Something caught my eye the other day. It was a short video of the Chicago Bears sloshing around on the rain-drenched field. They ran and lunged their bodies onto the ground and each person slid a good 10 yards. It’s easy to just see these NFL guys as paid professionals, which they are. They are paid to compete at the highest level and they are paid to win. However, this video reminded me that – even at that level – it’s important to have fun… Cut up, laugh, play practical jokes or do something zany for no particular reason.
This is especially true at the high school level. I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but, here we go… surveys consistently show that the number 1 reason that high school kids play sports is, “it’s fun” and the number reason that high school kids quit sports is, “it’s no longer fun.” So, it’s important to create your own type of fun – good, clean, genuine fun… for no reason… even if you look goofy or different. Life is supposed to be fun and whimsical and spontaneous.
For example, during long runs on the cross country team in high school, when someone yelled, “tangent,” we would all begin running in different directions. Why? Who knows and who cares. It just became a thing. I could list about 10 of these odd things we would do to make practices fun. The important question is, “Can you?” I hope you can because that would mean that you are having fun!
Your Turn: How much fun do you have with your teammates? What do you do to increase that level of fun?
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I think as a team we have fun. We usually listen to music as a team and that gets us excited
I think as a team we have fun. We usually listen to music as a team and that gets us excited. We usually have fun
Anything fun I do with teammates is outside of practice or before we start doing work. To increase the fun, it would be more of a hinderance if I was actually trying to get better as I’d like to talk while running. Most fun things need to be before or after, at least for me.
Well one way is we dance, thats always fun. When we mess around, and winning.
We have a lot of fun when we are doing just dance and when we listen to music together.
I think our team has lots of fun. We do fun things like just dance and get excited for each other.
we have a lot of fun as a team. we do fun stunts!
We have so much fun because we spend lots of time in school together out of practice and we have a group chat to keep up connected we also have team bonding activities!!!
I have a lot of fun with my team. Usually around this time it is very stressful and I feel like we could make a little more fun out of some things. We have a lot of team bonding activities and we make sure to always have fun no matter what.
We have fun on some occasions like when our conditioning is playing ships and sailors
I always have tons of fun with my team. We always manage to have fun no matter the circumstances.
I feel like for the most part we have fun! We have team hangouts and listen to music when stretching, running, or on long bus rides!
I feel like we have a lot of fun together by dancing and just having a good time. We have team dinner and team bonding which we always have fun at.
I feel like we have a lot of fun together by dancing and just having a good time. We have team dinner and team bonding which we always have fun.
As a team we have fun and we like to listen to music and do team bonding
I feel as a team we have fun and get along with eachother. We all love to dance and listen to music which usually gets us hyped and makes us have some more fun.
My teammates and I definitely have fun together, but it’s not every day. Most of the time we are just serious. I can come up with little things to make everyone laugh or be spontaneous to make our sport more enjoyable.
We do our best to stay lighthearted and fun as a team. I think something that helps is we try to not let mistakes get us down, especially if we can laugh about them and move on such as slipping on the court or something like that.
My teammates and I have a lot of fun we usually mess around and we make each other laugh
I think my team has great chemistry. We are all very similar so we are always having fun and making the best of every situation
our team can joke and laugh and have team bonding but we also focus hard on the skills we need to improve. we all give constructive criticism
As a team we play just dance, all are clumsy, and all laugh at the silly things everyone says, which makes a super fun environment!
we have a lot of fun together, we have bonfires together and go out to eat after games. we could use more team bonding and fun time but we make the most with what we have
I have a great amount of fun with my teammates and I can’t really think of many ways to improve that.
As a team we always have fun whether we are just joking around at a tournament eating or when we play just dance.
I have a lot of fun with my teammates. Wether we’re just playing a game in practice or dancing at team dinners our team is always laughing together.
I have fun with my teammates when we joke around and dance around but sometimes we most definitely get on eachother’s nerves.
Our team has a lot of fun and we up the level of fun by cheering obnoxiously loud for our teammates.
We have a lot of fun even though it gets us in trouble
I have a lot of fun withy my teammates. Another way we could have fun is to to bond together by going skating or something fun on the weekends.
I think we have a lot of fun together. When we do just dance and listen to music it makes it even more fun.
I think we have a lot of fun together. When we do just dance and listen to music it makes it even more fun.
I have a lot of fun with my teammates. To increase the level of fun I can get my teammates to hang out with each other more outside of school. For example, on some weekends we could go skating or go to the movies.
i have a lot of fun with me teammates. to increase the level of fun depends on the activity. i try to make as many funny jokes as possible and just be myself.
I have a lot of fun with them. I think if we could just stop taking some things so seriously then it would be fun all the time instead of sometimes!
I have lots of fun with my teammates! We are always joking with each other at appropriate and sometimes not the right times but it makes it fun and keep us connected and down to earth!
Personally, I feel like at practice or at games we don’t get to have much fun:( I mean yea, cheering itself can be fun but in general we don’t really get to have fun! We’re always trying to prepare for a game so there never is time to just have fun! Although, outside of the sport the team hangs out all the time so that’s always fun!
I have a lot.of fun
I have a lot of fun with my teammates. We just always makes jokes with each other.
I have fun with my teammates quite often. To increase the level of fun we have is when we start to play good. When we play good nothing is more fun than to watch everyone smile and laugh.
we have a lot of fun. we have singing competitions while we’re on the bus, and it’s lots of fun!
a good amount, crack jokes
I have a lot of fun with my teammates, usually before or after practice, but fun during can happen too. Letting loose is something that can make things fun.
I just compete I do it because its fun to help someone get better and it’s even fun to know that I get better day by day from having fun.
I love my team them my brothers to be honest i have fun with them everyday we together even when my mood is low they make me feel better i love northwood n im always having fun
I have fun in high energy practices. It’s fun when we’re jumping around, having success and keep the reps limited but fast.
not enough team bonding
i have a lot of fun w my teammates, continue to hang around them
By experiencing different things of fun, and continue hanging out with them
I have some fun with my teammates. Usually at practice we aren’t supposed to talk. So we don’t have a ton of fun on practice days. If we hangout outside of practice we have fun.
I have fun when I can laugh and joke around with my teammates. I also love stunting with my teammates and working together to do something cool. But we’re not really supposed to laugh and joke around at practice. So I think we need to be more fun at practices. And we’re not really supposed to talk during games either.
Well, we have some fun times when we are laughing together but when we goof around at practice tonight we get in trouble. Sometimes even when we are discussing cheer we get in trouble. I think maybe just a little more lead way would make practice more fun.
To have fun while playing competitive we will tell eachother jokes.
I think it’s cool to have fun at your sporting events that don’t really get a lot of recognition. Having fun just makes the sport that you LOVE already more fun and more apt for you to succeed
It’s cool to have fun at your sporting events that don’t really get a lot of recognition. Having fun just makes the sport that you LOVE already more fun and more apt for you to succeed
I always joke around with teammates to try and get them in a better mood.
I have lots of fun with my teammates. They make jokes and just do some funny things. To increase this we have play some games at practice and go do things together.
This article is really good it shows that even getting paid that much to be in the NFL that you can still have fun.
We have a lot of fun especially in the locker rooms getting ready and preparing
One time at practice it was raining and everyone was just having fun but we were getting better at the same time.
I have a lot of fun with my team. Nothing needs to change
We love to get hype on the sidelines with each when we do good plays and we encourage one another when something goes bad as well
We have to much fun
I have a lot of fun with my teammates! Not only in my sports but also outside! If someone is not having fun to make it fun for everyone cheering people on and being loud helps!
I have a decent amount of fun with my teammates, but I can increase it by taking everything a little less serious.
I have a decent amount of fun with my teammates, but I could increase it by taking things a little less serious at times.
We always try and find a good mood in and out of our games and meets, we will be dancing and singing in the bus on our way, there is no better way to get everyone hyped up and ready for a long hard game than to be goofing around with the team growing closer as a family more than a team, in a game we will all be smiling and having a good time knowing it dosnt matter what our time, score, or win looks like because we are in it together and will be happy just to play.
I have a good amount of fun with my teammates. They are fun to be around and make me laugh. To increase this level of fun maybe we shouldn’t take everything so seriously all the time and loosen up.
I like to have fun with my team, it makes it enjoyable, makes you laugh and everyone gets along. Sometimes I feel that people like to make jokes, but they aren’t necessary.
I just want to have fun as a team and so then we don’t divide as a team. The more fun we have the more fun games are and the more we connect.
I have a decent amount of fun with my teammates. I make jokes with them and make us all laugh. But I have never thought of doing something like what the cross country team did. I have always viewed practice as “go in and get all your stuff done”. I consider my sports fun but I never realized that others might think it could get boring.
I have a lot of fun with my teammates. Before wrestling practice we hop on random teams and play a could rounds of dodgeball and at the end there is no hard feelings just fun and laughing. We are able to add to that fun by just playing and that’s it. It’s just a bunch of fun.