We interviewed 906 Adventure Team's Todd Poquette. This conversation began with a discussion about the goals and structure of this youth biking team. Mountain bikers will appreciate Todd's focus and love of this activity. Educators and parents, you will want to hear how this growing nonprofit is rethinking the way we think about grit and resilience.
Links:
906 Adventure Team
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We interviewed 906 Adventure Team's Todd Poquette. This conversation began with a discussion about the goals and structure of this youth biking team. Mountain bikers will appreciate Todd's focus and love of this activity. Educators and parents, you will want to hear how this growing nonprofit is rethinking the way we think about grit and resilience.
Links:
906 Adventure Team
Sound Effects found on Pixabay
Find us on social media:
Instagram: cmichcese
Facebook: cmich_cese
So we've been on a bit of an extended hiatus to get some exciting programming underway at the center. But we're back and we're ready to bring a series of truly delightful interviews and episodes to your ears. Our first episode is one that does something I love, when you hear who are interviewing and what they do. You may have a moment when you say, actually, Julie, what's up, deny subscribe to an educator podcast, and why Yes, you did. Here at the center, we are all about connecting people who are educating kids, often that is in the classroom. But the community that surrounds a child extends beyond a school building. And the mindsets and approaches of individuals who are invested in a child are voices that we can learn a lot from. Here's Julie.
Julie Cunningham:I think when they walk up to base camp, it looks I think, to them, it looks pretty impressive. We have a big space all laid out. Everybody's team has bike stand and tools and an air pump, backpack with radio and then everybody's got a cone and where they can lay their bikes. There's this orderliness to it. Not like go stand in a row. But also I know where my team meets every week, I know where to look for my coaches. I know that if my bike needs something, who to ask. I know that when I get there, I should check in with my coach and my parents or my adult guardian checks meeting with the coach. So there's this routine to it.
Ashley O'Neil:Last summer, Julie started volunteering at a summer program called 906 Adventure team. And she started coming to work each week and talking about the kids she was biking with. She was using jargon that honestly was lost on me.
Julie Cunningham:Right so they're skinnies and there's raised skinnies and there's rollers.
Ashley O'Neil:See, Julie has been active for as long as I've known her. I've tracked her on weekend mountain biking competitions, and I've learned a lot about the different distances that make up a triathlon things that I don't need to know in my regular daily life. So it doesn't totally surprise me that she had connected with this nonprofit that was dedicated to getting kids of all ages out on trails in their community, biking and riding together. But it did surprise me how excited she was about it. Julie tends to work with older students. But she'd come in every Tuesday morning thrilled to have spent the evening prior with a group of five and six year olds on bikes in the woods in summer. They come and she kept bringing it up bikes,
Julie Cunningham:and they come ready to ride their bikes for two hours. And if you and bringing it up, they're not complaining also about riding their bikes and having the adventure.
Ashley O'Neil:And soon it became clear that this program, the one that I had assumed was about athletes training future athletes. Well, it wasn't exactly that it wasn't that simple. So I did what educators do. I asked a bunch of questions about the program so I could better understand. How do you out of school programs in compact kids? What is about this program seems to be unique. What about the physical aspect is accessible for everybody? Why is this program not a competitive sport? Is there anything that this group is doing that classroom teacher should be paying attention to? So this interview is as much about biking as it isn't about biking? Whether you're listening to this from the car on your commute from your own bike in the middle of a workout or sitting on the couch, fellow educators, this conversation here today. It's about kids and learning and community and you're going to want to listen in
Todd Poquette:Sure, my name is Todd polecat. I am the director of adventure for the 906 adventure team based in Marquette, Michigan.
Julie Cunningham:Tell us about yourself, Todd and what we should know in this interview about how and why you started 906 Adventure team.
Todd Poquette:Yeah, so I mean, I can say that I had been in the corporate side for quite a long time with one of the larger if not the largest food distributors in the world. And just I guess for lack of a better way to put it became disenchanted with that world and decided that it would be better off for me and for the community I live in if I spend my time here locally. So I made the decision in 2012 to to leave that lifestyle and I moved into the private sector with a restaurant group here locally and market, which ironically, had also been a client that I worked directly with for two years. So it just sort of like I became part of their team by being a partner with The my former employer. And when I did make that transition, I also wanted to be giving back in another capacity within the community. I just didn't know what that capacity was yet. So I kind of started looking around. And then in the process of doing that started to, I guess, realize myself that as I was getting into cycling, there wasn't a cycling avenue for youth in Marquette. And there wasn't an opportunity for, you know, adults like myself, who are moms or dads or, you know, not people who fancy themselves as semi or, or professional cyclists, which the sport has been dominated for many years, if not forever, by the idea of competition and racing. But it is also very much a recreational activity and something that you can do for the duration of your life, in a sport that parents and kids can do together, along with grandparents. So it just seemed like we needed one. So not having any idea what the hell I was doing, I set off to create one. And I mean, it's, you know, you can just take it from the beginning, and it was one kid or one coach and five kids. And now today at the time that we're sitting here talking about the adventure team, and youth programming, we're in three states and nine communities, serving 700 Kids and code and training 300 coaches annually.
Julie Cunningham:Alright, tab. So 906 Adventure team mission states that the adventure team empowers youth to become the best versions of themselves to outdoor adventure. fair, that's fair, right? For the that's fair. Okay. So can you explain to our audience or to our listeners, what is meant by this statement? And can you give an example of how you are how Niner six, not you necessarily, but how 906 Adventure team empowers youth?
Todd Poquette:You know, I think that just the format, that we're doing this within sort of the game plan, or the playbook, for lack of a better term is where we're taking personal development or development of youth. And we're making it more about personal competition. And then head to head competition, I think I had mentioned and some of the questions that I had responded to, that you'd sent over that, it seems like everything that youth end up doing is somehow gamified, by the adults that are running the show. And, you know, for, I'd say, 20, if you got 100 kids for 20% of the kids, I think that that gamification, and that competitive environment, automatically benefits them, they are automatically put in a place of advantage over the other 80 Kids in the group, simply because they are more physically gifted. Or let's just say more physically coordinated, and they've just found their physical gifts sooner in life than the other kids. And they are more naturally wired to be confident and competitive. You know, they just kind of come out of the box with that mindset. And, you know, the the unfortunate detriment of the 80 kids, and this probably plays out across society, you know, we've got 20%, running the show, and you got 80%, which is kind of along for the ride. But what troubles me with kids, or for kids is that as we give preference and advantage to the 20 kids out of the 100 that were just sort of born more ready to compete, they are starting to develop their idea of self worth and where they fit into the big picture of life. And you know, the idea that everything that they do competitively is put on the clock. You know, it gives an unrealistic, I think expectation for a lot of these kids, because remember, and Julie, you've seen this when you're working with kids, five years old, six years old, seven years old, eight years old, like they have a very wide range of abilities, at when they start with us at the beginning of the season. In our format, they have as much time as they need while at least until the end of the summer to make the improvements that they're capable of making within that 90 day window. versus you know, if we had taken let's say adventure bike club and said, Okay, instead of a 90 day window of time that we're just going to work on you finding a better version of you. We're going to give you 90 minutes. And if you can't become the best version of yourself, or at least a version of yourself that we feel is beneficial to us. You're off the team. It's a whole different environment, a whole different temperature and sense of urgency for those gets them. So that's where I think we're coming back to for you. They need the time to build those competencies, the the emotional toolbox, I guess, along with their physical toolbox to become competitive in the head to head competitions, which I think if we've got adults, truly dedicated to helping each child and each youth get to the best version of themselves, they will work toward becoming a better version of themselves and naturally become more effective competitors in life. They just mean need more time. Does that make sense? I said a lot.
Julie Cunningham:No, it's great. I'll ask Ashley, if it makes sense, because she's less familiar with 906 Adventure team than I am.
Ashley O'Neil:I think it makes sense. I saw what I hear you say is that there's a focus on comparing back to self right. So they're, they're never, ever put in a situation because I think when you said that game of fire was nodding my head pretty vigorously at gamification admit, and that went head to head against one another. And that comparison, we think about them developing their sense of self in this development timeframe. Do they? Do they ever compare? I mean, naturally, they may like notice that you know, something's in the front of the pack from the very beginning, or, but are all of your goals directed back to individuals?
Todd Poquette:Yeah, everything is directed inward for each of the kids in the program. And what's really fascinating about it is, you know, now that we have nine communities, we're working with communities outside of Marquette. So we can kind of test to see if the results we've shown here, replicate in other communities without us. And it's pretty clear that this culture of personal competition, personal development, and that growth mindset concept, you know, the power of yet where it's okay, you can't do that yet. Like we're gonna write again on next Thursday, we're gonna try it again. Maybe that's your first time. You know, my my example here Marquette is that we have Kirby's Hill. And early in the season in June, when we start, that becomes like the iconic landmark for each of the kids in the program to ride up at at least one time. And there's varying results. But I'd say probably 70% of the kids, when we start the season can't write up. But because it's a pretty big hill, I mean, there's a lot of adults, I know, they can't write up it. But by the end of the summer, I'm not gonna say all of them, because I'm sure that's not true. But the majority of the kids can climb up it. And if not, once, now, they're doing it been going for two times or three times. And they're doing it all under their own their own motivation, you know, whereas I remember back when I was in, you know, I always use football as the example, if the coach wanted more out of you that he would yell at you, it was you need to run faster, you need to hit that hole quicker, you need to get to the quarterback faster, like everything has to be better, faster. But at Bike Club, it's like, giving them the power, and letting them decide what they're going to do with the opportunity just empowers them to take it and well, I was gonna say run with it, but I'm gonna say ride with it.
Julie Cunningham:And I think, to Ashley's question, and Todd, you can correct me if you don't think this is a good example. But I rode with five and six year olds. And if anyone that knows me, anyone that's listening would know that's not my age group, for sure. But I loved every minute with those five and six year olds. But I would say in the beginning, like maybe the first ride or second ride, they were concerned with who was in the front, right and who was but they very quickly when they realized that wasn't what it was about. And that wasn't what they were necessarily being rewarded for either. Like, intrinsically, I suppose, or certainly extrinsically Like, no one was saying, Good job, you're in the front of the pack, right? It was more about taking turns and being a community and how you talk to one another on the trail and, you know, waiting for those that has, it might be you next time that needs to be waited for or whatever, when when they realized that it was that's where the strength was in the team was there's the whole group there. It really, really pretty quickly went away without anyone saying, Hey, you can't always be in the front of the pack or hey, that, you know, without without anyone being correcting them. It just really became about the group and I would say to Todd's point, you know, I never said Let's ride up the highest hill by the end of the summer, but boy when they saw some of the other kids do it that became a personal goal and on almost I don't know for those of you in Midland area, you can picture the setting hell at the Midland At the Midlands, City Forest, and most of those five and six year olds wrote up at no problem and back down it right, which can be equally as scary as writing. Just because that was like an a personal goal. And that because I mean, that because I said I want to write up it is that hard work? I think that, you know, I think it just becomes the norm to not,
Todd Poquette:yeah, they become empowered through their identity as a group of kids. Because we're taking, we're shifting the emphasis from individualism, or from the individuals or to you as an individual in the group. And we're not saying that success is finite, you know, I think I shared that with you before that, this this format, makes success, or the possible the possibility of success, infinite for the kids in the group. Because since I am just trying to be the best version of myself and Julie is just trying to be the best version of herself, we can be in the same group of kids with the same coaches working toward the same ultimate endpoint together and actually, in doing so help one another, elevate themselves. Now, the thing I do want to make sure to say here, because sometimes when people hear this, because they haven't been there, and they don't, we haven't gotten into the the ethos of doing hard things, and, you know, embracing challenge, you know, somebody might be listening to this thinking, you know, okay, they've got a bunch of kids together, and they're singing Kumbaya on the top of the hill. And somehow, you know, maybe seeing like, a program that isn't challenging kids would be better, or, you know, again, thinking like, Okay, this is great, best version of themselves, but they're still going to need to learn how to compete. That is all within the program. It's their, like, their first competitor that they're learning to compete against, is that version of themselves today to get to that version they want to be tomorrow, that's the first competitor. And just in, in teaching them to show up, and to do the work. You know, that's what's giving them the value, that's what that becomes that confidence, that fuel of confidence, and then fuel of resilience to just have the chance to show up every day and, and then we do translate it into challenging them with things that are just beyond their ability, their physical ability, or their skill, skill set. And we challenge them to fail. You know, nobody likes to fail, including us. But it's necessary for personal development.
Ashley O'Neil:It's so interesting that you say that, because I come at this from the educator lens, and all the things that you're saying the outcome that you're talking about, is exactly the type of community outcome I feel like many teachers want or education, buildings administrators are looking for. But the approach that you take is very much probably in opposition to what it taught you here where we there is a lot of gamifying in the classroom and competing against or making like this. Leveling up a thing against this, this hard set of skills, right? And success, we can define success by these outcomes, instead of you saying success has this infinite possibility, which is great. So what does community mean to 906? You know,
Todd Poquette:for everybody, obviously, I think this answer is going to be different. I think that community is really the foundation or it is our foundation for what we're doing, because I talked to so I have two friends that live in Chicago. And it's Leslie and Dan, Dan is a I'm gonna say a substance abuse counselor. And he works primarily with youth. So he's working with kids, in his words, who would not be in his office, if they had had a group, like an adventure team in their community. And what he means by that is, a lot of the kids that he is seen who ended up in his office, they don't ident they don't, they don't know where they fit in. And they don't feel that they matter. So they don't have a group or something larger than themselves that they feel they fit into. And I think that for the adventure team are for this nonprofit, that it is that identification that we're giving the kids and the volunteers with their community that they're in. And then additionally knowing that there are other communities out there, wearing the same jersey doing the same thing that they're doing seeing pictures of kids they don't know, adults have never met. It is this sense of well, I guess in some ways, it's probably a sense of security. You know, I'm not alone, there are people out there like me pushing their bike up the hill in Midland, or there's kids in Eau Claire, Wisconsin pushing their bike up a hill, you know, for the same reasons that I am. So I think it's the identity, I think it's a sense of security. But, you know, then at the same time, because of the bar that we set, whereas, you know, you had mentioned that, in the educational system, there's still there's a lot of gamifying, and sort of trying to get everybody to level up so to speak, the thing that we have going for us is, I think, the standards that we set that everyone has to sort of live by, you know, just like a baseline level of respect, a baseline that we're not here to tell you how good you are in relation to how good this child is, there's no hierarchy of value that we're creating. The only thing that really, that you get judged by is on your behavior, and your ability to contribute to the well being and positive growth of the entire community. You know, by when you have a say in Marquette here on a on any given night, we have 125. Kids, we have with them 50 leaders. So we have 175 people in the field, every person in that field understands that on that evening, the expectation is to bring their best their best that night. So let's say you come into the field at 80% of your best, I still want 100% of 80%. You know what I mean? So it's just like that standard has been set. They just they know, they know what the deal is. And we're ready, I'd say and I don't know how this isn't Midland, but I can I can be pretty direct with, Hey, if you don't like what we're doing, it's okay, I understand. There's other ways of doing things. But we have one way we do it. So if you're going to be here, this is how it gets done. And that also helps you sort out, keep people on the same page all the time, too.
Julie Cunningham:And that that sort of speaks to how you are expanding into other communities, right, how you've taken the model that you use in Marquette, Michigan. And now there's a team and Oh, Claire, Wisconsin and team in Lansing, Michigan, capital city and a team in Midland, right? This, the idea that otherwise, it wouldn't be replicatable. either. I feel like
Todd Poquette:Yeah, I mean, the blueprint continues to get tested successfully, and replicated in other communities. And then in doing so, you know, we do evolve certain aspects of it. Because I think that each iteration that we run out, helps us become a better version of ourselves, organizationally, really, you know, and that's what we're here to do. was looking at the What does community mean and 906. And I talked a little bit about Legos. And I mean that analogy with with Legos. And I'm just gonna read this real quick. So think of community as a box of Legos, we need all the pieces in that box to make something lasting and meaningful. There's a place for every one of those Legos, when you look into the box, you see Legos with different colors, shapes and sizes. Sounds just like people, right? Well, what's different is, society takes those people or Legos and we label them with all sorts of labels. And for everything you claim to be or someone who says what or what someone says you are, there is then a corresponding thing that you are not or cannot be. So labels limit the opportunity, and they ultimately divide us if they did, and we had to separate the Legos and the box into their subgroups, political affinities, gender, economic status, geography, professions, education, and whatever else we use to label people. What we could create with that same box of Legos would be severely limited. So we need to realize men, women and children are the Legos. And we all come from different places, different times, different colors, of hair and skin, different genders and beliefs. And that's okay, like the Legos. We need to let go of our labels, and you'll have one hell of a community.
Ashley O'Neil:One other thing that this gets back to me when I was looking at your questions, I don't hear a lot of celebrities zation of either your leaders or students or even maybe like I'm less familiar with biking, like celebrity racers right now. Is that intentional on your part? And do you think that that, that gets out that hierarchy? Because what I think those labels can sometimes do is it we place a value. And so, you know, this, this individual is less than, and this individual is more than and athletics often in a traditional school setting. There's a huge celebrities ation of athletes, right? Yes. And I wonder if that's an intentional switch in yours? Or if it just it like is incidental because it's an opposition to your values? Or how does that play out in your brain?
Todd Poquette:Well, I think initially, it came organically from who I am. And just sort of understanding what I've witnessed whether it was in athletics, which I participated in as a youth, or, you know, in the corporate business environment, that celebrity status absolutely creates the hierarchy of value and power and influence too, because the more power and celebrity you have, the more influence you have, and the less that you have those and the less influence you have. And then there's that corresponding sense of self worth that is tied to both ends of the spectrum. And it just, you can start to kind of see the matrix, right, if you pay attention to it. The I think I had mentioned maybe in one of the questions that in high school, you know, you can see that the community will come out in force to support a football team on Friday night. Or the community, the entire community will come out and support the basketball team or the wrestling team. on a Tuesday night. There's only if you're familiar with football, there's only 55 kids on a football team 55. And but the entire community will come home. For that group of kids. One of our adventure teams has 50 kids. That's what you had, right? That's your cat. One of our adventure teams is 50 kids. We're just trying to get 25 adults to come out. And so it is it's just you know, that celebrity or whatever you want to call it, it just creates imbalance. It is It's bonkers when you think about it that because I used to play football and to think that I'm not saying it's a bad thing. But what I'm saying is if the community and and this is this is actually interesting, if you think through how we're wired. So if the community can come out on a Friday night and take three hours out of its day and evening to celebrate and cheer for 55 kids. Why can't we do that? Why can't we just do that for all kids.
Ashley O'Neil:And I'd also like to know about like the words that you associate with minus six, specifically grit and resilience. And I think those words matter to me because they get co opted in education. And oftentimes in education, we break stuff and we turn it into mean, like compliance or perceived success. I don't know, like they get co opted. So I would like to hear you talk about some of those words and how you think they represent your organization.
Todd Poquette:Well, it's interesting because I recently had a conversation with somebody about the word grit and, and grit. Just saying it, you know, when you hear grit, it sounds tough. And what I feel I've witnessed, and this is I can't speak to the educational side, I don't know if it's been co opted there. I definitely will say I see youth organizations taking the word grit, and CO opt in. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to take grits reputation as being tough. And just because they're using the word and associated with the kids, it's like that's enough to make the kids tough.
Ashley O'Neil:Todd went on to share and that is not a local race. Earlier this year, he had observed a group of students in this case young female racers, whose coach had turned grit into a bit of a catchphrase, where it seemed like it was more about putting the word on their shirts and on their gear instead of practicing and developing what Todd believes to be an essential and difficult mental skill.
Todd Poquette:I understand the intent. We want strong women. I want strong women. But giving them a false representation of what grit is is a disservice it's going to haunt them for the rest of their life. So that's a problem me, like I wrote down this past week. That my definition of grit, I'm just going to read it to you. grit to me, is the The ability to thrive in the absence of hope. So just think about that, that's kind of heavy. But I really do believe that I'll go back to our program now that I think by aligning reward, or award, with teaching kids to show up and do the work, and get in the mud and fall down and dig it out and sweat, and cry and bleed, when nothing is on the line, but knowing you did it. So you don't have a carrot in front of you. There's no trophy, there's no podium, your parents aren't going to stand in the field at the end of the ride, take your picture and put it on Facebook and celebrate what a winner you are, you literally are just going to show up and do this on Thursday night. And then you're gonna come back next week and do it again. That is teaching grit.
Ashley O'Neil:This was an interesting part of the conversation for me. I'll admit, at first Todd's definition and subsequent story was to sports. For me, the idea of crying and sweating and bleeding brought me back to too many experiences where I watch my friends and loved ones get yelled into shape by coaches who would use this type of language. And it didn't really connect for me. But that's not what Todd was doing here. And that's not what he's saying. So let me put a spin on this to see if I can bridge this between biking, and teaching and learning. Great is moving forward one step at a time, when there isn't an extrinsic motivator, no sticker, or no pizza night, no obvious trophy or big celebration of your achievement. It is doing the hard things because just because I when I think about what I wanted for my students when I was teaching, it was this not the bleeding bit, but the internal motor that would run to help them finish a hard learning experience. That would help keep them trying when they weren't the top reader or the fastest multiplier, when I couldn't wrap their growth up in a tidy little bow. And they could see the full arc between not understanding to understanding and they kept going anyway, when I think about it this way, it's utterly disconnected from the motivators that we so often turn into in schools. So Todd's perspective was interesting, as was how he thinks about practicing this with students,
Todd Poquette:I am old enough to say and I have been through enough, I am very comfortable saying we cannot, unless we want to undo everything, we can not allow ourselves to change the definition of grit, or what it takes to earn that title.
Julie Cunningham:And that goes right along with resilience.
Todd Poquette:Yeah, I think you know, with resilience. Julie, I think what I had shared with you is grit is kind of like, I think you need both. So grit is just like that, that that gear that you can go to, to grind it out when nothing's good, when everything's tough, you know, again, when it just seems like, like, there's nothing just aside, just purely getting through it is the only motivation to do it. Okay, that you have to have no resilience to me is something that you can develop. And I think I mentioned you, I thought it was almost like, I sort of envision resilience as a two to phase form of power. It's like resilience is both mental and resilience is physical. And you you need to learn to develop both parts of this, this energy and you know, you can have a day where, you know, maybe you've you've built your your mental and your physical resilience to such a level that you're feeling very confident. But on any given day, you wake up and physically you're not there, you're maybe you're sick, you're starting to feel sick, you know, you just your body isn't at 100% but your mind is there and your mind keeps you in the game sort of compensates for that deficit on the physical side. And then occasionally it may flip. And if you've got a well developed, you know, young human or young adult, you know, maybe it's the body's rare and the girl go but just you know, mentally you wake up for whatever reason, and you're off, maybe you had a fight with your girlfriend or your boyfriend the night before. But one can compensate for the other however you need to build. We have to build people, you know, humans, young, young adults, we have to be working on both sides of that we have to be building the mental resilience and the physical resilience to have them operating at their optimal level. I
Ashley O'Neil:think I really appreciate your your definitions and kind of the story that you've shared with that. I think when I translate that back into the classroom, oftentimes what I see is the kids people will say like, you shouldn't be getting upset because you have grit, right? Where what I'm hearing you And when I often feel is that sometimes the getting through the thing, even it was if it was ugly, right, like showing up on a Thursday, we're not feeling great and it's muddy and you, you cut your leg isn't necessarily fun. And maybe you're not feeling like you're having a good time in that moment. But it's the fact that you stayed and you came back the next time. And you're working through that longer arc to develop that, that that ability to keep trying and keep going. So that maybe eventually, when you're older, or next summer, or by the end of that summer, you don't get so worked up about those little things or those inconveniences. And oftentimes, I think we say, you're going to access your grip now. And this won't bother you. And what I hear you saying is that you, it may bother you, and it may be difficult, and it may be uncomfortable, but you're going to keep going and you're going to keep coming back to it. And I sometimes wish we could talk about that more in education that I mean a pretty because you are in the process of helping students grow those things. And I think it's neat that you, you recognize that it's a bit of an uglier process and doesn't have this glamour, maybe to it this shine, that can be catchy, and flashy and fun.
Todd Poquette:It's, it's a great, I love what you just said there, because anybody who's been around long enough, knows that life is, is as ugly as it is beautiful. And you're really defined in your ability to get through those ugly moments, and how you come through them. And not only how you're coming through them, but how you're treating others around you as you're working through them. And you know, we're just not taking enough time to arm kids with those types of lessons and understandings of the tough stuff in life to be able to thrive in it. You can say that grits the ability to thrive in the absence of hope. I mean, you could also say it's just the ability to thrive within less than ideal circumstances.
Ashley O'Neil:Okay, I'm just gonna jump in here for a minute. There's a distinction that I want to make sure it's clear in this conversation about grit and power and resilience. It's easy to hear all of this and take the stance of Yeah, life, it's tough. So kids need to be ready, they need to be tough, let's toughen them up. That thinking is not accurate. And it's definitely not productive. Kids are in progress they are learning and their brains are developing. And well, it's less clear or less easily articulated than teaching kids to read. This conversation is about teaching kids to grow their capacity to try and to keep at something. So how do we do this? Well, we do this by modeling these practices ourselves, modeling, working through difficult things, modeling showing our emotions and the tough stuff and how we work through it in a calm and productive manner. And we do this by being the safe and gentle adult that supports them during the hard things, not the force that compounds the hard things by applying stress or anger or impatience or a lack of care. Here's one example from Todd,
Todd Poquette:she was going into a we should talk about this was not forget to talk about strength training. You might some people might say weightlifting, but strength training, we should we should go back and talk about that for youth. But anyway, his daughter is in high school, she's a powerlifter. And she was coming into a meet. And just extremely nervous her anxiety was building. It sounds like that she's had some struggles with anxiety and maybe performance related anxiety. But nonetheless, he identified that she was she was struggling. And she was coming into this meet. And she really, really wanted to perform at a high level, and was putting more pressure on herself than anybody else was. So what he did is he pulled out his polar role field manual from last year's race. And at the front of the field manual, this is this is a fat bike race that we run here in February. At the front of that book, I had put half a page. I think we call that the ego dump. And it was just a blank page that said, this is where you're going to leave all your fears, your self doubt the thoughts that you can't do you know that you can't sign up and do the poll or all you're going to write all this stuff down on this page. And then you're going to sit with it. And when you're ready, you're going to crinkle it up and you're going to throw it in the garbage can and you're going to go crush it. How getting that out onto a piece of paper sort of you know, it removes it from you. It kind of gives you an ability to separate from it for a moment and to sit with it and then to leave it behind.
Ashley O'Neil:I think it's great because it it does the important step of acknowledging the thing, right feeling stressed or feeling not ready or feeling and not prepared. That's valid. It's totally valid to have those feelings and it gives kids the ability to acknowledge those, but then to also reframe it to remind them who's in charge of that, right? Like, I'm not in charge. And I'm not, I'm not those feelings I have in that moment. So I think it's a great partner exercise because sometimes we either just sitting acknowledge feelings with kids and saying up, I understand that that's difficult for you. I'm sure that that's great. But we don't know the next step. And it's a nice next step to say the reminder of okay, all of that has a place and it belongs. Over here is it was where it belongs. But that's nice. Grace, complicated and nuanced concept. And it's hard to capture. And it's one that is shaped a lot by our own experiences. And well, our own grid. This podcast has several ideas that are like this. So Julie Todd, and I found ourselves continuing the conversation days after we turn the microphones off.
Todd Poquette:I heard what Ashley said, when I talked about the what grit looks like, blood, sweat, tears, grinding it out. She immediately drew images of competition and sport, kids being yelled at by a coach. And I completely understand that and, and understand that that connection is there. And I also understand that it's very important for us to understand that the development of grit can happen outside of those avenues or outside of those environments. Because if we say that grip can only happen within that environment, that competitive construct, then we're saying that 80% of people or 80% of kids will not have the ability to develop grit. If we are in agreement that 80% of people are not as interested in competition and winning. And podiums, it's important for me just to share that the environment that I am speaking to are speaking from the environment I'm speaking from when it comes to the development of grit is the natural world, the outdoor space, the woods, that, that is the imagery that I am speaking of. And the beauty of the outdoor space is that it is you against the land, it is you against the elements and it is you against yourself in the self talk that you engage in while trying to overcome the obstacles that are before you. The other piece that I want to share is that in competitive constructs, such as traditional sports, there's, there's a very clear way to win, and there's very clear way to lose. And there's very specific rules and very specific timeframes in which this needs to occur. Our outdoor space or the outdoor space where we step outside of those constructs are free of the the restraints of time are free of the contrived or arbitrary rules that other people create to control the game. And it allows for a wider range of skills and personal attributes to be deployed and refined and tested in a natural space in order to succeed and to accomplish one's goal. So I think that we do have to be willing to agree that grit is not glamorous, the development of it is not glamorous, couldn't be fun, but probably won't be. And let's look at it as something we do. outside in nature, which, frankly, we need more of it is where we came from, we have created more and more space between us and the outdoor environment. And I think that simply by getting out there more often, and learning how to brave the elements and thrive. Just by doing that alone, our kids and ourselves and our communities would be in a much better space.
Ashley O'Neil:It's a distinction, right? It really helped to clear things up for me and I appreciated this discussion about a person versus themself with goals that are their own. And this idea that being connected back to nature matters. The last clip that I want to share with you comes from a conversation about athletics. I appreciated this addendum if you will, because it reminded me why signing up a child to participate in 906 would be such a different experience for my child and putting them into a Youth League of some sort. Well, this next section is focused on out of school activities, particularly physical ones. I found which I found to be a fascinating and challenging conversation in and of itself in all the right ways. I also found so much from this next section to apply right back into the school building. Let's listen to Todd
Todd Poquette:with the with the competitive emphasis. Let's just well let's just talk about traditional sports real quick. football, baseball, basketball, tennis wrestling, the the games, the competition is run by originally set of rules and the other things we've talked about, and additionally requires very specific skills and skill sets and behaviors for candidates that will be successful participants within the activity. And what I think is important to reflect there are two reflect on there is that it's, it's actually limiting this the somebody's use of their personal toolbox. Whereas you have a lot of kids who have a lot of strengths and a lot of things, they're good at a lot of various attributes that are relevant and valuable within the context of a society or a community. However, because the sports or the competitions don't require those skill sets, or attributes or behaviors, they are then they seem to lose value, or they seem to not be of value or valued at all. And I just wonder, when you look at it from that perspective, and this would be even in the classroom, where it sounds like everything is gamified, you know, in immediately puts kids who thrive for competition into a position of advantage over everybody else. But I wonder just how deep this runs in defining at a very early age, how young young people children look at themselves, and start to develop their self identity is based, you know, just on the fact that the things that they have to bring to the table don't necessarily resonate with the groups and activities that get all the attention. And it just, it's got to make you wonder how that impacts us and maybe what part that plays in where we are today. I don't know that there's any more activity really, that we engage in, that is more divisive, and damaging to relationships, then the act of competition, at least to the level we've taken it or taken it. And we need to again, look at then how formats like adventure bike club and nonprofit like even 906 Adventure team, offering the adventure team youth programming of, you know, to develop resilience and confidence, self reliance, community collaboration, independence, how that can not only benefit the 80% of kids who are probably underserved. From a development of resilience and grit, but also how it may just 1015 20 years from now we can really put a concerted effort into this. How will it change our communities? In ultimately taking it even bigger? How can it change the world that we're living in?
Ashley O'Neil:This has been another episode of teach wonder if you heard something that resonated with you today. We'd love if you share this episode with a co worker, family member or friend. To learn more about 906 Adventure team to find out if there's a local group in your community. To volunteer or to learn more about the races that help support the youth in this program, check out the links in our show notes. You can also search 906 Adventure team on social media or check out their website at 906 adventure team.com