May 20, 2025 • 45 mins
Jim Hambel (https://x.com/JPEileenstrong) shares his MacGyver-like approach to building comprehensive physical education programs with limited budgets and resources. Drawing from his years of PE teaching experience, he demonstrates how creativity, partnerships, and resourcefulness can compensate for minimal funding.
• Utilizing relationships with sports organizations like USTA, Bowler's Ed, and PHIT America to secure free equipment and professional coaching
• Implementing bowling instruction as a pathway to teaching physical literacy, accuracy, and transferable skills
• Reaching out to local businesses to enhance PE curriculum through volunteer partnerships
• Applying for educational grants and using social media to discover new resources and teaching ideas
• Adapting instruction to work in unconventional spaces like third-floor gyms and hallways
• Emphasizing that student engagement comes from teacher creativity rather than expensive equipment
Let me know what you think,
Dave
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello and welcome to the Supersize for Zed podcast.
My name is Dave and today Ihave a very special guest.
It is none other than JimHamble.
Yes, jim, in the gym if you'reon Twitter or X or whatever you
call it these days.
Yes, jim, in the gym if you'reon Twitter or X or whatever you
call it these days.
And we've met and talked a fewtimes already and we seem to
keep in touch over the years.
(00:32):
But I want to do a follow-upinterview with him and talk all
things just building a programfrom scratch or even where he's
at now, just kind of theequipment you need, the
equipment that's more of anecessity versus as you dream
(00:52):
big and get a bigger budget, andeven ways to build a program
without much of a budget, whichI've written about recently in
my Beg, borrow and Steal episode.
So, without further ado, here'smy interview with Jim Hamble.
All right, here I am with JimHamble.
(01:18):
Jim, how are you tonight?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm great, good to see youagain.
It's been a little while, so Iappreciate you, it has been yeah
.
Yeah, it's been a few years.
I haven't really done a lot ofinterviews in the past few years
.
I just started kind of comingback with it.
So that's good that you're onboard again.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
No, I enjoyed our last conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, when I saw that you were doing it again.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I was like yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So can you give us a brief intro of who you are,
where you are and what you teach?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
please.
Well, my name is Jim Hamill.
I'm a phys ed teacher.
I teach grades 3k, which, ifyour school is universal pre-k
in the city we have, and in NewYork we have.
I'm also from New York andthere are universal, like, in
essence, 3k programs forthree-year-olds and my daughter.
I have two daughters, one's infirst grade, the other one is
actually in a 3k program now, soit's full day 3k and I do up to
(02:16):
fifth grade and I also have agen ed and a special ed license
which greatly helps.
If you've not seen, or I'm theauthor of the PE Central course,
secrets of Differentiation,which we've actually just
revised, the newly updated ShapeAmerica Standards, and so I
(02:39):
usually tend to do stream ofthoughts.
I apologize if I ramble, but Ilike to kind of like.
This is almost like my teachingstyle I try to be on topic, on
point, but also, you know,engaging.
I like to think of myself as ateacher, but also as a
facilitator.
I'm always trying to work onstudent-centered instruction
because I really feel likethat's my biggest thing is that
(03:04):
I always try to think.
I remember when I studenttaught scripting lessons, got to
do it.
That makes half of it, so Iknow exactly what I'm going to
say.
It's almost like I feel likeI'm a performer.
I've actually read books onperforming my best friend that
I've known since I was three.
But um, so that's a little bitabout me and um.
Back to you, dave.
(03:24):
Well thanks.
I also believe humor is a bigthing, a big, important part of
just life.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I could tell and I've known that about you and I
agree, yeah, You've beenentertaining me for the past few
minutes as we were talkinganyway.
So I do want to go into bowlingreal quick, because we started
talking about bowling I'm like,oh, I've got to hit record,
what's that?
Yeah, right.
So you need to tell us aboutyour bowling career and you know
(03:53):
just your bowling influenceWell as it comes to PE, also
what you've done for PE withbowling.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So the whole thing about me and if you've ever seen
or read something about itbecause I do tend to talk about
it a lot but really the big Igrew up in the 90s.
I went bowling on saturdaymornings with my father.
Yeah, I remember the bowlingused to be on like primetime,
like abc.
Yeah, like saturday afternoons,that's like.
(04:19):
That was like like this inessence, exactly like monday
night football, like you wouldabc bowling and um, it's, it's.
There's a lot of more differentways to stream it now, but you
know, that was like the bigthing back in the day.
So like that's where I grew upand um.
So I recently just wrote a blogfor gopher sport and I gotta say
so you give a shout out tomatthew bassett, because he's
(04:41):
the one who put me in touch with.
He is amazing, he is, he is.
I've met him, we'vecollaborated, he and I.
Yeah, oh, I have not, so you'relucky, but he put me in touch
with Gopher and they said so.
Gopher gave me a chance.
And I do also want to give ashout-out to Joe and I apologize
, joe Dutch and Mike Chairman,because they also wrote blogs on
it too.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So and um, we'll link that in the episode notes.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The show wants I'm not one to gatekeep and if it
sounds like I'm name dropping,I'm really not, you know, trying
to name drop.
I'm just like give credit wherecredit's due, um, but in my
blog.
So really you might have heard,I mean like I, I if, honestly,
if you kind of google jim hambowling like, you'll probably
find a lot of things.
(05:24):
But honestly, my parentsdivorced when I was about 10.
And the biggest reason I kindof say what bowling is, yeah, I
kind of was good at it and Ikind of picked it up, naturally,
but it was really I doapologize to my mom.
We bowled on a Tuesday nightleague in the summer at Baldwin
Lanes and it was two games, butit was, you know, it was just
(05:51):
something for her and I to dowhen, when.
And then I do apologize to mymother's also retired visit
teacher.
So I do apologize and Iapologized to her before I kind
of kicked her off the teambecause I wanted to vote my
father.
So, um, and honestly, like Ikind of stuck with it.
I actually wanted to go be alawyer.
My father went to St John's anddid a pre-law program.
Women's bowling, I will say, isNCAA, but men's bowling isn't
(06:13):
varsity team, so it's kind of alittle bit trickier.
Okay, I didn't know that.
Yeah, when I went to Adelphi no, sorry, I went to Adelphi after
St John's because I realized Ididn't want to be a lawyer and
um, but really honestly, theonly reason I kind of stuck with
bowling is because I wanted itwas something that was a good
bond.
So in this blog I wrote, and youand I were just talking about
it, like in golf you have thehole in one like there's always
(06:36):
that moment like you don'talways have to.
Um, like one thing I told twoof your students, like when I
said oh, this is like this islike, this is basketball Like.
Is it basketball?
What makes basketballbasketball?
Like what makes golf golf?
Like what makes any sport it'snot just a team versus team.
So, like a golf, you can pray,pray recreationally, it's still
a whole one.
It's still a whole one.
(06:56):
Um, but I'm bowling and I'mbasketball.
You have the buzzer beater, butI'm bowling.
It's moments like bowling 300.
I've been very lucky.
I've done it three times.
Uh, four times, sorry, that'sawesome.
And in the blog I reallyseriously, my wife was there for
the last one.
It's been about eight years, Ithink.
And, um, if you didn't know, youneed 12 strikes in a row, which
(07:17):
is, even if you've done it afew times, it's still pretty
nerve-wracking.
Um, mostly because at the point, some point, you don't want to,
just, you know, throw it toomuch, and then you've got like a
pin, and or you want to getlike three pin or seven, and and
it's it's like, but, um, Iremember I I had the first 10.
The 11th shot was likebeautiful, and I left like a 10
(07:37):
pin, but like I don't know, andthis my father had been had
passed away like 2012, and thiswas like six years later, no,
four, yeah, because it wasbefore I had kids, which it
seemed like a thousand years ago.
But, um, I remember like therewas just like some almost divine
presidents, presidents, wow,presence like it.
Just magically the pin fellover.
So, um, for me, bowling is, Ifeel like I always say it's like
(08:01):
a sport you could really reallygood at, but like even the
masters, even the best ones inthe world, like they you're
always one game could be 300,one game cannot.
So it's it's and, honestly, forme, and it just kind of like
speaks to like what kind of likeperson like and what kind of
teacher I am.
Because, like, I just like toplay so like, because, like, I
(08:27):
just like to play so like, and Iknow, and bowling is great
because you have, like you couldgo for awards and trophies, you
can go for like accolades um,I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna,
it's, it's cool to say I'm inthe hall of fame, I'm a
professional, but, um, yeah,even though I haven't gone
bowling in like six months, butI've taught bowling and, uh, I
one time did a PD at BrooklynHigh School in the hallway with
a colleague.
So it's, and there's also a lotof different ways to be
(08:51):
creative.
Like I mean, there's theBowler's Ed, which I'm a
Bowler's Ed specialist, so Ihave to give a shout out to.
And it's really the kind ofthing where it's like, are
students going to be entertainedfor a long time?
They will like, if you havekids, if you have students, be
like a pin setter and like tokeep score.
It's great for small groupsbecause they can, you can
(09:14):
differentiate.
Do they take one step?
Do they take four steps?
Today now, even days like II've I've had students, you know
, back in the day you must, youremember you ever see a student
will hold hand and they kind oflike they don't really put their
hand in it, like they just kindof like use two hands, like
that.
That's, some of the best ballsin the world are two handed.
(09:34):
So there's a lot there, buthonestly, for me it's just it's
like one of my favorites andit's just funny.
I had a student we were doingbasketball and we've done it a
few times.
I have this class twice a weekand the other day yesterday she
was like she said can we dobowling?
Yeah, probably out of the blue.
And I say that and I was likethat's my favorite.
(09:55):
And I said this and I was likeyou know what, it may not be
your favorite, I won't be upset,but that's my passion and love.
But like, I think it's good tohave like trends, to be able to
know like, so say like, andstudents are like, oh, and I'm
like so what if you get invitedto a bowling party, a birthday
party?
Like now you know what to do.
So that's I think that's also apart of like physical literacy
(10:19):
and phys ed, that a bowling is agood example of that too Not
the only example, but it's alsoa good one to kind of like help
roll that out.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
No pun intended.
So what is your OK?
So one of the things myfavorite games is because we
have a bunch of dots in ourpavilion, so we'd have partners.
It's like one pin on a dot andthey would.
It's almost like a cardiobowling, where they bowl it.
If it gets knocked down, theymove to the next dot and the
next person goes.
They're kind of like rotatingOne person's bowling it, the
(10:49):
other person's resetting it, orkind of like I don't want to say
catching it, but catching it asfar as the bowling like the
catcher, oh yeah, and so theyrun back.
The goal is to make it all theway down and back, like keep
moving that pin and back.
What are some other?
I guess quickly, we don't spenda lot of time on this, but
maybe a game or two that youlike for bowling to teach the
(11:11):
students.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I just saw one I actually kind of adapted it for
basketball.
I think it was Jessica Gore whodid like bowling, for like
critters you put, like littleanimals, or like you put
beanbags and hula hoops Not asany game the biggest things for
bowling little animals or likebeanbags and hula hoops the
biggest things for bowling areaccuracy and consistency,
because there's really only notthat many skills that you need
(11:37):
to do, but you need to be ableto do it well.
So large targets, narrowtargets, medium targets A game
like that is perfect.
I've done that before.
The way they are bowling isbecause a lot of students, a lot
of people just know itnaturally from like you know
going and scorekeeping.
So any way you could incentivelike personally I've done before
(12:01):
, I've bowled and like usedcards, so you can make it so
like one of the bowlers at gamesis, you have the kids, you can
have them roll two rule two diceand if you get like a two and a
four, you put up the two pin,the four pin and then you put up
the six pin because you addthem together and if the total
is more than 10 you put up all10.
So and you can definitely dothings like or I I think I
(12:25):
remember someone, I forget wherehe was but like you could put
pictures on the bottom of themor you can have like so that
when they hit Bulls, that alsohas a really cool one where they
have, like you know, a set of10 pins.
So this way and I recently justdiscovered like puppets with
numbers on them, discover likepuppets with numbers on them so
(12:47):
you can do with like every fivepins, um, they could get a card
or they could get some somesomething, and this is good to
help them keep track of theirprogress.
And I gotta say, like when I'vebeen, well, I haven't where you
got like a strike or you couldeven it's called no tap, where
if you really want to make itinteresting and this will make
the you could do or like,instead of having to get a
strike but knock down all the 10pins, maybe they only need if
(13:08):
they knock down eight, thatcounts as a strike.
Or knock down nine pins and itcounts as a strike.
So that game like you'retalking about, like it's quick
and, truth be told, I only liketo do like one turn and then
switch because, honestly, I'vebeen bowling for many, many
years and pulling that sometimesis I've only I've learned it
(13:29):
because it's situational.
I think that's the best kind ofaspect I mean for for older
students.
Yeah, you could also have themto use apps.
You go on my bowling school likea bowl of Google but like,
that's a great game.
You do like bowling golf.
You put like little buckets, um, put the pins or put cones out,
(13:49):
and there's also differentangles.
I don't like, because ifthere's too much oil in the lane
it's annoying.
I have to think.
But like um, you have to be veryversatile and how you throw the
ball, not just what you you'redoing, but how you're doing it.
So there's a lot ofapplications for strategy and I
know we wanted to get too short,but I'm sorry you guys be
(14:12):
course bubbling.
I, I, my brain is like mybrain's like 27 things, um,
those are the like, honestly,like, like that kind of game,
like games are like open and Ijust could literally just run
right.
The replayability, yeah, Ithink, I think just
replayability games, becauseit's like and then again, then
you can, then you could lend itto itself.
Like you apply concepts of likesport, um, yeah, sport related
(14:36):
fitness, where it's like howmuch force, like balance, um,
health related fitness, becauseactually bowling is a lot more
cardio, is a big apartment, butI'll tell you, after I do a 10
game tournament I'm exhausted,but um, oh, you could even.
You could even do candle pinbowling.
Which what's that?
Oh, tell me, it's like, um, oh,so it's like it's a
(15:00):
northeastern thing.
So it's almost kind of likeboccians, because the ball is
like literally like, like thesize of lacrosse ball, bocce
ball, but oh, you know, 15 pinsand um they're like duck duck,
pin duck, bowling or somethinglike that.
That's very similar, yeah okay,I think it's also called that.
Yeah, I think it's also good.
Down here it's called duckpinball.
Yeah, yeah, so you have like 15pins and you get like three
(15:23):
turns, but it's a smaller ball.
So it's like that's perfectdifferentiation and it's also
like transferable skill and myunderstanding of physical
literacy is that, as long as youare keeping the spirit,
especially in elementary school,where we, you know, it's more
about skill development, butit's great for also in
competition, because thestudents are not necessarily
(15:46):
going against each other Likethey're, my success is not
dependent on what you do, Idon't say.
I will say one thing likethere's a lot of opportunities
for.
Like when I bowled in highschool, I didn't Wasn't a great
tournament, but there was a lotof scholarship opportunities,
like scholarship money but therewas a lot of scholarship
(16:06):
opportunities like scholarshipmoney.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Well, we have a um, I have a neighbor um, just right
that right on the street, hisson just started bowling a
couple years ago and he was.
He became one of the best ofthe state and he actually got a
scholarship for I mean, and hedoes the um, I don't know how
you bowl, but he does that thingwhere like no fingers in the
ball and does the two and yeahyeah, I, I is that.
Is that a newer, like the past10?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
20 years.
So it's not really.
It's not really.
You're only putting your um,middle finger, ring finger,
you're not putting your hand in.
So, like these fingers, yeah,on the ball, yeah, and the other
hand normally you would putyour thumb in and that would
like balance it right, but youput your other hand and the
(16:47):
whole purpose that is, you'retrying to create more
revolutions.
You want the ball to basicallyturn more Right and that way it
will create more speed.
It will also create more hookand more power.
But that is more of a no, Iwant to say.
It's probably been going on fora longer time, but it's been
more, I guess I want to say,mainstreamed recently you do
(17:11):
that or no.
You know you do traditional, I'mtraditional, but um, I'm not
without getting me too, but I'mnot really more of a power
player, I'm kind of with more ofan in-between.
I do like to hook it a littlebit, but I I don't just because
it's physics.
There's really a lot of physicsand a bowling ball, the cover
(17:32):
of it is really a sponge.
So the fancy bowling balls likeI do have from Storm go Storm
and there's a lot of sciencebehind it.
So, for me, think of it as likeyou have to go somewhere.
It's, it's, it's like.
Think of it as like it's likeyou have to go somewhere, but
instead of going straight there,you go 20 minutes to the right,
(17:54):
20 minutes out of your way tocome back, and it says it says
it's like that way because ifyou throw the ball with a lot of
hook, um, there's the margin oferror sometimes is, is is
higher all right, we have tomove on and we have to move on
to let's do that.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Uh, because what?
One of the reasons why I wantedto kind of reconnect with you
is because I put out an articleand then you kind of you
responded, yes, it was aboutbuilding a program with little
to no budget.
Um, mine was beg, borrow, uh,build and steal equipment, and I
put a little ebook out there.
So I'm gonna put that in theshow notes as well.
(18:28):
And uh, put a podcast out on it.
And you kind of responded thatyou did the same thing.
And so I read an article, uh,that uh about.
It was actually about you andhow you built your program from
you know like duct tape and youknow gum like MacGyver.
Um, so, uh, can you describewhat you did, uh, how you like,
(18:48):
how you did it?
How'd you build your program?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Actually, yeah, I do.
I am kind of the MacGyver oh,there you go, because that
sometimes I don't want to.
That's a very bold um, whateverworks best.
But, like, for me, it'simportant that you know the
first relationships.
Like the New York bats, I'mgrateful because a couple years
ago they sent, they gave, I saidI reached out to them and said
(19:12):
I teach you to school.
Do you know?
Bye, do you have anything Iwould have been happy with, like
a, a towel.
They sent some, they spent somebatting tees, some like little
mini franklin gloves.
Sometimes it's fun to play amodified version or just play
that like sticks to the truespirit and fun and bad is also a
great one because it gives you.
But it gives you curriculum,but it also you don't
(19:34):
necessarily need a traditionalbat and gloves, um, and there's
a lot it it, there's a lot ofways to modify it and it's
versatile.
So that's one of the reasonswhy I love that um and the bowl
is that I was talking about aswell lots of different ways to
be versatile.
So curriculum is one thing,like finding curriculum, a lot
of the like.
I'm very fortunate, I have tosay, like the USTA, I've had a
(19:57):
tennis pro USTA Eastern, that Ihad a tennis pro come to work
with my students.
And then a couple of years agoyou might have heard, we went to
the US Open for the NetGenthing.
So couple years ago we mighthave heard, we went to the us
open for the net gen thing.
So a lot of these thank you andum, when you hear grants and
(20:19):
and a lot of times all you needto do is just an email because I
feel like you know, in adigital world it's great we
could email, but sometimes likejust that, like taking the time
to just call and um, like theblog you were talking about was
from shape america.
And then I've been anambassador for fit america,
which I've gotten golf equipmentI've gotten there's great
things.
I hope billy jean king gets tohear this, because he basically
(20:43):
created and they gave me twofree.
It's basically like a battingtee for tennis where you have a
ball and has like on the arm andyou can hit it and it will go,
but it'll come back.
Oh, awesome, yeah, and it's.
It's so america is phit america.
Like I said, I don't want, butlike these are companies that,
(21:04):
like I've had a great, I'vebuilt a relationship, so a lot
of those things, and I feel liketo bring experiences that are
not traditional and like golf,lacrosse, us lacrosse, or if
you're going to teach skills,you know students, some students
(21:26):
may never have used a baseballglove before.
It's really what it is.
You know students, somestudents may never ever have
used a baseball glove before andgiving them it is really what
it is it's about cause hey, younever know, you may have the
next Hall of Famer, but even ifyou have someone who's like you
know what I want to playrecreational softball it's also
still a win too or someone just,even if they're like you know
(21:49):
what.
Baseball or softball is not mything, but you know being able
to hit if they want to go play agame where they're hitting a
bat, like hitting with a bat.
So that's my philosophy, butI've started off.
I taught in a school in brooklyn.
I started off with literallyfive cones and two loops, so um,
what'd you do with those things?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
how would you?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
you do, oh boy A lot of like using and I was a trot
in the hallway, so there was nousing the hula hoops as taping
them together and standing themup.
That would make a net to goback and forth for volleyball,
for tennis and or one studentholds them, or one game that
I've also seen from a open, thatI did a variation of, where,
(22:28):
like, I wish I knew this gamenow.
But, like you have the students, they toss the beam Like a lot
of times.
Like use it as targets, likeput it on a wall, put it under a
basketball hoop for the youngerstudents.
Now I've actually just gone toa dollar tree and I got little
big baskets and I cut out thebottom and three weeks later
they're still going strong andlike it's also a little bit
(22:50):
different.
So, like anything, it's likeanything, like cones are always
great for, like boundaries, oryou know, having to toss the
cone into the hula hoop and um,not being afraid to speak up.
I, as you may know, I'm I'm nota kind of shy person and um,
but humor and being candid andbeing transparent I feel is very
(23:11):
important.
On there's a lot of visits,like I've gone to New York city
for conferences and people sayyou know what?
I don't want to travel backwith this and that's and that's
perfectly awesome.
They gently use.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
So how do you find these places Like, how do you
find these links or these placesor these websites or?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I know the way, like you and I like twitter, um,
social media.
I was telling a teacher inbrooklyn about the usta and they
said, oh, I, I know a companythat cycle kids who got the
bikes.
That's how the bikes camearound.
So I was almost kind of liketrading resources, but like it's
also like I feel like you canlearn something from anyone you
(23:54):
know, like even you and I justdoing this right now, like I
mean, I'm sure, like you, justkind of have to be open because,
like one thing I know for me, II just like to be creative.
It's like I mean, like I'vemade batting teams but using a
giant cone.
That's what we do.
Yeah, and and, and, if I havefancy like pool noodles, yeah,
(24:16):
I've had people ask me, like Idon't know, when I walk into
school like lots of pool noodles.
I was like what are you doingwith them?
And I'm like I'm using them, Iuse them as I use them as as,
yeah, yeah, so like hockeysticks, exactly like like
bowlers, that they have a freebowlers, that grant you can
apply for and get rug, the rugsthat are mimicked, that are like
a regular bowling lane.
(24:37):
They also like, um, and a lotof times it's just like looking
it up or just like looking atusbc and, well, like tennis
program or, honestly, chat gbtand like ai, like, if you wanted
to look up, you probably couldbe.
Like education grants, yeah, anda grant doesn't necessarily
(25:00):
mean like you have to link theapplication.
Sometimes it's just filling outa oh, we'll come, or reaching
out to them and say, oh, can wetalk?
And that's where you putyourself on the radar and if,
when you actually talk tosomeone, even if it's a 10
minute conversation and nothingpans out, you never know.
I mean, I have rail yardfitness, I have to say, and me
(25:23):
too, I well, your friends aregoing to say I'm.
When I originally spoke to him,I said you know what?
Everything sounds great and,honestly, to be truly
transparent, the price it's justtoo much and fundraising is not
always easy.
Donorschoose is great.
Twitter is also great, because Iget to interact with teachers
that are like, and even TikTok.
(25:44):
I get to interact with teachersthat are not in phys ed but
they like amazing things, butlike really a friend of back to
them and creative, like I havethis beautiful, like screen and
like.
I reached out to them and Isaid you know what let's, can we
work together?
And they were like, yeah, andthey were able to come up with a
custom package, so that's great.
Yeah, thank you.
(26:05):
And just because I said what'sthe worst that happens.
I know time is precious, but,like I said, it was awesome,
like I was just happy to havethem publish it.
But I mean writing blogs orcontributing, like you know, I
like to write, but, um, this somany and it might seem
exhaustive and daunting, butlike, if you think about, I mean
like, be a MacGyver, so talkabout the MacGyver thing and
(26:30):
come up with creative stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So somebody a teacher actually gave me some, a bunch
of tennis balls, because theirson plays in high school or
college or whatever.
And I got all the canisters andI didn't know what to do with
them.
So the problem I was having wasI have real bowling pins.
They're really old, but I havereal bowling pins that are
really heavy.
But I also have these ones fromI guess I won't say what
(26:54):
company, but they're kind oflight, they're foam and they
kind of rip at the neck, oh yeah.
So what I did was the other itwas like a week ago I filled
them up just tennis ballcanisters with water, like just
a little bit just to keep themfrom blowing down from the wind.
And I want to play a game withthe younger kids.
(27:17):
It was kind of like a bowlinggame With the older kids.
It was a hockey game where theyhad to shoot at it and knock
them down.
And eventually I told the kidsI'm like, oh well, I'm going to
fill them with sand eventuallyand I'll tape them up and it's
going to be perfect.
But what happened was and itwas a nice kind of sunny day,
(27:40):
and the reason I'm saying thatis because when they got knocked
over they would spill.
Well, that was actually fun,because I'm on cement and it was
hot out, so it evaporated nottoo long after that.
So we're playing a game, so Iended up calling it Splat Ball.
They actually liked it.
We just made up this game.
So again it was tennis ballcans filled with water about
that much, not very much andagain it prevented from being
too light or too heavy, kind oflike Goldilocks, just right.
(28:04):
And then we created a new gamejust called Splat Ball.
Just knocks it over, water goeseverywhere.
And because we're outside, wecan do that.
So I just want to tell you thatstory.
That's all.
No, that's a great story.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
So, um, you know what I'm and imitation is a sense is
, this is a form of flattery.
So if, if I, if you see, if Itell you in a few months or so
I'm playing, there you go.
Or field day, splat ball.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Splat ball.
But yeah, no, I'm writing downstuff as we're talking because
you're giving me so many goodideas.
I just want to keep itstreamlined.
I can't keep up with you, sookay.
So, if you were to start,here's some of the things I
wrote down.
If you were to start fromscratch, I have cones for
boundaries and even for throwingCones, hoops, maybe gator skin
(28:53):
balls some we don't need amillion of them but maybe
beanbags, beanbags, noodles,scarves, scarves, noodles, maybe
some poly spots you don't neednoodles, but for tagging and
things like that, Noodles willcome in handy later, I feel like
later in the year.
What else, if you were likebeginning of the school year.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Go ahead If you wanted to use bicycles.
If you go like a Facebookmarketplace, a lot of people
like that's one thing I didtoday.
People will sell or even giveaway those little mini Radio
Flyer bikes.
I got like three or four ofthem and my, my, my students can
use that Awesome Do you have aplace to put them, though,
(29:35):
because what I'm going to do isbuild a shed.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I'm not going to build it literally, but I'm
going to get a shed.
And then I was bikes Cause Iwas just writing about.
I'm writing an article like, oryesterday about, because we
used to have a bike trailer.
It was funded by the state andwe lost the grant.
The grant is gone Because theywould drop off the trailer for
two weeks every school, once ayear, and we teach kids to ride
(30:01):
bikes.
They'd have helmets and we'dwear hairnets and scooters, but
then they lost the grant.
So I'm like well, what can wedo?
We can make our own biketrailer.
Tell me about your bikes whatdo you got?
You got storage for those.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So I do, but these are like little bit mini bikes
which I'm able to kind of justlike kind of put in the corner,
but I'm also using hooks that Ibought from Home Depot.
I just kind of screw into thewall.
There you go, um, you just kindof like, learn to be creative
with your space.
(30:34):
Like, um, make shelves, likeyeah, amazon has like really
amazing, like those really giant, like big shelves.
Um, you're gonna be creativebecause it's like it's remember,
it's like your classroom.
Like if you go to a classroom,like they have big closets, they
have big sheds that are justthere, but like I mean, students
(30:55):
are used to like this all day.
So I mean, like I'm not saying,please understand, I'm not
saying like, be unsafe, leavethings out, but like like if you
put a shed or if you put likesomething like that, or like if
you use like a closet, like withthe doors, it's like metal I
can't think of the word.
But if you put something likethat, like it it just some cones
(31:18):
around it, but there's waysaround, like the shed you talked
about.
I mean I don't really haveoutdoor storage.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So Are you inside the whole time or are you outside a
little bit?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I'm inside, I'm on the third floor of my school,
but we're also co-locatedbecause there's another, another
school.
So, using the, the yard, andhonestly, I, I used to, I used
to do, I used to um leave recess, I used to lead recess, I used
to teach and I prefer to teachinside.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Wait, your gym's on the third floor?
No really, I've never heard ofthat.
No, no, do you like that?
Do you like it that way, then?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Huh, yeah, that's interesting it's, it's well lit,
um it's very spacious.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Is it a newer school or no?
No, it's very spacious.
Is it a newer school or no?
Old school.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
It's old, it's old school, it's old school, it's
old school.
A lot of buildings in thedistricts that I work in are
older.
Yeah, I don't even have an ACand a lot of times kids will be
like, can you get an AC?
And I'm like I would love one,but I have an old fan.
(32:37):
Um, get on the third floor.
I I honestly prefer, becauseit's it's I, yeah, I.
I get to like we're doingbasketball.
Now I took those baskets, I cutout the bottom and I put them on
the wall.
I get to leave them up there.
I don't have to worry about theelements.
I'm the only one in the user'sgym.
It's like I I can leave again.
I go to lunch.
I don't have to worry about youknow.
So I'm very fortunate.
But, um, great, yeah, no, Ilike your idea with the with the
(32:58):
shit, because, like I thoughtabout doing that.
It's like when I sometimes,when the weather's warm, with
the pre-k students, they go, wego outside, naturally, because
it's the yard and those littlemini radio flyer bikes that the
students love to use.
They're a bit of a hassle toshut down.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, how many do you have?
How many bikes do you have foryour PE program?
Like a lot, like 20 or more orless.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I know I have at least eight little radio flyer
minibikes.
Biking usually comes later onin the year, right May is
actually not bike month, but Itry to align it.
But usually you know at thatpoint I'll know I'll have a
great, I'll have a good.
(33:45):
The students will kind of knowexpectations routine.
So it it's like I don't want tosay a reward or culminating,
but like it's, it's yeah, no, Iget it.
Yeah, and what grades you teachbike, I do it's hard to teach it
to the middle grades because Idon't have the bikes Like, the
(34:06):
bikes I have are for they're forolder kids and they're for
younger, so I have to.
I'm working on getting and it'snot easy, but for the middle.
So, like I said, it's a goodproblem to have, because years
ago when I first started, Ididn't even know I would ever be
(34:28):
teaching cycling.
So, like I said, there's alwaysthings I'm trying to like.
It's there's a lot of differentways to solve a problem, but
sometimes a little grit andtenacity.
You have to just stick with ita little grit and tenacity.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You have to just stick with it.
What are some things you wouldbring If you could just bring
something?
You mentioned a rock climbingwall, because I was actually
thinking of that for myself, butI don't have any place I could
build it Not physically build it, but there's nothing I would
love to have a rock climbingwall or get an archery.
Archery is next for me, if Ican just convince my parents I
love archery.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, if I can just convince my parents I love
archery.
Yeah, I did archery because Iwas in Lake Shore two years ago,
two summers ago, and I foundthose archery sets that they
have for sale.
It was really well-received,like I think it all just took a
lot of the students really lovethat.
Yeah, I'd love to do that.
(35:21):
Like I've talked to studentsbefore about, like, what's your
favorite physical activity?
And some of them like, oh, Iwant to learn how to box.
And yeah, I feel kind of weirdbecause boxing is a sport and
it's a great physical, it's anOlympic sport, it's a great, um,
just the nature of it.
I feel kind of personally, Ifeel kind of, but, um, I'm sure,
(35:44):
like karate, martial artsthings, maybe that would be.
We do martial arts Seriously.
I think it would be greatbecause it would be like a
perfect combination of, likemindfulness, sel,
self-regulation and alsophysical activity.
(36:06):
Those are one step at a time.
You have to tell me what you dofor karate.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Well, I could teach it.
It's funny that we're talkingabout this because, again, I
just published an article abouthow I do martial arts in PE.
So I am a black belt in karate.
It's been 20 years, but uh,yeah, I don't want to go.
I don't want to go deep in thisstory, but, um, so a local uh
(36:34):
Taekwondo studio, um dojo,contacted me.
Um, and they, they've beenworking with the district.
Uh, this is like 10 years ago,nine, 10 years ago they had been
working with the district.
Uh, this is like 10 years ago.
Nine, 10 years ago they hadbeen working with the district.
They only had a couple ofschools.
They didn't know I was intomartial arts, I, it was just a
coincidence.
But they reached out to me andwe started working together.
Where they come in, for it'ssupposed to be a nine week
(36:57):
program, but sometimes itdoesn't work out to be nine
weeks, like between seven andnine weeks, and they teach our.
They come out twice a week andthey teach our second graders
one year that they did thirdgrade because of our schedule,
but basically they donate uh thethe uniforms and so they really
fit second graders and theycome out.
(37:17):
Uh, again, they, the kids, wearthe uniforms over their clothes
.
They just, they put them onreal quick.
Yeah, we help them tie them andthen they, uh, yeah, they teach
them.
Uh, at the end they, we, theybreak boards.
They get a white belt, uh, youknow that kind of thing.
It's.
It's really cool to do a niceceremony, uh, but they teach
them like different blocks andstrikes.
(37:39):
They don't touch anybody, it'snot contact, but they uh, but
they teach them different.
Just not just that, but youknow life skills and and you
know hard work and dedicationand being honest and stranger
danger and what happens if abully comes.
You know up in your face andyou know that kind of thing.
So it's been really just great.
(37:59):
So that's there you go.
If you can reach out to a uh andplus, okay, so they don't get a
lot of benefit out of coming.
They do get to kind of promotethemselves a little bit.
So they might get a fewstudents from our school.
They actually come to ourschool anyway, because they have
an afterschool like bus thattakes, you know, five kids there
, something like that.
(38:19):
So, but yeah, so it's kind ofit's beneficial to them to get
into the schools, because thenthe kids know them, the parents
know them, they get morebusiness, but they volunteer a
lot of time, like it's.
I don't know if I'm sure theydon't make out financially based
on the amount of time theyvolunteer versus the amount of
business they get.
But it's, you know, we've beenworking together for a while.
(38:41):
We've been working together fora while and I just brought them
back this past year, thisschool year, to my current
school because after COVID, youknow, everything kind of went
crazy and they didn't go intoschools for a while.
So they just started, yeah,coming back.
I mean, they came back.
Anyways, my school first year.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
No, and you actually reminded me because I've, on
parent conferences, parents havesaid, oh, we want gymnastics or
ballet and, like I said, wehave the New York Ballet Company
.
Not far so well.
You said, like I reached out togymnastics places and said, hey
(39:21):
, you know, I can't promise, Ican't make this lucrative.
And when we went to the US Open, I literally just said, hey.
They said, oh, we would love tohave a coach come and teach
tennis.
Awesome, I invited Wound up.
The way that story worked outwas I invited him once Came back
(39:41):
, once he loved it.
He came back again, came back athird time.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
He then won a grant because of his work and that was
in the fall.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
And then he won a grant.
He came like three or fourtimes, five or six times, over
the year he even came to fieldday.
That's the year that we went to, we applied, went to the US
Open, went to the US, the usopen.
I'd never been there to myself.
Um, we wound up.
One of my students has a reallyawesome smile.
They use this, they use the pic,they use this picture for their
(40:13):
like 2023, like like book,yearbook, um.
So I guess these are the kindsof things and it's like results
may vary, but like you weresaying, like if you had a
company, like I mean, like likethey won't offer more, but like
like golf, or like you know, you, you karate.
(40:33):
Like I mean at some point, likeif this is what, and as
teachers, like we'd love toshare what we're passionate
about, so like that's the mostimportant right.
So exactly like is it sometimes?
Just like, like I said before,like sometimes if you reach out
to them and they said you knowwhat it's not gonna work out,
right, you never know, you justdon't ask you can't get it right
exactly and, like I said, no,there are so many things and
(40:56):
sometimes we are all busy andI'm not saying it's like, like
this is, this is the highlights.
This is now if imagine, althoughlike I say this, this and that,
like there's five other placeslike not not anything bad, like
the rock wall, um, it's just toomuch.
You were talking about macgyverlike, um, like, if you use
(41:17):
those basics, like you go to thedollar store I love dollar
stores like dollar, like dollartree, like you go, you get that
stuff, like it's, it's, it'salso good, because then it's
like oh wait, how does this like?
And then it kind of also talksabout it's not just the
equipment itself.
So it's like it's hard to seesometimes the forest behind the
trees.
But in essence, just you, justlike you're hearing when you
(41:42):
talk about the credit, like,like you said, even one or two
students like, but you neverknow Like what, what, if, what,
if they, what if they become akarate champion?
and they come back when they,and that you never know.
Yeah, it's you never.
You never know, you never know.
And I'm hard.
Uh, bird, what is it?
A bird in the hand is worth twoin the bush.
(42:03):
Like I'm an old, I'm dad, like,and I'm I know we're going off
the tangents, but honestly, liketalking to you about this stuff
, learning about it, likehonestly I'm sitting out
learning from stuff, from thatI'm gonna do that.
Or I'm like, oh, I gotta go dothat.
Um, you've been teaching howmany years?
uh well, pe 14, but overall 22,23 and we're still it's still
(42:24):
it's a Saturday and we're stillit's still it's a Saturday night
, we're still talking about howto get grants and how to do
things, and you're talking aboutso, like I mean, love it
Exactly.
Like I mean we don't have to,but like it's, it's, it's
seriously, it's like it'ssometimes I remember it's like
like we got into this for areason, like remember, very
(42:44):
specifically, I I wanted to bethe dude that one day wanted to
do law, but I was like you knowwhat?
Because my first, my first cellbroke down on the way to school
.
I was like you know what?
I could really enjoy this?
I want to do phys ed becauseit's something that I'm gonna
enjoy.
So it's like all this stuff,it's like like I say I don't
want you to be like, I don'twant you people to hear this and
(43:05):
be like, oh, no, man, like Igot fun with it, like it doesn't
have to be, like, right, in theend it'll be you, um, because
it's also great for you to be afree advocate for your program
well, give me your finalthoughts, because I was thinking
that I was almost going to saythere was the mic drop and you
almost had it and I was like sogive me your final thoughts.
(43:26):
To wrap this up a little bit,like I was saying before, like
you want to get partnerships,like I said, like if you reach
out to me, I will be very happyto share it.
Like I'm not just saying thisbecause, like I'm genuinely
saying like, please reach out tothe companies, please reach out
, try these things and if, ifyou get them, and your
experience is even more awesome,that makes me happy because it
(43:48):
gets out there, go get it.
Let's, let's keep bringing physed and, just, you know, make it
bringing ourselves to newheights.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Thank you everybody for tuning in today.
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Go to supersize physad for moreinformation, or check out my
sub stack and my medium articles.
If you're more of a reader, youwant to check out.
Check those out, and you'llalso be getting one to two
emails a week on different posts, different podcasts, all that
(44:22):
stuff.
So love to have you be a partof it.
So click on the links in theshow notes and check out all
that stuff.
So love to have you be a partof it.
So click on the links in theshow notes and check out the
free stuff.
There's a free book in there ifyou haven't got it yet, a free
ebook.
There's my book that I wrote inthere.
Lots of good stuff.
So definitely check those outWith that PE Nation, have a
great day, week, weekend,whenever you listen to this, and
let's keep pushing ourprofession forward.
(44:44):
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to the Supersize for Zed podcast.
My name is Dave and today Ihave a very special guest.
It is none other than JimHamble.
Yes, jim, in the gym if you'reon Twitter or X or whatever you
call it these days.
Yes, jim, in the gym if you'reon Twitter or X or whatever you
call it these days.
And we've met and talked a fewtimes already and we seem to
keep in touch over the years.
(00:32):
But I want to do a follow-upinterview with him and talk all
things just building a programfrom scratch or even where he's
at now, just kind of theequipment you need, the
equipment that's more of anecessity versus as you dream
(00:52):
big and get a bigger budget, andeven ways to build a program
without much of a budget, whichI've written about recently in
my Beg, borrow and Steal episode.
So, without further ado, here'smy interview with Jim Hamble.
All right, here I am with JimHamble.
(01:18):
Jim, how are you tonight?
I'm good.
How are you?
I'm great, good to see youagain.
It's been a little while, so Iappreciate you, it has been yeah
.
Yeah, it's been a few years.
I haven't really done a lot ofinterviews in the past few years
.
I just started kind of comingback with it.
So that's good that you're onboard again.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
No, I enjoyed our last conversation.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, when I saw that you were doing it again.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I was like yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So can you give us a brief intro of who you are,
where you are and what you teach?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
please.
Well, my name is Jim Hamill.
I'm a phys ed teacher.
I teach grades 3k, which, ifyour school is universal pre-k
in the city we have, and in NewYork we have.
I'm also from New York andthere are universal, like, in
essence, 3k programs forthree-year-olds and my daughter.
I have two daughters, one's infirst grade, the other one is
actually in a 3k program now, soit's full day 3k and I do up to
(02:16):
fifth grade and I also have agen ed and a special ed license
which greatly helps.
If you've not seen, or I'm theauthor of the PE Central course,
secrets of Differentiation,which we've actually just
revised, the newly updated ShapeAmerica Standards, and so I
(02:39):
usually tend to do stream ofthoughts.
I apologize if I ramble, but Ilike to kind of like.
This is almost like my teachingstyle I try to be on topic, on
point, but also, you know,engaging.
I like to think of myself as ateacher, but also as a
facilitator.
I'm always trying to work onstudent-centered instruction
because I really feel likethat's my biggest thing is that
(03:04):
I always try to think.
I remember when I studenttaught scripting lessons, got to
do it.
That makes half of it, so Iknow exactly what I'm going to
say.
It's almost like I feel likeI'm a performer.
I've actually read books onperforming my best friend that
I've known since I was three.
But um, so that's a little bitabout me and um.
Back to you, dave.
(03:24):
Well thanks.
I also believe humor is a bigthing, a big, important part of
just life.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I could tell and I've known that about you and I
agree, yeah, You've beenentertaining me for the past few
minutes as we were talkinganyway.
So I do want to go into bowlingreal quick, because we started
talking about bowling I'm like,oh, I've got to hit record,
what's that?
Yeah, right.
So you need to tell us aboutyour bowling career and you know
(03:53):
just your bowling influenceWell as it comes to PE, also
what you've done for PE withbowling.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
So the whole thing about me and if you've ever seen
or read something about itbecause I do tend to talk about
it a lot but really the big Igrew up in the 90s.
I went bowling on saturdaymornings with my father.
Yeah, I remember the bowlingused to be on like primetime,
like abc.
Yeah, like saturday afternoons,that's like.
(04:19):
That was like like this inessence, exactly like monday
night football, like you wouldabc bowling and um, it's, it's.
There's a lot of more differentways to stream it now, but you
know, that was like the bigthing back in the day.
So like that's where I grew upand um.
So I recently just wrote a blogfor gopher sport and I gotta say
so you give a shout out tomatthew bassett, because he's
(04:41):
the one who put me in touch with.
He is amazing, he is, he is.
I've met him, we'vecollaborated, he and I.
Yeah, oh, I have not, so you'relucky, but he put me in touch
with Gopher and they said so.
Gopher gave me a chance.
And I do also want to give ashout-out to Joe and I apologize
, joe Dutch and Mike Chairman,because they also wrote blogs on
it too.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So and um, we'll link that in the episode notes.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The show wants I'm not one to gatekeep and if it
sounds like I'm name dropping,I'm really not, you know, trying
to name drop.
I'm just like give credit wherecredit's due, um, but in my
blog.
So really you might have heard,I mean like I, I if, honestly,
if you kind of google jim hambowling like, you'll probably
find a lot of things.
(05:24):
But honestly, my parentsdivorced when I was about 10.
And the biggest reason I kindof say what bowling is, yeah, I
kind of was good at it and Ikind of picked it up, naturally,
but it was really I doapologize to my mom.
We bowled on a Tuesday nightleague in the summer at Baldwin
Lanes and it was two games, butit was, you know, it was just
(05:51):
something for her and I to dowhen, when.
And then I do apologize to mymother's also retired visit
teacher.
So I do apologize and Iapologized to her before I kind
of kicked her off the teambecause I wanted to vote my
father.
So, um, and honestly, like Ikind of stuck with it.
I actually wanted to go be alawyer.
My father went to St John's anddid a pre-law program.
Women's bowling, I will say, isNCAA, but men's bowling isn't
(06:13):
varsity team, so it's kind of alittle bit trickier.
Okay, I didn't know that.
Yeah, when I went to Adelphi no, sorry, I went to Adelphi after
St John's because I realized Ididn't want to be a lawyer and
um, but really honestly, theonly reason I kind of stuck with
bowling is because I wanted itwas something that was a good
bond.
So in this blog I wrote, and youand I were just talking about
it, like in golf you have thehole in one like there's always
(06:36):
that moment like you don'talways have to.
Um, like one thing I told twoof your students, like when I
said oh, this is like this islike, this is basketball Like.
Is it basketball?
What makes basketballbasketball?
Like what makes golf golf?
Like what makes any sport it'snot just a team versus team.
So, like a golf, you can pray,pray recreationally, it's still
a whole one.
It's still a whole one.
(06:56):
Um, but I'm bowling and I'mbasketball.
You have the buzzer beater, butI'm bowling.
It's moments like bowling 300.
I've been very lucky.
I've done it three times.
Uh, four times, sorry, that'sawesome.
And in the blog I reallyseriously, my wife was there for
the last one.
It's been about eight years, Ithink.
And, um, if you didn't know, youneed 12 strikes in a row, which
(07:17):
is, even if you've done it afew times, it's still pretty
nerve-wracking.
Um, mostly because at the point, some point, you don't want to,
just, you know, throw it toomuch, and then you've got like a
pin, and or you want to getlike three pin or seven, and and
it's it's like, but, um, Iremember I I had the first 10.
The 11th shot was likebeautiful, and I left like a 10
(07:37):
pin, but like I don't know, andthis my father had been had
passed away like 2012, and thiswas like six years later, no,
four, yeah, because it wasbefore I had kids, which it
seemed like a thousand years ago.
But, um, I remember like therewas just like some almost divine
presidents, presidents, wow,presence like it.
Just magically the pin fellover.
So, um, for me, bowling is, Ifeel like I always say it's like
(08:01):
a sport you could really reallygood at, but like even the
masters, even the best ones inthe world, like they you're
always one game could be 300,one game cannot.
So it's it's and, honestly, forme, and it just kind of like
speaks to like what kind of likeperson like and what kind of
teacher I am.
Because, like, I just like toplay so like, because, like, I
(08:27):
just like to play so like, and Iknow, and bowling is great
because you have, like you couldgo for awards and trophies, you
can go for like accolades um,I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna,
it's, it's cool to say I'm inthe hall of fame, I'm a
professional, but, um, yeah,even though I haven't gone
bowling in like six months, butI've taught bowling and, uh, I
one time did a PD at BrooklynHigh School in the hallway with
a colleague.
So it's, and there's also a lotof different ways to be
(08:51):
creative.
Like I mean, there's theBowler's Ed, which I'm a
Bowler's Ed specialist, so Ihave to give a shout out to.
And it's really the kind ofthing where it's like, are
students going to be entertainedfor a long time?
They will like, if you havekids, if you have students, be
like a pin setter and like tokeep score.
It's great for small groupsbecause they can, you can
(09:14):
differentiate.
Do they take one step?
Do they take four steps?
Today now, even days like II've I've had students, you know
, back in the day you must, youremember you ever see a student
will hold hand and they kind oflike they don't really put their
hand in it, like they just kindof like use two hands, like
that.
That's, some of the best ballsin the world are two handed.
(09:34):
So there's a lot there, buthonestly, for me it's just it's
like one of my favorites andit's just funny.
I had a student we were doingbasketball and we've done it a
few times.
I have this class twice a weekand the other day yesterday she
was like she said can we dobowling?
Yeah, probably out of the blue.
And I say that and I was likethat's my favorite.
(09:55):
And I said this and I was likeyou know what, it may not be
your favorite, I won't be upset,but that's my passion and love.
But like, I think it's good tohave like trends, to be able to
know like, so say like, andstudents are like, oh, and I'm
like so what if you get invitedto a bowling party, a birthday
party?
Like now you know what to do.
So that's I think that's also apart of like physical literacy
(10:19):
and phys ed, that a bowling is agood example of that too Not
the only example, but it's alsoa good one to kind of like help
roll that out.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
No pun intended.
So what is your OK?
So one of the things myfavorite games is because we
have a bunch of dots in ourpavilion, so we'd have partners.
It's like one pin on a dot andthey would.
It's almost like a cardiobowling, where they bowl it.
If it gets knocked down, theymove to the next dot and the
next person goes.
They're kind of like rotatingOne person's bowling it, the
(10:49):
other person's resetting it, orkind of like I don't want to say
catching it, but catching it asfar as the bowling like the
catcher, oh yeah, and so theyrun back.
The goal is to make it all theway down and back, like keep
moving that pin and back.
What are some other?
I guess quickly, we don't spenda lot of time on this, but
maybe a game or two that youlike for bowling to teach the
(11:11):
students.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I just saw one I actually kind of adapted it for
basketball.
I think it was Jessica Gore whodid like bowling, for like
critters you put, like littleanimals, or like you put
beanbags and hula hoops Not asany game the biggest things for
bowling little animals or likebeanbags and hula hoops the
biggest things for bowling areaccuracy and consistency,
because there's really only notthat many skills that you need
(11:37):
to do, but you need to be ableto do it well.
So large targets, narrowtargets, medium targets A game
like that is perfect.
I've done that before.
The way they are bowling isbecause a lot of students, a lot
of people just know itnaturally from like you know
going and scorekeeping.
So any way you could incentivelike personally I've done before
(12:01):
, I've bowled and like usedcards, so you can make it so
like one of the bowlers at gamesis, you have the kids, you can
have them roll two rule two diceand if you get like a two and a
four, you put up the two pin,the four pin and then you put up
the six pin because you addthem together and if the total
is more than 10 you put up all10.
So and you can definitely dothings like or I I think I
(12:25):
remember someone, I forget wherehe was but like you could put
pictures on the bottom of themor you can have like so that
when they hit Bulls, that alsohas a really cool one where they
have, like you know, a set of10 pins.
So this way and I recently justdiscovered like puppets with
numbers on them, discover likepuppets with numbers on them so
(12:47):
you can do with like every fivepins, um, they could get a card
or they could get some somesomething, and this is good to
help them keep track of theirprogress.
And I gotta say, like when I'vebeen, well, I haven't where you
got like a strike or you couldeven it's called no tap, where
if you really want to make itinteresting and this will make
the you could do or like,instead of having to get a
strike but knock down all the 10pins, maybe they only need if
(13:08):
they knock down eight, thatcounts as a strike.
Or knock down nine pins and itcounts as a strike.
So that game like you'retalking about, like it's quick
and, truth be told, I only liketo do like one turn and then
switch because, honestly, I'vebeen bowling for many, many
years and pulling that sometimesis I've only I've learned it
(13:29):
because it's situational.
I think that's the best kind ofaspect I mean for for older
students.
Yeah, you could also have themto use apps.
You go on my bowling school likea bowl of Google but like,
that's a great game.
You do like bowling golf.
You put like little buckets, um, put the pins or put cones out,
(13:49):
and there's also differentangles.
I don't like, because ifthere's too much oil in the lane
it's annoying.
I have to think.
But like um, you have to be veryversatile and how you throw the
ball, not just what you you'redoing, but how you're doing it.
So there's a lot ofapplications for strategy and I
know we wanted to get too short,but I'm sorry you guys be
(14:12):
course bubbling.
I, I, my brain is like mybrain's like 27 things, um,
those are the like, honestly,like, like that kind of game,
like games are like open and Ijust could literally just run
right.
The replayability, yeah, Ithink, I think just
replayability games, becauseit's like and then again, then
you can, then you could lend itto itself.
Like you apply concepts of likesport, um, yeah, sport related
(14:36):
fitness, where it's like howmuch force, like balance, um,
health related fitness, becauseactually bowling is a lot more
cardio, is a big apartment, butI'll tell you, after I do a 10
game tournament I'm exhausted,but um, oh, you could even.
You could even do candle pinbowling.
Which what's that?
Oh, tell me, it's like, um, oh,so it's like it's a
(15:00):
northeastern thing.
So it's almost kind of likeboccians, because the ball is
like literally like, like thesize of lacrosse ball, bocce
ball, but oh, you know, 15 pinsand um they're like duck duck,
pin duck, bowling or somethinglike that.
That's very similar, yeah okay,I think it's also called that.
Yeah, I think it's also good.
Down here it's called duckpinball.
Yeah, yeah, so you have like 15pins and you get like three
(15:23):
turns, but it's a smaller ball.
So it's like that's perfectdifferentiation and it's also
like transferable skill and myunderstanding of physical
literacy is that, as long as youare keeping the spirit,
especially in elementary school,where we, you know, it's more
about skill development, butit's great for also in
competition, because thestudents are not necessarily
(15:46):
going against each other Likethey're, my success is not
dependent on what you do, Idon't say.
I will say one thing likethere's a lot of opportunities
for.
Like when I bowled in highschool, I didn't Wasn't a great
tournament, but there was a lotof scholarship opportunities,
like scholarship money but therewas a lot of scholarship
(16:06):
opportunities like scholarshipmoney.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Well, we have a um, I have a neighbor um, just right
that right on the street, hisson just started bowling a
couple years ago and he was.
He became one of the best ofthe state and he actually got a
scholarship for I mean, and hedoes the um, I don't know how
you bowl, but he does that thingwhere like no fingers in the
ball and does the two and yeahyeah, I, I is that.
Is that a newer, like the past10?
Speaker 2 (16:25):
20 years.
So it's not really.
It's not really.
You're only putting your um,middle finger, ring finger,
you're not putting your hand in.
So, like these fingers, yeah,on the ball, yeah, and the other
hand normally you would putyour thumb in and that would
like balance it right, but youput your other hand and the
(16:47):
whole purpose that is, you'retrying to create more
revolutions.
You want the ball to basicallyturn more Right and that way it
will create more speed.
It will also create more hookand more power.
But that is more of a no, Iwant to say.
It's probably been going on fora longer time, but it's been
more, I guess I want to say,mainstreamed recently you do
(17:11):
that or no.
You know you do traditional, I'mtraditional, but um, I'm not
without getting me too, but I'mnot really more of a power
player, I'm kind of with more ofan in-between.
I do like to hook it a littlebit, but I I don't just because
it's physics.
There's really a lot of physicsand a bowling ball, the cover
(17:32):
of it is really a sponge.
So the fancy bowling balls likeI do have from Storm go Storm
and there's a lot of sciencebehind it.
So, for me, think of it as likeyou have to go somewhere.
It's, it's, it's like.
Think of it as like it's likeyou have to go somewhere, but
instead of going straight there,you go 20 minutes to the right,
(17:54):
20 minutes out of your way tocome back, and it says it says
it's like that way because ifyou throw the ball with a lot of
hook, um, there's the margin oferror sometimes is, is is
higher all right, we have tomove on and we have to move on
to let's do that.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Uh, because what?
One of the reasons why I wantedto kind of reconnect with you
is because I put out an articleand then you kind of you
responded, yes, it was aboutbuilding a program with little
to no budget.
Um, mine was beg, borrow, uh,build and steal equipment, and I
put a little ebook out there.
So I'm gonna put that in theshow notes as well.
(18:28):
And uh, put a podcast out on it.
And you kind of responded thatyou did the same thing.
And so I read an article, uh,that uh about.
It was actually about you andhow you built your program from
you know like duct tape and youknow gum like MacGyver.
Um, so, uh, can you describewhat you did, uh, how you like,
(18:48):
how you did it?
How'd you build your program?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Actually, yeah, I do.
I am kind of the MacGyver oh,there you go, because that
sometimes I don't want to.
That's a very bold um, whateverworks best.
But, like, for me, it'simportant that you know the
first relationships.
Like the New York bats, I'mgrateful because a couple years
ago they sent, they gave, I saidI reached out to them and said
(19:12):
I teach you to school.
Do you know?
Bye, do you have anything Iwould have been happy with, like
a, a towel.
They sent some, they spent somebatting tees, some like little
mini franklin gloves.
Sometimes it's fun to play amodified version or just play
that like sticks to the truespirit and fun and bad is also a
great one because it gives you.
But it gives you curriculum,but it also you don't
(19:34):
necessarily need a traditionalbat and gloves, um, and there's
a lot it it, there's a lot ofways to modify it and it's
versatile.
So that's one of the reasonswhy I love that um and the bowl
is that I was talking about aswell lots of different ways to
be versatile.
So curriculum is one thing,like finding curriculum, a lot
of the like.
I'm very fortunate, I have tosay, like the USTA, I've had a
(19:57):
tennis pro USTA Eastern, that Ihad a tennis pro come to work
with my students.
And then a couple of years agoyou might have heard, we went to
the US Open for the NetGenthing.
So couple years ago we mighthave heard, we went to the us
open for the net gen thing.
So a lot of these thank you andum, when you hear grants and
(20:19):
and a lot of times all you needto do is just an email because I
feel like you know, in adigital world it's great we
could email, but sometimes likejust that, like taking the time
to just call and um, like theblog you were talking about was
from shape america.
And then I've been anambassador for fit america,
which I've gotten golf equipmentI've gotten there's great
things.
I hope billy jean king gets tohear this, because he basically
(20:43):
created and they gave me twofree.
It's basically like a battingtee for tennis where you have a
ball and has like on the arm andyou can hit it and it will go,
but it'll come back.
Oh, awesome, yeah, and it's.
It's so america is phit america.
Like I said, I don't want, butlike these are companies that,
(21:04):
like I've had a great, I'vebuilt a relationship, so a lot
of those things, and I feel liketo bring experiences that are
not traditional and like golf,lacrosse, us lacrosse, or if
you're going to teach skills,you know students, some students
(21:26):
may never have used a baseballglove before.
It's really what it is.
You know students, somestudents may never ever have
used a baseball glove before andgiving them it is really what
it is it's about cause hey, younever know, you may have the
next Hall of Famer, but even ifyou have someone who's like you
know what I want to playrecreational softball it's also
still a win too or someone just,even if they're like you know
(21:49):
what.
Baseball or softball is not mything, but you know being able
to hit if they want to go play agame where they're hitting a
bat, like hitting with a bat.
So that's my philosophy, butI've started off.
I taught in a school in brooklyn.
I started off with literallyfive cones and two loops, so um,
what'd you do with those things?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
how would you?
Speaker 2 (22:05):
you do, oh boy A lot of like using and I was a trot
in the hallway, so there was nousing the hula hoops as taping
them together and standing themup.
That would make a net to goback and forth for volleyball,
for tennis and or one studentholds them, or one game that
I've also seen from a open, thatI did a variation of, where,
(22:28):
like, I wish I knew this gamenow.
But, like you have the students, they toss the beam Like a lot
of times.
Like use it as targets, likeput it on a wall, put it under a
basketball hoop for the youngerstudents.
Now I've actually just gone toa dollar tree and I got little
big baskets and I cut out thebottom and three weeks later
they're still going strong andlike it's also a little bit
(22:50):
different.
So, like anything, it's likeanything, like cones are always
great for, like boundaries, oryou know, having to toss the
cone into the hula hoop and um,not being afraid to speak up.
I, as you may know, I'm I'm nota kind of shy person and um,
but humor and being candid andbeing transparent I feel is very
(23:11):
important.
On there's a lot of visits,like I've gone to New York city
for conferences and people sayyou know what?
I don't want to travel backwith this and that's and that's
perfectly awesome.
They gently use.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
So how do you find these places Like, how do you
find these links or these placesor these websites or?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I know the way, like you and I like twitter, um,
social media.
I was telling a teacher inbrooklyn about the usta and they
said, oh, I, I know a companythat cycle kids who got the
bikes.
That's how the bikes camearound.
So I was almost kind of liketrading resources, but like it's
also like I feel like you canlearn something from anyone you
(23:54):
know, like even you and I justdoing this right now, like I
mean, I'm sure, like you, justkind of have to be open because,
like one thing I know for me, II just like to be creative.
It's like I mean, like I'vemade batting teams but using a
giant cone.
That's what we do.
Yeah, and and, and, if I havefancy like pool noodles, yeah,
(24:16):
I've had people ask me, like Idon't know, when I walk into
school like lots of pool noodles.
I was like what are you doingwith them?
And I'm like I'm using them, Iuse them as I use them as as,
yeah, yeah, so like hockeysticks, exactly like like
bowlers, that they have a freebowlers, that grant you can
apply for and get rug, the rugsthat are mimicked, that are like
a regular bowling lane.
(24:37):
They also like, um, and a lotof times it's just like looking
it up or just like looking atusbc and, well, like tennis
program or, honestly, chat gbtand like ai, like, if you wanted
to look up, you probably couldbe.
Like education grants, yeah, anda grant doesn't necessarily
(25:00):
mean like you have to link theapplication.
Sometimes it's just filling outa oh, we'll come, or reaching
out to them and say, oh, can wetalk?
And that's where you putyourself on the radar and if,
when you actually talk tosomeone, even if it's a 10
minute conversation and nothingpans out, you never know.
I mean, I have rail yardfitness, I have to say, and me
(25:23):
too, I well, your friends aregoing to say I'm.
When I originally spoke to him,I said you know what?
Everything sounds great and,honestly, to be truly
transparent, the price it's justtoo much and fundraising is not
always easy.
Donorschoose is great.
Twitter is also great, because Iget to interact with teachers
that are like, and even TikTok.
(25:44):
I get to interact with teachersthat are not in phys ed but
they like amazing things, butlike really a friend of back to
them and creative, like I havethis beautiful, like screen and
like.
I reached out to them and Isaid you know what let's, can we
work together?
And they were like, yeah, andthey were able to come up with a
custom package, so that's great.
Yeah, thank you.
(26:05):
And just because I said what'sthe worst that happens.
I know time is precious, but,like I said, it was awesome,
like I was just happy to havethem publish it.
But I mean writing blogs orcontributing, like you know, I
like to write, but, um, this somany and it might seem
exhaustive and daunting, butlike, if you think about, I mean
like, be a MacGyver, so talkabout the MacGyver thing and
(26:30):
come up with creative stuff.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So somebody a teacher actually gave me some, a bunch
of tennis balls, because theirson plays in high school or
college or whatever.
And I got all the canisters andI didn't know what to do with
them.
So the problem I was having wasI have real bowling pins.
They're really old, but I havereal bowling pins that are
really heavy.
But I also have these ones fromI guess I won't say what
(26:54):
company, but they're kind oflight, they're foam and they
kind of rip at the neck, oh yeah.
So what I did was the other itwas like a week ago I filled
them up just tennis ballcanisters with water, like just
a little bit just to keep themfrom blowing down from the wind.
And I want to play a game withthe younger kids.
(27:17):
It was kind of like a bowlinggame With the older kids.
It was a hockey game where theyhad to shoot at it and knock
them down.
And eventually I told the kidsI'm like, oh well, I'm going to
fill them with sand eventuallyand I'll tape them up and it's
going to be perfect.
But what happened was and itwas a nice kind of sunny day,
(27:40):
and the reason I'm saying thatis because when they got knocked
over they would spill.
Well, that was actually fun,because I'm on cement and it was
hot out, so it evaporated nottoo long after that.
So we're playing a game, so Iended up calling it Splat Ball.
They actually liked it.
We just made up this game.
So again it was tennis ballcans filled with water about
that much, not very much andagain it prevented from being
too light or too heavy, kind oflike Goldilocks, just right.
(28:04):
And then we created a new gamejust called Splat Ball.
Just knocks it over, water goeseverywhere.
And because we're outside, wecan do that.
So I just want to tell you thatstory.
That's all.
No, that's a great story.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
So, um, you know what I'm and imitation is a sense is
, this is a form of flattery.
So if, if I, if you see, if Itell you in a few months or so
I'm playing, there you go.
Or field day, splat ball.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Splat ball.
But yeah, no, I'm writing downstuff as we're talking because
you're giving me so many goodideas.
I just want to keep itstreamlined.
I can't keep up with you, sookay.
So, if you were to start,here's some of the things I
wrote down.
If you were to start fromscratch, I have cones for
boundaries and even for throwingCones, hoops, maybe gator skin
(28:53):
balls some we don't need amillion of them but maybe
beanbags, beanbags, noodles,scarves, scarves, noodles, maybe
some poly spots you don't neednoodles, but for tagging and
things like that, Noodles willcome in handy later, I feel like
later in the year.
What else, if you were likebeginning of the school year.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Go ahead If you wanted to use bicycles.
If you go like a Facebookmarketplace, a lot of people
like that's one thing I didtoday.
People will sell or even giveaway those little mini Radio
Flyer bikes.
I got like three or four ofthem and my, my, my students can
use that Awesome Do you have aplace to put them, though,
(29:35):
because what I'm going to do isbuild a shed.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I'm not going to build it literally, but I'm
going to get a shed.
And then I was bikes Cause Iwas just writing about.
I'm writing an article like, oryesterday about, because we
used to have a bike trailer.
It was funded by the state andwe lost the grant.
The grant is gone Because theywould drop off the trailer for
two weeks every school, once ayear, and we teach kids to ride
(30:01):
bikes.
They'd have helmets and we'dwear hairnets and scooters, but
then they lost the grant.
So I'm like well, what can wedo?
We can make our own biketrailer.
Tell me about your bikes whatdo you got?
You got storage for those.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
So I do, but these are like little bit mini bikes
which I'm able to kind of justlike kind of put in the corner,
but I'm also using hooks that Ibought from Home Depot.
I just kind of screw into thewall.
There you go, um, you just kindof like, learn to be creative
with your space.
(30:34):
Like, um, make shelves, likeyeah, amazon has like really
amazing, like those really giant, like big shelves.
Um, you're gonna be creativebecause it's like it's remember,
it's like your classroom.
Like if you go to a classroom,like they have big closets, they
have big sheds that are justthere, but like I mean, students
(30:55):
are used to like this all day.
So I mean, like I'm not saying,please understand, I'm not
saying like, be unsafe, leavethings out, but like like if you
put a shed or if you put likesomething like that, or like if
you use like a closet, like withthe doors, it's like metal I
can't think of the word.
But if you put something likethat, like it it just some cones
(31:18):
around it, but there's waysaround, like the shed you talked
about.
I mean I don't really haveoutdoor storage.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
So Are you inside the whole time or are you outside a
little bit?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I'm inside, I'm on the third floor of my school,
but we're also co-locatedbecause there's another, another
school.
So, using the, the yard, andhonestly, I, I used to, I used
to do, I used to um leave recess, I used to lead recess, I used
to teach and I prefer to teachinside.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Wait, your gym's on the third floor?
No really, I've never heard ofthat.
No, no, do you like that?
Do you like it that way, then?
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Huh, yeah, that's interesting it's, it's well lit,
um it's very spacious.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Is it a newer school or no?
No, it's very spacious.
Is it a newer school or no?
Old school.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
It's old, it's old school, it's old school, it's
old school.
A lot of buildings in thedistricts that I work in are
older.
Yeah, I don't even have an ACand a lot of times kids will be
like, can you get an AC?
And I'm like I would love one,but I have an old fan.
(32:37):
Um, get on the third floor.
I I honestly prefer, becauseit's it's I, yeah, I.
I get to like we're doingbasketball.
Now I took those baskets, I cutout the bottom and I put them on
the wall.
I get to leave them up there.
I don't have to worry about theelements.
I'm the only one in the user'sgym.
It's like I I can leave again.
I go to lunch.
I don't have to worry about youknow.
So I'm very fortunate.
But, um, great, yeah, no, Ilike your idea with the with the
(32:58):
shit, because, like I thoughtabout doing that.
It's like when I sometimes,when the weather's warm, with
the pre-k students, they go, wego outside, naturally, because
it's the yard and those littlemini radio flyer bikes that the
students love to use.
They're a bit of a hassle toshut down.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, how many do you have?
How many bikes do you have foryour PE program?
Like a lot, like 20 or more orless.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I know I have at least eight little radio flyer
minibikes.
Biking usually comes later onin the year, right May is
actually not bike month, but Itry to align it.
But usually you know at thatpoint I'll know I'll have a
great, I'll have a good.
(33:45):
The students will kind of knowexpectations routine.
So it it's like I don't want tosay a reward or culminating,
but like it's, it's yeah, no, Iget it.
Yeah, and what grades you teachbike, I do it's hard to teach it
to the middle grades because Idon't have the bikes Like, the
(34:06):
bikes I have are for they're forolder kids and they're for
younger, so I have to.
I'm working on getting and it'snot easy, but for the middle.
So, like I said, it's a goodproblem to have, because years
ago when I first started, Ididn't even know I would ever be
(34:28):
teaching cycling.
So, like I said, there's alwaysthings I'm trying to like.
It's there's a lot of differentways to solve a problem, but
sometimes a little grit andtenacity.
You have to just stick with ita little grit and tenacity.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
You have to just stick with it.
What are some things you wouldbring If you could just bring
something?
You mentioned a rock climbingwall, because I was actually
thinking of that for myself, butI don't have any place I could
build it Not physically build it, but there's nothing I would
love to have a rock climbingwall or get an archery.
Archery is next for me, if Ican just convince my parents I
love archery.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, if I can just convince my parents I love
archery.
Yeah, I did archery because Iwas in Lake Shore two years ago,
two summers ago, and I foundthose archery sets that they
have for sale.
It was really well-received,like I think it all just took a
lot of the students really lovethat.
Yeah, I'd love to do that.
(35:21):
Like I've talked to studentsbefore about, like, what's your
favorite physical activity?
And some of them like, oh, Iwant to learn how to box.
And yeah, I feel kind of weirdbecause boxing is a sport and
it's a great physical, it's anOlympic sport, it's a great, um,
just the nature of it.
I feel kind of personally, Ifeel kind of, but, um, I'm sure,
(35:44):
like karate, martial artsthings, maybe that would be.
We do martial arts Seriously.
I think it would be greatbecause it would be like a
perfect combination of, likemindfulness, sel,
self-regulation and alsophysical activity.
(36:06):
Those are one step at a time.
You have to tell me what you dofor karate.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Well, I could teach it.
It's funny that we're talkingabout this because, again, I
just published an article abouthow I do martial arts in PE.
So I am a black belt in karate.
It's been 20 years, but uh,yeah, I don't want to go.
I don't want to go deep in thisstory, but, um, so a local uh
(36:34):
Taekwondo studio, um dojo,contacted me.
Um, and they, they've beenworking with the district.
Uh, this is like 10 years ago,nine, 10 years ago they had been
working with the district.
Uh, this is like 10 years ago.
Nine, 10 years ago they hadbeen working with the district.
They only had a couple ofschools.
They didn't know I was intomartial arts, I, it was just a
coincidence.
But they reached out to me andwe started working together.
Where they come in, for it'ssupposed to be a nine week
(36:57):
program, but sometimes itdoesn't work out to be nine
weeks, like between seven andnine weeks, and they teach our.
They come out twice a week andthey teach our second graders
one year that they did thirdgrade because of our schedule,
but basically they donate uh thethe uniforms and so they really
fit second graders and theycome out.
(37:17):
Uh, again, they, the kids, wearthe uniforms over their clothes
.
They just, they put them onreal quick.
Yeah, we help them tie them andthen they, uh, yeah, they teach
them.
Uh, at the end they, we, theybreak boards.
They get a white belt, uh, youknow that kind of thing.
It's.
It's really cool to do a niceceremony, uh, but they teach
them like different blocks andstrikes.
(37:39):
They don't touch anybody, it'snot contact, but they uh, but
they teach them different.
Just not just that, but youknow life skills and and you
know hard work and dedicationand being honest and stranger
danger and what happens if abully comes.
You know up in your face andyou know that kind of thing.
So it's been really just great.
(37:59):
So that's there you go.
If you can reach out to a uh andplus, okay, so they don't get a
lot of benefit out of coming.
They do get to kind of promotethemselves a little bit.
So they might get a fewstudents from our school.
They actually come to ourschool anyway, because they have
an afterschool like bus thattakes, you know, five kids there
, something like that.
(38:19):
So, but yeah, so it's kind ofit's beneficial to them to get
into the schools, because thenthe kids know them, the parents
know them, they get morebusiness, but they volunteer a
lot of time, like it's.
I don't know if I'm sure theydon't make out financially based
on the amount of time theyvolunteer versus the amount of
business they get.
But it's, you know, we've beenworking together for a while.
(38:41):
We've been working together fora while and I just brought them
back this past year, thisschool year, to my current
school because after COVID, youknow, everything kind of went
crazy and they didn't go intoschools for a while.
So they just started, yeah,coming back.
I mean, they came back.
Anyways, my school first year.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
No, and you actually reminded me because I've, on
parent conferences, parents havesaid, oh, we want gymnastics or
ballet and, like I said, wehave the New York Ballet Company
.
Not far so well.
You said, like I reached out togymnastics places and said, hey
(39:21):
, you know, I can't promise, Ican't make this lucrative.
And when we went to the US Open, I literally just said, hey.
They said, oh, we would love tohave a coach come and teach
tennis.
Awesome, I invited Wound up.
The way that story worked outwas I invited him once Came back
(39:41):
, once he loved it.
He came back again, came back athird time.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
He then won a grant because of his work and that was
in the fall.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
And then he won a grant.
He came like three or fourtimes, five or six times, over
the year he even came to fieldday.
That's the year that we went to, we applied, went to the US
Open, went to the US, the usopen.
I'd never been there to myself.
Um, we wound up.
One of my students has a reallyawesome smile.
They use this, they use the pic,they use this picture for their
(40:13):
like 2023, like like book,yearbook, um.
So I guess these are the kindsof things and it's like results
may vary, but like you weresaying, like if you had a
company, like I mean, like likethey won't offer more, but like
like golf, or like you know, you, you karate.
(40:33):
Like I mean at some point, likeif this is what, and as
teachers, like we'd love toshare what we're passionate
about, so like that's the mostimportant right.
So exactly like is it sometimes?
Just like, like I said before,like sometimes if you reach out
to them and they said you knowwhat it's not gonna work out,
right, you never know, you justdon't ask you can't get it right
exactly and, like I said, no,there are so many things and
(40:56):
sometimes we are all busy andI'm not saying it's like, like
this is, this is the highlights.
This is now if imagine, althoughlike I say this, this and that,
like there's five other placeslike not not anything bad, like
the rock wall, um, it's just toomuch.
You were talking about macgyverlike, um, like, if you use
(41:17):
those basics, like you go to thedollar store I love dollar
stores like dollar, like dollartree, like you go, you get that
stuff, like it's, it's, it'salso good, because then it's
like oh wait, how does this like?
And then it kind of also talksabout it's not just the
equipment itself.
So it's like it's hard to seesometimes the forest behind the
trees.
But in essence, just you, justlike you're hearing when you
(41:42):
talk about the credit, like,like you said, even one or two
students like, but you neverknow Like what, what, if, what,
if they, what if they become akarate champion?
and they come back when they,and that you never know.
Yeah, it's you never.
You never know, you never know.
And I'm hard.
Uh, bird, what is it?
A bird in the hand is worth twoin the bush.
(42:03):
Like I'm an old, I'm dad, like,and I'm I know we're going off
the tangents, but honestly, liketalking to you about this stuff
, learning about it, likehonestly I'm sitting out
learning from stuff, from thatI'm gonna do that.
Or I'm like, oh, I gotta go dothat.
Um, you've been teaching howmany years?
uh well, pe 14, but overall 22,23 and we're still it's still
(42:24):
it's a Saturday and we're stillit's still it's a Saturday night
, we're still talking about howto get grants and how to do
things, and you're talking aboutso, like I mean, love it
Exactly.
Like I mean we don't have to,but like it's, it's, it's
seriously, it's like it'ssometimes I remember it's like
like we got into this for areason, like remember, very
(42:44):
specifically, I I wanted to bethe dude that one day wanted to
do law, but I was like you knowwhat?
Because my first, my first cellbroke down on the way to school
.
I was like you know what?
I could really enjoy this?
I want to do phys ed becauseit's something that I'm gonna
enjoy.
So it's like all this stuff,it's like like I say I don't
want you to be like, I don'twant you people to hear this and
(43:05):
be like, oh, no, man, like Igot fun with it, like it doesn't
have to be, like, right, in theend it'll be you, um, because
it's also great for you to be afree advocate for your program
well, give me your finalthoughts, because I was thinking
that I was almost going to saythere was the mic drop and you
almost had it and I was like sogive me your final thoughts.
(43:26):
To wrap this up a little bit,like I was saying before, like
you want to get partnerships,like I said, like if you reach
out to me, I will be very happyto share it.
Like I'm not just saying thisbecause, like I'm genuinely
saying like, please reach out tothe companies, please reach out
, try these things and if, ifyou get them, and your
experience is even more awesome,that makes me happy because it
(43:48):
gets out there, go get it.
Let's, let's keep bringing physed and, just, you know, make it
bringing ourselves to newheights.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Thank you everybody for tuning in today.
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Go to supersize physad for moreinformation, or check out my
sub stack and my medium articles.
If you're more of a reader, youwant to check out.
Check those out, and you'llalso be getting one to two
emails a week on different posts, different podcasts, all that
(44:22):
stuff.
So love to have you be a partof it.
So click on the links in theshow notes and check out all
that stuff.
So love to have you be a partof it.
So click on the links in theshow notes and check out the
free stuff.
There's a free book in there ifyou haven't got it yet, a free
ebook.
There's my book that I wrote inthere.
Lots of good stuff.
So definitely check those outWith that PE Nation, have a
great day, week, weekend,whenever you listen to this, and
let's keep pushing ourprofession forward.
(44:44):
Thank you.
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