one cause of death in the US.) Such a simple tool for such a wide-spread problem.

Skeptical? Understandable. A 2019 study of teen girls with prehypertension revealed that jumping rope led to improved outcomes on factors linked to cardiovascular disease such as body composition, blood pressure, inflammation, and vascular function.

Even better news; you can see dramatic results in your health and all it takes is you, your jump rope, and 15 minutes a day. Fifteen minutes well spent!

3.   Strengthen Bones

Jumping rope has been identified as a bone-strengthening activity by the US Department of Health. Drinking milk to prevent osteoporosis is great, but who knew you could exercise your way to stronger bones?

Here’s how it works.

Jumping rope puts an impact on bones that play a key role in the overall strength of your skeletal system. The result is increased growth and strength for your bones. This not only benefits those who are worried about losing bone density as they age, but it’s great for children and adolescents too. Those who engage in bone strengthening activities, like jumping rope, have higher bone mass, better bone structure and greater bone strength than those who don’t.

4.   Activate Muscles For More Power and Speed

A common misconception about jump roping is that it’s a lower body exercise. While jumping rope does work your quads, calves, hamstrings, and glutes, it is considered a full-body workout. In addition to your lower body muscles, jumping rope targets your abs, obliques, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, and chest.

Listen up athletes. Studies show that the quick and sudden increase and decrease in movement involved in jumping rope produces an explosive reaction in the body that produces increased speed and power. It mimics the crucial movements of almost every sport. So whether you play basketball, volleyball, soccer, boxing etc., this is a prime exercise to activate the muscles needed to develop power for any reason. In addition to power and speed, jumping rope serves as a great rehabilitation or conditioning exercise.

Thinking about taking your workout to the next level? Try a weighted jump rope. In one study, volleyball players who used weighted jump ropes for 12 weeks increased their coordination, endurance, and strength compared to their teammates who didn’t jump rope.

Not an athlete? There are still plenty of reasons to activate those muscles. It can help you crush numerous daily activities. Have children to lift and chase? Groceries to bring in all in one trip? Maybe you simply wish to improve your balance and stability. These are all great reasons to pick up a jump rope.

5.   The Trifecta - Increase Agility, Coordination & Balance

As if the promise of more power and speed weren’t enough to get you to pick up the rope, how about agility, coordination, and balance? Dozens of studies have found that jumping rope is conducive to running faster, jumping higher and an improved metabolic rate. This is especially useful for multisport athletes looking to improve their ability to quickly change directions.

Coordination and balance are central to jumping rope. It requires coordination from your eyes, feet, hands, legs, and arms to maintain rhythm while jumping. It also requires you to regain balance with every jump. The improved balance gained through jumping rope also helps lower your chances of injury.

A recent study found that athletes who jump rope were better coordinated and balanced than their teammates who didn’t jump rope. A jump rope can give anyone the upper hand.

6.   Alleviate Anxiety & Stress

Jumping rope has recently grown in popularity not just because of its physical advantages, but also because of the effect it has on mental well-being. Jumping rope produces endorphins. The chemical in your brain that serves as a natural painkiller. The production of endorphins boost mental wellness while reducing stress and anxiety.

But that’s not all. What makes jumping rope appealing to those looking to destress is the focus it requires. Other cardio exercises, like running, allow your mind to wander to what worries or stresses you out. Jumping rope requires mental focus to ensure your body’s motor skills, balance, and spatial awareness operate in sync. Even the quickest break in focus will reward you with a swift slap to the ankles. Ouch! The mental workout jumping rope provides causes your brain to shift gears from thinking about the symptoms of anxiety and stress to the mental and physical skills needed to successfully complete the act of jumping rope.

7.   Stimulate Brain Function

Yup, you read that right. It’s not just a smart decision to jump rope, it actually makes you smarter! According to a study done at The University of Georgia, exercise that includes coordination, rhythm, and strategy delivers a major boost to the health of your brain.

Jumping rope is a bilateral sport, meaning it uses both sides of your brain. Studies show that this type of exercise allows the brain to create new neural connections that strengthen your cognitive function.

A 20-minute jump rope workout facilitates information processing and memory and can even lead you to react better in complex situations. Who couldn’t use that superpower?

8.   Inspire Creativity

Jump rope is a fun and versatile sport. There are so many variations and tricks that allow both children and adults to showcase their creativity. Whether you’re learning an established technique or making up your own combos to show off, jumping rope allows your brain to think in new and innovative ways that promote a lifestyle of creativity. Jumping rope even has its own Tik Tok craze. There’s no limit to the creative potential.

Jumping rope is a fun, affordable, and adaptable way to stay physically and mentally fit. It can be modified to fit any goal or lifestyle.

Don’t have an hour to squeeze in a workout? - Jump rope for 20 minutes instead

Doc told you to exercise for your heart health? - Jump rope has you covered

Growing adolescent or looking to age gracefully?- Jump rope

Hoping to enhance athletic performance or recover from injury? - Jump rope

Searching for a weight training warm-up that will activate your muscles? - Jump rope

Need to boost your mood and your brain power? - You guessed it, jump rope

The possibilities are virtually endless, and so are the benefits.

If you would like to partner with professionals to introduce a jump rope program or regimen into your K-12 school, university, corporate offering or athletics program, visit us at www.roperelease.com to learn how we can help streamline these benefits to those you serve.

BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL IN YOUTH: The value of sport and physical activity in helping children and adolescents develop human connections that will benefit them for a lifetime

I recently had the opportunity to travel with my two children to North Carolina.  This travel experience presented them with a basketful of positive experiences.  During our week of travel, my kids were able to participate in two physical activity / sport camps in the Chapel Hill-Durham area of North Carolina.  The programs guiding these successful camps were the Bouncing Bulldogs, Youth Hoops andChapel Hill Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.  The week-long summer camps for my daughter and son, ages 7 and 9, respectively, allowed them to enjoy social, cultural and physical activity experiences but more importantly increased their self-confidence.  Experiences such as these should be available to all children.  While it may be reasonable to assume that youth do have such opportunities to attend quality programs in America, the truth is many youth do not have access or opportunities to such programs, especially summer programs (National Summer Learning Association, 2010). 

A common thread among each of the three camps that my kids attended was the emphasis on building fundamental skills, both motor and social, in a supportive, encouraging environment.  Many physical activity / sport-based programs today, to include summer camp programs, are focused on competition and performance rather than building essential life skills (i.e. motor, communication, cooperative).  During the week of the camps, I witnessed, from the top-down, administrators and instructors committed to ensuring that children were placed in situations where they were learning fundamental skills in jump rope, basketball and martial arts, respectively, but more importantly skills in working together with different people, talking in front of an audience and even leading their peers in an exercise or routine, all in a non-to-low competitive, enriching environment. 

One area of great concern and promise among humankind is resilience.  Individuals in society, for a multitude of reasons, handle situations in different ways.  For many, situations are challenges that provide opportunities to build and develop oneself for greater rewards and outcomes in the future.  For these individuals they have the trait of resilience.  For others, situations are obstacles that inhibit or prevent them from tapping into their potential and realizing positive, rewarding outcomes in their life.  For these individuals they lack the trait of resilience.  Research (Werner & Smith, 1982) has identified key factors that contribute to this all-important trait of resilience.  These factors include high activity level, responsive to people, positive social orientation, age-appropriate sensorimotor and perceptual skills, adequate communication skills, special interests and hobbies, and a desire to improve oneself.  Physical activity and sport, when presented in the right way, deliver many, if not all, these factors to children and youth in a fun approach and at a very important stage of their development, early in life.  When children develop resilience they will become productive, beneficial members to society in most cases.  To the contrary, when children do not develop resilience life becomes much more difficult and opportunities to contribute positively to society decrease significantly. 

The Bouncing Bulldogs, Youth Hoops and Chapel Hill Gracie Jiu-Jitsu provide the type of experiences that all youth should be afforded.  For some youth, it may be music, performing arts, science, or some other field and area of interest.  But for youth who enjoy and thrive from all things physical and movement-related, physical activity / sport programs should be supported, encouraged, funded and sustained so that our society as a whole will become better.  Undoubtedly, society will be better as a natural result of the resilient individuals that realize their self-worth as well as the worth of others in their social network.  Let’s build the social capital in youth through positive, accessible programs that will benefit the youth and society for a lifetime.  

Basketball Bond: Discovering the Value of Relationships

Today I experienced an unbelievable feeling– a feeling that I will not soon forget when I approach young people in any environment or circumstance.  Today I felt comforted in knowing that a common bond I share with ten young boys has the power to transform an insulated spirit and soul. 

While I am truly blessed to be able to enjoy the many pleasantries that I have been afforded in this life, I often find something lacking inside, something that a solid profession and material things can not satisfy.  Today marked one of those days when I felt a little empty on the inside despite the fact that I woke up to a beautiful family and enjoyed a productive day teaching my elementary and middle school students in a suburban school district north of New York City. 

It was not until I joined the group of young boys in the Different Encounters program, in what many would call an “underprivileged, low-income” community that I begin to experience a feeling of joy and connectedness.  While attempting to discuss the meaning of the word relationship with the boys, I felt the profound meaning of the word in real time. 

Player responses to the meaning of relationship included the following: 

• Bond
• Friendship
• Two people working together toward a common goal

After starting the session with a short drill in which many of the boys became frustrated, I soon witnessed a positive transformation as the session advanced, in terms of the boys understanding the value of working together as a unit rather than viewing their actions as exclusive and independent.  While far from perfect, their positive attitude and behavior change let me know the power of the basketball to teach the important concept of relationship.  

As they began to work together and experience the process of forming a relationship with their peers, I simultaneously began to feel the emptiness inside of me fill with joy.  The power of the basketball to fill my insulated spirit with a touch of joy and connectedness is but one example of a positive outcome that can be achieved through an after-school, sport-based, youth development program.  

Reform or Recognition? What America's Youth Sport Programs Need

Youth sport programming in the United States is unsurpassed around the world in terms of its quality and impact.  From CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to public servants in the fields of defense, education and policy, youth sport programs have influenced and positively impacted our nation’s best.  Despite the example and record of these exemplary programs, many individuals and groups suggest that youth sports in America need reform (A Call to Action:  Youth Sports Reform).  To this, I advance the following inquiry – is it that youth sport programming needs reform or that youth sport programs in the many communities around the country need greater recognition for their positive impact?

The top-down approach (private financial interest, charter schools, high-stakes testing, etc.) to education that is permeating through general education right now is also threatening positive youth sport programs.  While funding is an essential component to the sustainability and efficiency of any successful youth sports program, the benefactors should not be the compass for the program.  The individuals on the ground sharpening the important skills of the youth who are being served should be the ones out front and speaking about the programs.  They are the ones who can best advise the nation about what is working and what needs to be corrected in our youth sport and development programs.  While benefactors and champions of youth sports are important, they must not overreach and take hold of a purpose which is not theirs, the day-to-day operations of the programs they are funding. 

Trailblazers often go unrecognized until the final moments of their work, and sometimes life.  What is needed is the recognition of the many trailblazers around the country, on the ground, doing the work with the young people on a daily basis.  Reform in youth sports implies that something is wrong or in need of improvement.  Based on the many successful individuals in our country who participated in youth sport programs it would appear that it is not reform which is needed but rather greater recognition or attention on the many programs that are having the impact that we all want to see.  Let’s find them (rather than focusing on the substandard examples), highlight them, showcase them, and learn from them before we decide to waste too much time, energy and resources on something that may not be needed.  

Promoting Perseverance: How Sports Promotes Essential Life Habits

The prospect of working with a group of adolescent boys from an urban, inner-city neighborhood in an after-school sport education program may be a daunting task for some but for others it can be a motivating challenge.  After all, the last thing most middle grade-aged students want to do after a regular day of school is to join a program with an emphasis on more learning.  However, well-structured programs in an after-school setting that cater to the interest of adolescent males hold promise in changing current negative trends and outcomes that are often associated with this group as they move through their formative years and into adulthood. 

A few of the attributes most commonly associated with urban, inner-city, “at-risk” or “underserved” youth is that they are: 

§  Selfish

§  Hyperactive

§  Disengaged

This past Tuesday, the DE after-school program showed me that these attributes may be present at times but can be overcome and remodeled to produce young men who deserve ‘different’ marks from their observers. 

In a public school gymnasium located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, eight young boys, participating in an after-school basketball-based, physical education program, showed me this transformation is possible. 

The young boys started the Tuesday afternoon session exhibiting many of the characteristics presented above.  Their actions showed a clear lack of focus and cooperativeness as they engaged in actions solely thinking about themselves and how they could enjoy a few hours of basketball inside the confines of an inside gymnasium. 

Soon, after settling the boys down and providing some purpose, through a discussion and several physical activity tasks, a majority of the boys began to display a sense of understanding behind the theme and word of the day (perseverance).  Many of them became attentive and focused rather than merely actors in a physical space where their attitude normally centered on having a ball and running around with it in an effort to see it through an orange circle ten feet in the air. 

During a group discussion following physical activity the boys respectfully engaged in a discussion that centered on the word perseverance.  They collaboratively worked through the definition and provided their own insights into what they believed and understood the word to mean.  They then went on to talk through the concept of perseverance in relation to being on a basketball team. 

Later that night, ironically, the Los Angeles Lakers first round draft pick, Julius Randle, went down with a broken leg that could keep him sidelined for the remainder of his rookie season with the team.  This real example for the young boys will allow them to track and follow how an individual on a team perseveres through a difficult time. 

Young people need new challenges and obstacles.  Equally as important as the challenges and obstacles is the support and systems (i.e. programming) in place to help them through the process and allow them to see and experience that success is possible if one perseveres and stays focused.  

Monitoring Physical Activity: Pediatrician Commitment and Guidance

Pediatricians have an all-important, professional responsibility to provide solutions for the prevention and treatment of diseases in children.  This responsibility, nonetheless, should be shared.  Physical activity (PA) is an integral component to the well-being of children and needs to be promoted at home, in the community and at school (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2006).  Working with parents and community organizations in a greater capacity, with a particular emphasis on education, pediatricians can build upon their commitment to have a stronger impact on not only their profession but also on the health and well-being of the nation’s children. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) should be applauded for their continued research and recommendations to prevent and treat diseases in children, such as their recommendation for children to watch no more than 2 hours of quality television programming per day (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001).  However, with the advancement of new biotechnologies, pediatricians can and should do more on the education and prevention side of getting more children active and engaged in physical activity. 

One strategy for accomplishing this is for pediatricians to make a commitment to informing parents about physical activity opportunities for their children.  Opportunities could include recreational and sport clubs in the local community, community-based organizations offering physical activity programming and resources such as videos and books that children can engage to improve physical activity knowledge.  Partnering with the community and making information available in their offices can have a collaborative impact.  For the pediatrician they will be accomplishing their professional objective of providing solutions to improve the health of the patient while all stakeholders will be impacted economically and altruistically.   

Another way that pediatricians can assist and commit is by monitoring their patients’ physical activity levels through the use of accelerometers, a biotechnology monitoring device that tracks physical activity.  Many of these devices are relatively inexpensive and provide a great means for parents and children to become physically active together.  The integration of technology and physical activity can work together, in this instance, rather than competing against one another for a child’s time.  Coupled with the resources in the community, these devices can help pediatricians and parents track where, when, why and how children are engaging in healthy, active behaviors.  This information can then lead to better informed decisions, recommendations and ultimately policies to improve the health and well-being of the youth population. 

Pediatricians, parents and community organizations all have an equal stake in the health and well-being of children.  This stake can be maximized to reach its full value and potential if all three work together to create solutions and opportunities for young people to engage in physical activity.  The advent of new technology makes partnership between these three respective groups feasible and attractive.  Accelerometers and other physical activity tracking and monitoring devices can help inform and educate on physical activity trends so that solutions can be created to get children more engaged in activity.  The physical, social, intellectual and emotional well-being of our children is important and all of us can do our part to help.  

Different Encounters: A Grassroots Education Program

Different Encounters (DE) started as a conversation between two friends playing weekend basketball in the neighborhood of Jackson Heights in New York City, New York.  What started as a simple dialogue around helping a few youth learn the skills of shooting, dribbling and passing has now unfolded into a wonderful design to educate adolescent youth in areas that will allow them to be successful throughout adolescence and into adulthood. 

The integration of physical, health and character education will hopefully establish a sense of purpose and value in the young people who experience the program.  At DE, we want to provide the young people an experience that will help guide them in making decisions and choices as well as expose them to a ‘different’ mindset, a mindset that emerges through in-depth conversation and dialogue with the program staff members.  The DE staff members bring a diverse, different viewpoint to the program but are similar to the participants in that everyone shares a love for the game of basketball.  This singular connection allows a mutual respect in which staff and participants can learn from each other while also gaining mutually beneficial rewards in the process. 

The rewards for the young people are improved self-confidence, greater self-awareness, increased physical activity and structured opportunities to learn new information, meet new people and to have fun playing a game that they love.  For the program staff, the rewards are realized in knowing that they have given back a portion of their time in helping a young person learn valued lessons that will lead to making better informed decisions, which ultimately could result in the improvement of society on a number of measures. 

Though still in its infancy, DE realizes its usefulness in spreading love among the members of humanity, regardless of age, through a common interest and passion, which in this case happens to be a bright orange ball.  DE endeavors to develop a model that can be reproduced the globe over to inspire people to be active, engaged and good-hearted.  

Could Attitude toward Physical Education and Activity be the Key that Fits for Opening the Door to Academic Success? Let’s Turn It and Find Out

In a recent New York Times blog entitled How Physical Fitness May Promote School Success, Gretchen Reynolds provides commentary and support for the idea that a more physically fit student performs better in the academic classroom and on academic standardized tests.  She references a large-scale school study on physical activity and academic achievement as well as a smaller, more controlled study on learning and the impact of physical activity to validate the premise that a physically fit student is a better learner.  So the question that one must ask if this premise is in fact true is:  why don’t more legislators, administrators, parents and concerned citizens of this great country create more opportunities during the school day to get students moving and physically active? 

While there is no simple answer to this question, there are a number of issues that can be seen as contributing to the dilemma of getting students more physically active and engaged.  An often opinioned reason for the lack of physical activity opportunities is the need for more time on subjects such as a reading and math due to global competitiveness.  Other reasons include financial limitations, space constraints and the availability and access to parks, recreational activities and community resources after-school.  All of these reasons hold value but not quite enough to fully and sufficiently answer the question of why more students aren't engaging in more physical activity. 

Perhaps the missing, essential ingredient to the solution of getting students more physically engaged in activity is to improve their attitudes toward physical activity and education.  To improve student attitudes towards something that should be a part of their everyday lives is not an effortless or rudimentary task but one that can be solved.  By placing a greater emphasis on the importance of one’s body during the school day through physical education classes and instruction is key.  Students live in an advanced society and are now forced to choose between an abundance of activities and tasks to engage, mainly as a result of technology development.  While these widgets and gadgets often spark creativity and intellectual performance, they also have created a sedentary by-product of individuals who are now at risk for issues concerning their physical and intellectual development. 

Placing a greater emphasis on physical education programs and the activities, resources and programs that they are associated with, our country may just increase students’ attitudes toward physical activity and changing their lifestyle habits and choices.  Providing them with greater balance in their lives can make them not only healthier but also improve their chances for school and academic success.

Double Impact: Interscholastic Athletics Advances Connections On the Field and Off

During a time of fiscal uncertainty, global competitiveness and a national health care crisis, perhaps one place for the United States of America (USA) to turn is to physical activity and the physical education classroom. Countless scientific studies have show that there is a positive association between physical activity and cognition as well as an association between physical activity and health (Warburton, Nicol & Bredin, 2006). 

However, despite what we know and what the research shows about the benefits of physical activity and education, only six states (Arkansas, Delaware, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah) provide funding for professional development for physical education teachers (Key State Physical Education Policies and Practices).  If states are not preparing physical education teachers, then who is providing the necessary instruction and education for individuals, particularly America's youth, to engage in healthy and active lifestyles? 

Now more than ever we need to reestablish the role and importance of the physical education profession and  interscholastic athletics.  To a degree, education and athletics have been disconnected by a number of different factors that include the proliferation of private organizations dedicated to the promotion and development of sports, an education system focused on a common core that does not include physical education and a division between physical education teachers and interscholastic sport coaches.  This disconnection between education and athletics has marginalized the impact of physical activity not only on intellectual and academic achievement but also on the 'pureness of the physical activity endeavor' that is athletics. 

Academics and athletics operating as competing opposites in their own distinct vacuums is not good for today's youth or for the nation as a whole.  When academics and athletics are brought back together and elevated to the position that they once held, a cultural existence that connected people in a community and neurons in an academic setting, then our nation will be in a better position to master our fiscal, global competitiveness and health care problems. 
 

A Balancing Act: Leading with Poise and Understanding

A leader not often mentioned in the fields of medicine, military, politics, education, business and sports that should be is Dr. Roscoe C. Brown, Jr.  The son of a respected pioneer in the field of public health, Dr. Brown is the essence of leadership according to the great military general, strategist and philospher Sun Tzu.  Sun Tzu described leadership as a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and discipline (Sun Tzu, Art of War).  Sun Tzu went a little further in expressing that when an individual has all five virtues together, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a leader.  Dr. Brown is, and for close to seven decades has been, an individual who has intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage and discipline. 

As the Director for the Center for Urban Education Policy at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), it could easily be proclaimed that as a distinguished scholar, author of well over 50 scholarly articles, and professor that Dr. Brown is intelligent.  However, his intelligence has been on display since the 1930's, over 80 years, when he was one of a few blacks to attend and graduate from Springfield College in Massachusetts and later go on to receive masters and doctorate degrees from New York University (NYU).

He combined his intelligence with courage and discipline in service to his country during World War II.  At a time in American history when blacks were seen as unequal to their white counterparts, Dr. Brown and several others broke down stereotypes and institutional barriers when they completed flight training and flew combat missions overseas during the height of World War II.  This group became known as the Tuskegee Airmen and forever changed the role that blacks would play not only in the military but in all of society as capable, intelligent, courageous and disciplined leaders.

Along the journey from his childhood days in Washington, D.C. to his service in the military and on to his long career in education and research, Dr. Brown found time to mentor and guide others.  He was patient and trustworthy.  Behind the scenes he advised leaders in all fields of endeavor to include Dr. Leroy Walker, the first black president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.  His guidance, wisdom, example and trustworthiness enabled Walker and others to walk down paths that would open up doors to millions of individuals to enjoy pursuits and opportunities in sports, medicine, education and service that otherwise may have never been available.

Dr. Brown, into his nineties, exemplifies everything human in spite of his extraordinary gifts.  He remains grounded and connected to the spirit of the people.  Educating and serving have remained a part of his being and his mantra should be acknowledged by all who wish to attain the status of leader:  to educate and serve.  To find a balance amid a world of change and instability is a tough act.  The example of Dr. Brown serves to educate those on leading with poise and understanding through any situation and time.  
 

A Laudable Linkage: Quality Physical Education and Academic Achievement

Despite the abundance of information and evidence that substantiates the benefits of children participating in physical activity, schools and communities around the nation still spurn programs with a focus on developing physical fitness in favor of other projects. The recent financial crisis in the United States has further reduced the consideration for programs involving physical activities and education. 

Despite the disinterest among many for physical activity and education programs, there are many organizations and individuals rising up to introduce novel, extraordinary, engaging programs to reach youth through physical activity. Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Illinois is one of these programs that gets it. It may have taken an ivy league researcher, Dr. John J. Ratey, to bring attention to this school but the success of their program speaks volumes to the impact that physical activity can have in an individual's life, especially the life of a young child. 

In Naperville, there pioneering "learning readiness" program allows young people the opportunity to exercise (no pun intended) their right to move their bodies, bodies that essentially are made to move. Schools naturally should be a place where children are allowed to explore, learn and grow through movement. However, this is not the case in many states, school districts and schools and it is causing serious problems in the overall development of the nation's young people. Simple physical activities like jump rope, running, dance, swimming and even skating are excellent for children. These activities can be performed both individually and as a team. Not only does being a physically active help improve academics, as the research has shown, but it also provides a powerful social boost for children who often are shy and lack confidence. 

Physical activity and education need to become more integrated into the everyday fabric of American life. If it does, perhaps we will see a number of positive changes with respect to health care, education and crime.