to be here in the murder theatre they
see if they diverted PF it twice in your
career once on the way up and what’s on
the way down it’s great to be back on
pregnancy in mcpherson full of dirt it’s
a great joke for today today we’re going
to follow in the steps of two of my
heroes Adam Savage and Jamie honey and
we’re going to challenging me we’re
going to test them in and that myth is
that’s organ cool young people’s
behavior to do that as the good
Mythbusters that we are we first least
establish a bit of context around their
myth and the context of our myth is this
sport is weird sport is strange what I’m
showing you here is underwater hockey
also known as octo push now the purpose
of this war as you can see if you swim
the bottom of the pool with a blade
about this big and you push up up on the
bottom of the pool when you try and
score which you’re not fighting you
scoff at you think well that’s very
strange why would anyone want a cab it
alert well let’s think back to
basketball I would love to be in
Massachusetts in 1891 where James
Naismith event they gave it basketball
and people watch the fun asylum must’ve
looked in the thought so what’s the
point of you James you get a ball and
you’re putting the basket and you take
it out and you put it in another bastard
there’s no future in this there’s no
money in this known whatever what to do
this for you fast forward to now and
basketball like mace ball like main
sports is incredibly valued and it is
very valued in the UK not basketball
sport in general now your keys attitude
towards for could be summarized in one
single simple sentence is this
everything is also
movie says please don’t repeat the song
in the headphones the lady and when we
talk about sport I’m going to be talking
about sports as Olympics we’re not going
to talk about the needs one we’re not
going to be talking about sport as a
cure for diabetes no we’re going to be
focusing on the myth that sport has
inherent attributes and properties that
are suited to improving young people’s
social and psychological development the
myth that sport can improve their
people’s behavior and the myth that
sport somehow is inherent magical
properties that can teach young people
life skills like teamwork and leadership
I mean that must have hurt phrase like
rugby teaches leadership football
teaches teamwork these are the minis
with an attempt to dissect and to do
that we need to do some research in fact
we’re going to use my own PhD research
another introduction said my research
considered six seven months of hanging
out with a charity in the UK or with
sport opportunities for disadvantaged
young people under the belief that sport
would help them developed as human
beings of people so what I’m going to
present to you now is my data in three
stories our first story is not t1 as the
best cliched image I could find online
and a picture this it’s another school
day 3 30 13 year olds go down to play
basketball with their coach I’ve been
hanging out in these sessions for six
weeks now and I’ve seen the same group
of young people play they work through
drills they do their training and
deceptive observing basically seeing
what’s cooking and on the seventh week I
see this young boy come to the door I’ve
never seen him before he’s 13 that’s how
I’m Jimmy Jimmy picks up a basketball
within two bounces I realized other
Jimmy’s not very good compared to
everyone else Jeanne’s actually terrible
I wonder how many see the Tuesday well
the session starts and Jimmy stinks
there’s no no other way to put it
Jimmy’s just not very good he is
technically and tactically inferior to
everybody else but he gets no support
from his teammates a session continues
and a tough drill develops team have to
work together they need a high level of
technique
and tactics Jimmy cannot do it he is
really struggling so what happens the
drill starts Jimmy gets it wrong and the
coaches go back there again they start
again Jimmy gets wrong start again on
they reboot starting it stopped again
start again the atmosphere becomes all
the time it becomes tense anger aimed at
Jimmy Jimmy not very sure what to do
with itself you just fix it out
eventually they complete the grid the
drill the session ends but the
atmosphere is quite done and I realize
what’s the moral to this story well what
did Jimmy done leading on teamwork not
even know that his teammates learn about
teamwork really did not so what happened
here well just because he playing a team
doesn’t mean you know in t1 and that’s
an important moral did I sekhar myth the
second story is not so do include the
second store is ready to go double or
nothing same charity now different punch
different kids different court st. most
people play basketball it’s a physical
training session physical conditioning
session but the atmosphere is work join
us more energetic do people I’m doing it
they have a good relationship with their
coach it’s all working with now the
coach gives this drill they have to run
across the court and score up three
passes and they have the score is made
baskets as possible in two minutes the T
news images for six baskets the coach
brings up together that’s right guys an
NC double-a college basketball team in
the United States this very drill in two
minutes they can score 22 baskets with
life that knowledge how many baskets do
you guys think you can score and they
say coach we can score 50 and the
culture that’s hot we’ll do it again if
you don’t score 15 you only a super 70
and a super 17 consists of running the
width of a basketball court which might
be almost the width of this of this
stage approximately sprinted touchline
sprint touch the line to sprint touch 9
17 times it’s grueling it is a tough
punishment so if the kids go two minutes
ago by its corte baskets they fall sure
they
they have failed a code 22 / 70 this may
they’re about to start on one 16 year
old job son says coach double or nothing
I’ll towards a 12 year old girl no coach
don’t listen to him he’s crazy he’s
crazy think we fail we have to run a
super 34 coaches guys get together 30
seconds to discuss and as he said this
kid total the coach turns to me gives
the cheeky grin and a week and goes yeah
I love this so kids get to get they
decide to do it double or nothing they
run the drill with two seconds left to
go basis for the 15th basket they
succeed the atmosphere explodes energy
everywhere happiness they’re so proud of
each other they’re so so so happy I’m on
the sidelines thinking you know what
I’ve learned for this the more of this
story the importance of autonomy I
having an input in your environment and
the importance of a sense of belonging
to these young people feel like they
belong in this session they feel they
can alter this session they feel they
have a chance to impact on how the code
works with them on what they do
important morals now our third story we
move away for basketball into the realm
of table tennis now this image is of a
table tennis session in Toronto and the
only reason I’m showing it to you is
because the layout of the tables mimics
the layout of the gym at the end of
school where the charity practices table
tennis it’s about 12 tables 24 25 min
people 11 to 17 years old despite
evidence I’m the one coach Coach take
and he sat at the entrance with a list
and ticks people off as they come in and
I’m SAT with Jay wouldn’t do anything
else just tick Liz’s attempt Jake ah gee
was the deal here man are you gonna do
any coaching and he says not 20 kids you
can’t cook don’t you do ok earn but what
about behavior I mean this kids
everywhere but you need to get up walk
around control this from control and he
says no they don’t they do they’re fine
I’m sure now after hour and a half of
watching I realize there are no problems
everyone knows what they’re doing
play some of the other kids force around
for a little bit one minute to let me
get back to playing no one has to
control anything and it dawned on me the
third more passion the importance of
passion these young people want to
either they love to play table tennis
and when they’d love to do something
they don’t need anyone to control what
their behavior so you got me thinking a
little bit more how important is passion
well I’m going to suggest it’s extremely
important now let me use an analogy to
make the point now bear with me this
might be my lil bit strained it start so
there is sometimes supposedly a
statistical phenomenon talking to the
United States some times of the year and
this physical phenomenon is the more ice
cream people eat the higher the murder
rates are I think well this is weird
well this video really good the more ice
cream will eat more murdering we get it
is a work or it means something else is
going on something else connects to ice
cream and murder is something like the
weather because hey when it’s cold you
stay indoors not eating ice cream when
it’s warm and one was out with to the
street you suddenly find yourself
surrounded by shirtless dudes of people
you see selfie sticks no wonder you said
to think about murdering people
especially if I celebrate with ice cream
afterwards
so there’s a hidden variable up connects
ice cream consumption and murder rates
what did this have to do with sports or
behavior proven well I think sport is
the ice cream I think behavior
improvement other memories I don’t think
for itself improves behavior I think
there’s a hidden variable passion which
influences form and influences behavior
proven and if we think about this in the
context of a table tennis session if the
passion increased many people’s desire
to play the sport and passion also
increased the behavior management didn’t
want it to be there they join me but I’m
a bit worried it’s about passion
argument because I conducted some
interviews with coaches and with young
people and this is some of the things
they have to say this is conclusive one
of the basketball coaches I suppose in
many ways the kids that come to our
programs they want to be there they’re
committed to be there they enjoyed being
there so behavior is never really an
issue Suzy who also played basketball
age 14 if they don’t love it basketball
they would have continued to play and
then would have come to morning training
732 830am it’s ridiculous but if you
don’t like this one then you won’t do
you won’t really care about it putting
your powers your time into something you
don’t really like which is quite obvious
and lastly coach Jake table tennis coach
Dave they are always well behaved with
me because they want to play table
tennis they love it and also they don’t
want to be in class which says a lot
again they want to be somewhere so they
behave better in some worlds and this
resonates a lot with another basketball
coach shirt is favorite three witches
are my kids there are angels on the
court demons in the classroom and again
the ball of passion comes up so so we’ve
been talking about variety of things so
let’s recap we establish that there is a
myth there is a myth that sport has
inherent values and attributes are
ideally suited to approve young people’s
behavior to develop them socially and
psychologically and the mythbuster that
we are we’ve challenged this myth using
some research I told you three stories
and the morals of those three stories
were that just because
clarity doesn’t mean you learn teamwork
we burned up the importance of autonomy
I’m having a sense of belonging and
we’ve also learned that passion plays an
important role therefore the question
now becomes the sport itself have
inherently positive tribute surveys
we’re is it more about how sports is
used well I think it’s the second one I
think it’s more about house or disease
which then leads us to further question
if sport itself doesn’t improve young
people’s behavior how can you use sport
to achieve nuh well III things it’s I
should think about it in your lungs in
your own context when there’s your other
place you want to be what’s your
behavior like your key attempted
interested when you’re somewhere you
don’t want to be your behavior goes down
it’s not my great human relationships
I’m not mentioned it explicitly but I
hinted at it throughout the presentation
we think back to our first story with
the basketball with a teamwork where
things did not work out work with the
human relationships there where was the
care where was the empathy it wasn’t
there when we go to our second story
double or nothing human relationships
flourish left right and center because
the young people felt they could talk to
their coach they had an influence over
there coach they have a good
relationship with the code that had a
good relationship amongst each other so
human relationships are essential and
lovely the sense of belonging and
autonomy having an impact I’m feeling
like you belong somewhere which again if
you think back to your life this is not
rocket science where are the places
you’re most comfortable the places where
you really feel you belong so what’s the
moral of the story well some people
might still think that sport is an X
Factor sport that sport has something
that no other activity has got to really
improve your people’s behavior but if
that were the case then that would mean
that the more you play the better that
you will be you’ll become consequently
those who play more sport will
eventually become extraordinary human
which is exactly what professional
footballers are right so the math
doesn’t seem to add up what’s also
interesting about these elements is that
they’re not unique to sport eyelid you
can achieve them through any activity
interpretive dance finger painting
dramas I’m collecting you name it so
where does this leave us we go back to
the Sun we go back to our myth and we
see that the minute sport improves in
people’s behavior is myth busted for
want to say that it’s myth busted
because sport itself doesn’t have any
attributes that can improve or healthier
people’s behavior their social or
psychological development or decent life
skills life skills it is all about how
sport is used and let me be clear I’m
not saying some sport is bad not at all
we saw from my data my example and you
must have seen anecdotal stories a sport
can be wonderful but sport like any
activity can be wonderful if you develop
passion if you create a sense of
autonomy and a belonging and if you
foster meaningful deep human
relationships if you achieve that
through sport or any activity you can
achieve some truly extraordinary things
with your people thank you very much
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]