Skateboarding is the ultimate teacher for many; the one teacher that stands out among the others. Skateboarding teaches:
- how to deal with all kinds of authority figures.
- how to appreciate a fresh pair of sneakers.
- how to engage socially and interact with fellow peers & total strangers.
- how to fully commit to something and put in the effort to accomplish the outcome.
- how to clean every cut, scrape and road burn known to man.
But especially, skateboarding teaches individual's how to overcome failure.
Skateboarding requires IMMENSE dedication towards the goal or outcome, and the road to success is guaranteed to be paved with copious amounts of bruises, road burns, rolled ankles and failures. In a conversation with Chris Rock, comedian Jerry Seinfeld had this to say about failure, kids & skateboarding:
Seinfeld: "I'll tell ya, one of the great activities is skateboarding. To learn to do a skateboard trick... how many times you've got to get something wrong until you get it right."
Rock: "And you keep falling and you hurt yourself" (nodding in agreement)
Seinfeld: "And if you learn to do that trick now you've got a life lesson. Whenever I see those skateboard kids, I think 'those kids will be all right"
Rock: "Yes!"
(Video Source: Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee)
But to kids (or adults) labeled with various conditions, (specifically ADHD, Dyspraxia, high-functioning Autism, Asperger's syndrome and sensory processing disorder,) skateboarding offers a domain of biopsychosocial (BPS) prosperity, contributing to an up-regulation of coping skills that help to regulate:
- emotion,
- cognition,
- behavior,
- physiology,
- and variable environments.
The BPS dividends that skateboarding provides children, youths and even adults are boundless.
And in the context of working with clients in chronic pain, a BPS approach expands beyond a purely biomechanical domain and dives deep into a 3-dimensional realm of education, adherence, self-regulation and resiliency.
Education revolving around pain science, identifying subjective wants & needs, and promoting feasible strategies that reinforce individual autonomy and movement mastery are just a few BPS ingredients that can truly yield 3-dimensional prosperity for your clients, patients and athletes.
What would happen if the word 'Different' was used rather than 'Deficit' when describing ADD? Furthermore, what if the word 'Disorder' was dropped all together? Instead of "Attention Deficit Disorder" you get "Attention Different".
And because words act as scaffolding towards establishing meaning, skateboarding expands beyond the realm of biomechanics. Its omnipresent psycho-social environment provides space to explore what's possible and expand beyond labels of deficit and / or disorder. Many come to realize - being different is cool.
Written by:
Kevin Murray M.A., CCC, CAFS
Movement Masterminds – CEO
Function First – Director of Education
2012 CSEP CPT of the Year