Bringing Sports & Activites to Living Rooms Backyards and Condo Balconies

Cindy Adair, Assistant Principal, Bangkok Patana School

Back in November 2019, I led four overseas school sporting trips in South East Asia! Yes four! Four days in the office, followed by three on a plane, in a hotel and then standing by a sweaty pitch/pool or court accompanied by various teams of young student-athletes and their coaches. It was hectic, thrilling, exciting and exhausting. Little did I know at the time that those four passport stamps would be my last for a long time. The horrid cold and flu I bought back from the last trip and that I couldn’t seem to shrug off might have been a clue, but back then we didn’t think of symptoms in terms of COVID-19.

Fast forward through 2020 and 2021 and I now have coaches working with our teams who’ve never attended a Championship, or in some cases a local fixture. How do you lead a Sports programme when sports and activities are banned? It’s been a period of great upheaval for many, both personally and professionally.

Here are some of my reflections on leading a sports, activities and PE programme through the pandemic:

Students NEED to move and we must do whatever what-ever it takes to inspire them to do so.

them to do so. We’ve hosted Virtual Fun Runs, Dress-Up Workouts, Live Workouts, Pre-Recorded Workouts, Geo Cache hunts around the City. From Zumba and Dance to HIIT and Tennis Skills, you name it, we’ve tried it. I have been blown away by the hidden talents of our coaches and teachers. We’ve taken the approach that we’ll “throw it at the wall and see if it sticks” and if one student turns up and enjoys it – it was worth it!

You can teach old dogs new tricks!

The pandemic has forced technology to the front and centre of our lives. Some of our coaches who are most at home “on the grass” now host video tutorials like seasoned YouTubers, and come knocking on my door to ask for budget approval for lapel mics and gimbals, so they can improve the quality of their LIVE lessons. Our once awkward, online meetings are now dynamic affairs as we flip in and out of break-out rooms, share our screens with confidence and compete to create the best backgrounds. The virtual equivalent of PE office banter.

Rewards work!

During our most recent school closure we created a reward scheme involving virtual medals and house-points. We tracked attendance and sent out virtual medals attached to congratulatory emails and prize packs sent via delivery bikes. We celebrated success enthusiastically via our social media channels. The students were inspired to participate and we often had over 100 students on each call enjoying our LIVE optional activities after school.

Community matters.

Staying connected to your sporting student-athletes and their parents is a top priority. We are constantly striving to stay connected by hosting Guest Speakers, Quizzes, Cooking Classes and more. We are currently piloting an E-Sports programme (competitive online gaming). The physical educationalist in me never thought I’d become an advocate for gaming, but we are bringing students out of their basements and into our teams and it is adding new faces to our community and that is positive.

The Olympics and Paralympics

are truly a wonderful motivational tool and in these times an emotional salve for the soul. Whilst hosting a Games in a pandemic is not without its controversies, the inspirational performances and wonderful individual stories of triumph over adversity are an awesome teaching tool. In 2021 we were lucky to have two alumni competing, which made it all the more special. I observed a notable uptick in the mental health and general optimism among the PE and Coaching staff as we poured over the day’s events and shared our highlights during the Games.

Communication is vital – even if you don’t have all the answers.

No-one enjoys uncertainty, it’s uncomfortable, unknown and well… uncertain! As I’ve navigated leadership during this time, I’ve tried to communicate at every key juncture with clarity and honesty. I have aimed to share what I know but also what I don’t yet know. At times I’ve needed to be more directive than I usually would be and this has taken practice and conviction. Mostly I’ve realised that the old saying “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care” is especially true in a crisis.

Maintaining traditions and norms as much as possible is key.

The school year has a rhythm to it. In the area of sports and activities it looks something like this; Pre-season, coaches meeting, trials, photos, captains lunch, tournament, prize giving, rinse and repeat. As many of us bounce in and out of school closures – keeping our school calendar in place and looking for ways to continue our plans in a virtual manner whenever we can has been very helpful and grounding force. Can’t have a Sports Awards Dinner – no problem, a LIVE YouTube Premier followed by a drive-through award collection we can do!

I’ve realised that the old saying “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care” is especially true in a crisis.