Synthesis: The Program Dissection
Earning a Master’s Degree can be a grueling and strenuous process. It is however a necessity in today’s global market. The coursework increases tenfold, the depth of content is thick, and critical thinking becomes as vital as eating or sleeping. Combine all that with working full time as a Special Education Teacher and raising a family, receiving this degree seems even sweeter and rewarding. Two years of disciplined balancing, hard work, and perseverance have paid off tremendously. The Masters of Arts in Education through Michigan State University was a fabulous experience. The new skill set that I have acquired through the Sports Leadership and Coaching Concentration has already paid dividends into my career. It has also opened many doors with unlimited potential.
This essay is intended to “synthesize” my experience through the Masters of Arts in Education program at Michigan State University. Specifically, I will focus on four courses that impacted me the most. Three of the courses, KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches, KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics, and KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport, met the requirements for the Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration. The fourth course, EAD 801 Leadership and Organizational Development, was an elective course. These four courses were selected because of their immediate and future impact on my professional career.
Upon graduating from Arizona State University, I decided that it was necessary to continue my education. I graduated in May of 2010 and enrolled at Michigan State in May of 2010. I had just wrapped up my Student Teaching and felt that tackling two of the Sport Leadership and Coaching classes to deviate from the Education coursework that I had been entrenched in would be a nice change of pace. I began my experiences with the program with KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches and KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics. Going this route turned out to be an excellent decision.
KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches with Rick Atkinson provided a glimpse of the roles and responsibilities of athletic directors and coaches from the legal perspective. There were many issues, such as negligence, standards of care, sexual harassment, the abuse of power, and gender equity, that KIN 854 addressed as well.
The coursework ranged from answering questions on case studies that dealt with specific real world legal cases to identifying safety hazards of an athletic facility. For example, Bearman v. University of Notre Dame dealt with a woman trying to sue the University of Notre Dame because an intoxicated man in the parking lot broke her leg. I had to assess safety standards of practice facilities and venues for both athletes and fans. I created a risk management schedule for an athletic department and an open tryout waiver for a basketball tryout. I developed a plan of action against locker room vandalism. I also had to manage an athletic department’s budget and cut a sport while being in compliance with gender equity laws. The final for KIN 854 was a combination of case study questions, writing a letter on hazing to an athletic team, and handling a possible sexual harassment scenario between a coach and graduate assistant.
KIN 854 brought a completely new perspective into athletics. Up until this point, I had only participated in athletics. Now, I am prepared to handle the obligations of an athletic director or coach and deal with the many issues and legal matters that pertain to those roles.
During the cross-country season this past fall I was able to use some of the knowledge from KIN 854 at our last meet. The division that my school is in is the smallest in the state of Arizona, so most of the schools had to set up their own courses in their perspective cities. Our last meet was a safety hazard nightmare for both athletes and spectators. There was debris on the course from a house that was having its back yard remodeled. The athletes had to cross a street twice, which had volunteers working to halt traffic. They were not well prepared because at one point, a truck entered the course while the participants were competing. Parents were roaming the course in confusion of the correct route. Overall, it was a poorly put together and ran event.
Our previous meets were set up quite nicely, with minimal safety issues. This however was a different story, which allowed my training to come into play. After the meet, I wrote a letter to the head of our athletic division bullet pointing the safety and liability issues that I had with the event. The letter was well received and taken into consideration.
Along with KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches, I was enrolled in KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics with Scott Riewald. KIN 856 was geared for coaches to fully embrace the fundamental and physical principles of coaching, teaching, and training athletes. Professor Riewald also worked for the United States Olympic Team in Colorado Springs, CO, making his insight even more invaluable. KIN 856 explored the musculoskeletal anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, strength and conditioning, and nutrition.
The assignments and projects were created based on the sport that the student wanted to coach the most. One of my goals is to become a basketball coach, which allowed for me to base all of my assignments on basketball. I created an analysis of shooting a free throw, specifically identifying all of the muscles involved. I then created an analysis of the multiple movements involved with shooting a free throw as well. I constructed a nutrition plan, a dynamic warm up, and a strength and conditioning program for injury prevention purposes for sprained ankles. I also had to provide an analysis on the biomechanics and technique of shooting a free throw. I was unable at the time to videotape someone for the project, but was able to use pictures of a player that has fairly poor biomechanics and techniques.
Upon reflection, critiquing biomechanics and techniques was a very intriguing project because I am currently in the process of setting up my own specialized services providing students with support in both academics and athletics. Teaching fundamentals, especially biomechanics and techniques, are essential for success on the playing field. I believe that this knowledge of biomechanics will allow for me to work privately with student athletes, helping them achieve improved results in their specific sport. Even at the elementary and middle school levels, sports have become ultra competitive. More and more student athletes are focusing on one sport, while their parents are looking to provide them with the all the tools to succeed. KIN 856 has for surely prepared me to provide parents and athletes with insight.
In the fall of 2010 I enrolled in KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport with Daniel Gould. KIN 857 dove into great depths to illustrate and equip coaches with tools, methods, and techniques to institute a positive environment for athletes to not only develop into healthy competitors, but also to become good citizens off the filed of play as well. The coach is vital at setting the standards and values for his/her team to adopt. KIN 857 presented a blueprint on what positive coaching looks like and how that positive modeling impacts student athletes’ positive development.
The structure of KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport was much different than KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches and KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics. The first part of the course was discussion based. I was required to read Farrey (2008) Game on: The All-American race to make champions of our children. At the end of each week, I would post a reading response to the mandated chapters I had to read. I had to cite specific examples from the text and tie them to my personal experiences. It was a fairly large class, which made for some interesting discussions. The text was an account of the state of athletics and how it impacts today’s youth.
The next major assignment was a book critique of True Competition: A Guide to Pursuing Excellence in Sport and Society by Brenda Bredmeier and David Shields This text focused on several of the key concepts and ideas that will help an aspiring coach reach the pinnacle, which is true competition. This was an excellent read that has helped me not only in coaching, but in my classroom as well. I truly enjoyed the sociology in this text as well. It really touched upon the human nature of coaching athletics.
The final project for KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport is unquestionably the most enjoyable piece of work that I have ever constructed and completed in my entire academic career. I had to build an athletic program. The program could have been after school based, affiliated with a city or school, or something unique and privately operated. I choose to create something unique and tried to be as created as possible. I reflected on my passion for hiking here in The Valley of the Sun and decided to create a hiking club. Taken directly from my final project in KIN 857:
"The Urban Hiking Club is a Phoenix, Arizona based, independently run not-for-profit positive youth development after school program that is designed for approximately fifteen to twenty young adults, ages ranging from thirteen to eighteen years old. The program will operate three days a week and will include warm-ups, pre/post hike stretching and strengthening routines, three hikes at different mountain preserves, basic injury prevention, mountain hiking safety, and hydration and nutrition guidance. The Urban Hiking Club will promote an enthusiastic, healthy lifestyle. This program takes full advantage of “The Valley of the Sun’s” beautiful weather and urban hiking."
It was an incredible experience designing this project and I received some positive feedback on it as well. I cannot state enough on how much fun I had in generating this final project.
Having to create a tangible and feasible product in an academic setting, especially one that was athletically based, truly prepared me for a business adventure that I am currently pursuing. I have taken the knowledge and experience from creating The Urban Hiking Club and transferring it to developing a fitness video geared towards students grades 4th-9th. KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport presented me with the strategies to make something like this possible.
The last class that I have chosen to elaborate on swerves away from my Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration slightly. In fall of 2011 I enrolled in EAD 801 Leadership and Organizational Development with BetsAnn Smith. EAD 801 discussed the features of how to become an effective leader of an organization. A leader must be capable of progressing an organization forward by maintaining a positive atmosphere and surrounding him/herself with the personnel that has abilities that make up for that leader’s deficiencies.
There were three major assignments in EAD 801. The first assignment was analyzing adaptive problems and technical problems within an organization and how they can be resolved. I was able to draw upon previous work experience that was a classic example of poor leadership within a dysfunctional organization. The second assignment was a compare and contrast paper on Better by Atul Gawande and In Praise of the Incomplete Leader Ancona, ET AL. Both of these texts provided valuable insight on how leadership looks like and why these traits and characteristics are imperative for success and achievement throughout various professional endeavors. There was a theme that became evident across both bodies that resonated and stressed on how leadership can be effective: innovation. The final assignment was creating a proposal for a budgeted study to close a performance gap within an organization. I developed a proposal that would combine, as opposed to students receiving these services separately, Speech and Language and Occupational Therapies in order for students on the Autism Spectrum to progress more rapidly and achieve goal mastery on their Individualized Education Plans (IEP).
EAD 801 Leadership and Organizational Development was a fantastic experience to wrap up my course work at Michigan State University. I eventually want to lead an athletic program, hopefully at the collegiate level. I also would like to one day expand my future business as well. This course showed me what characteristics I will need to run an organization effectively, while maintaining a positive and progressive environment to attain desired results.
The Masters of Arts in Education Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration was a two expedition that has undoubtedly prepared me both as a future learner and professional. The course work had real world relevance, while being immediately transferable and applicable into my current endeavors. The completion of this program is not only a fantastic accomplishment, but also a key to unlock many doors that lead to many opportunities. I am proud to have earned this degree through Michigan State University and am honored to be a life long Spartan.
Spartans Will,
Michael Karpinski
This essay is intended to “synthesize” my experience through the Masters of Arts in Education program at Michigan State University. Specifically, I will focus on four courses that impacted me the most. Three of the courses, KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches, KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics, and KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport, met the requirements for the Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration. The fourth course, EAD 801 Leadership and Organizational Development, was an elective course. These four courses were selected because of their immediate and future impact on my professional career.
Upon graduating from Arizona State University, I decided that it was necessary to continue my education. I graduated in May of 2010 and enrolled at Michigan State in May of 2010. I had just wrapped up my Student Teaching and felt that tackling two of the Sport Leadership and Coaching classes to deviate from the Education coursework that I had been entrenched in would be a nice change of pace. I began my experiences with the program with KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches and KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics. Going this route turned out to be an excellent decision.
KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches with Rick Atkinson provided a glimpse of the roles and responsibilities of athletic directors and coaches from the legal perspective. There were many issues, such as negligence, standards of care, sexual harassment, the abuse of power, and gender equity, that KIN 854 addressed as well.
The coursework ranged from answering questions on case studies that dealt with specific real world legal cases to identifying safety hazards of an athletic facility. For example, Bearman v. University of Notre Dame dealt with a woman trying to sue the University of Notre Dame because an intoxicated man in the parking lot broke her leg. I had to assess safety standards of practice facilities and venues for both athletes and fans. I created a risk management schedule for an athletic department and an open tryout waiver for a basketball tryout. I developed a plan of action against locker room vandalism. I also had to manage an athletic department’s budget and cut a sport while being in compliance with gender equity laws. The final for KIN 854 was a combination of case study questions, writing a letter on hazing to an athletic team, and handling a possible sexual harassment scenario between a coach and graduate assistant.
KIN 854 brought a completely new perspective into athletics. Up until this point, I had only participated in athletics. Now, I am prepared to handle the obligations of an athletic director or coach and deal with the many issues and legal matters that pertain to those roles.
During the cross-country season this past fall I was able to use some of the knowledge from KIN 854 at our last meet. The division that my school is in is the smallest in the state of Arizona, so most of the schools had to set up their own courses in their perspective cities. Our last meet was a safety hazard nightmare for both athletes and spectators. There was debris on the course from a house that was having its back yard remodeled. The athletes had to cross a street twice, which had volunteers working to halt traffic. They were not well prepared because at one point, a truck entered the course while the participants were competing. Parents were roaming the course in confusion of the correct route. Overall, it was a poorly put together and ran event.
Our previous meets were set up quite nicely, with minimal safety issues. This however was a different story, which allowed my training to come into play. After the meet, I wrote a letter to the head of our athletic division bullet pointing the safety and liability issues that I had with the event. The letter was well received and taken into consideration.
Along with KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches, I was enrolled in KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics with Scott Riewald. KIN 856 was geared for coaches to fully embrace the fundamental and physical principles of coaching, teaching, and training athletes. Professor Riewald also worked for the United States Olympic Team in Colorado Springs, CO, making his insight even more invaluable. KIN 856 explored the musculoskeletal anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, strength and conditioning, and nutrition.
The assignments and projects were created based on the sport that the student wanted to coach the most. One of my goals is to become a basketball coach, which allowed for me to base all of my assignments on basketball. I created an analysis of shooting a free throw, specifically identifying all of the muscles involved. I then created an analysis of the multiple movements involved with shooting a free throw as well. I constructed a nutrition plan, a dynamic warm up, and a strength and conditioning program for injury prevention purposes for sprained ankles. I also had to provide an analysis on the biomechanics and technique of shooting a free throw. I was unable at the time to videotape someone for the project, but was able to use pictures of a player that has fairly poor biomechanics and techniques.
Upon reflection, critiquing biomechanics and techniques was a very intriguing project because I am currently in the process of setting up my own specialized services providing students with support in both academics and athletics. Teaching fundamentals, especially biomechanics and techniques, are essential for success on the playing field. I believe that this knowledge of biomechanics will allow for me to work privately with student athletes, helping them achieve improved results in their specific sport. Even at the elementary and middle school levels, sports have become ultra competitive. More and more student athletes are focusing on one sport, while their parents are looking to provide them with the all the tools to succeed. KIN 856 has for surely prepared me to provide parents and athletes with insight.
In the fall of 2010 I enrolled in KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport with Daniel Gould. KIN 857 dove into great depths to illustrate and equip coaches with tools, methods, and techniques to institute a positive environment for athletes to not only develop into healthy competitors, but also to become good citizens off the filed of play as well. The coach is vital at setting the standards and values for his/her team to adopt. KIN 857 presented a blueprint on what positive coaching looks like and how that positive modeling impacts student athletes’ positive development.
The structure of KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport was much different than KIN 854 Legal and Administrative Issues for Administrators and Coaches and KIN 856 Physical Bases of Coaching Athletics. The first part of the course was discussion based. I was required to read Farrey (2008) Game on: The All-American race to make champions of our children. At the end of each week, I would post a reading response to the mandated chapters I had to read. I had to cite specific examples from the text and tie them to my personal experiences. It was a fairly large class, which made for some interesting discussions. The text was an account of the state of athletics and how it impacts today’s youth.
The next major assignment was a book critique of True Competition: A Guide to Pursuing Excellence in Sport and Society by Brenda Bredmeier and David Shields This text focused on several of the key concepts and ideas that will help an aspiring coach reach the pinnacle, which is true competition. This was an excellent read that has helped me not only in coaching, but in my classroom as well. I truly enjoyed the sociology in this text as well. It really touched upon the human nature of coaching athletics.
The final project for KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport is unquestionably the most enjoyable piece of work that I have ever constructed and completed in my entire academic career. I had to build an athletic program. The program could have been after school based, affiliated with a city or school, or something unique and privately operated. I choose to create something unique and tried to be as created as possible. I reflected on my passion for hiking here in The Valley of the Sun and decided to create a hiking club. Taken directly from my final project in KIN 857:
"The Urban Hiking Club is a Phoenix, Arizona based, independently run not-for-profit positive youth development after school program that is designed for approximately fifteen to twenty young adults, ages ranging from thirteen to eighteen years old. The program will operate three days a week and will include warm-ups, pre/post hike stretching and strengthening routines, three hikes at different mountain preserves, basic injury prevention, mountain hiking safety, and hydration and nutrition guidance. The Urban Hiking Club will promote an enthusiastic, healthy lifestyle. This program takes full advantage of “The Valley of the Sun’s” beautiful weather and urban hiking."
It was an incredible experience designing this project and I received some positive feedback on it as well. I cannot state enough on how much fun I had in generating this final project.
Having to create a tangible and feasible product in an academic setting, especially one that was athletically based, truly prepared me for a business adventure that I am currently pursuing. I have taken the knowledge and experience from creating The Urban Hiking Club and transferring it to developing a fitness video geared towards students grades 4th-9th. KIN 857 Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Sport presented me with the strategies to make something like this possible.
The last class that I have chosen to elaborate on swerves away from my Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration slightly. In fall of 2011 I enrolled in EAD 801 Leadership and Organizational Development with BetsAnn Smith. EAD 801 discussed the features of how to become an effective leader of an organization. A leader must be capable of progressing an organization forward by maintaining a positive atmosphere and surrounding him/herself with the personnel that has abilities that make up for that leader’s deficiencies.
There were three major assignments in EAD 801. The first assignment was analyzing adaptive problems and technical problems within an organization and how they can be resolved. I was able to draw upon previous work experience that was a classic example of poor leadership within a dysfunctional organization. The second assignment was a compare and contrast paper on Better by Atul Gawande and In Praise of the Incomplete Leader Ancona, ET AL. Both of these texts provided valuable insight on how leadership looks like and why these traits and characteristics are imperative for success and achievement throughout various professional endeavors. There was a theme that became evident across both bodies that resonated and stressed on how leadership can be effective: innovation. The final assignment was creating a proposal for a budgeted study to close a performance gap within an organization. I developed a proposal that would combine, as opposed to students receiving these services separately, Speech and Language and Occupational Therapies in order for students on the Autism Spectrum to progress more rapidly and achieve goal mastery on their Individualized Education Plans (IEP).
EAD 801 Leadership and Organizational Development was a fantastic experience to wrap up my course work at Michigan State University. I eventually want to lead an athletic program, hopefully at the collegiate level. I also would like to one day expand my future business as well. This course showed me what characteristics I will need to run an organization effectively, while maintaining a positive and progressive environment to attain desired results.
The Masters of Arts in Education Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration was a two expedition that has undoubtedly prepared me both as a future learner and professional. The course work had real world relevance, while being immediately transferable and applicable into my current endeavors. The completion of this program is not only a fantastic accomplishment, but also a key to unlock many doors that lead to many opportunities. I am proud to have earned this degree through Michigan State University and am honored to be a life long Spartan.
Spartans Will,
Michael Karpinski