Game Time vs Screen Time

Guest: Mike Ulring, Director of Building Leadership

From pre-game scrolling to late-night gaming, screen time can drain athletes before they even step on the field. Mike Ulring shares how digital distractions can affect physical performance, focus, and mental health — and why building better tech habits can give athletes a competitive edge.

Topics covered:

• How pre-game screen use impacts focus and muscle readiness
  
  
• The pressure athletes feel to maintain a perfect online image
  
  
• Ways to balance training, rest, and healthy digital habits

This conversation is just one of many. Visit www.dublinschools.net/press-pause to explore tools, resources, and actions you can take today to help your family Press Pause. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a conversation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

In a world that never stops scrolling, sometimes the healthiest thing we can do is press pause. Welcome to Finding Balance in the Digital World, the Dublin City School District's Summer 2025 Parent Education Podcast Series. I'm Cassie Dietrich, Public Information Officer for Dublin City Schools and your host for this series. Each week, we'll have real conversations with experts and community voices about screen time, tech habits, and how we can help our kids and ourselves take back control in a constantly connected world. Let's press pause and start the conversation. I'm here today with Mike Ohlring, Director of Secondary Building Leadership for Dublin City Schools. Hi, Mike. Hi. How are you?

SPEAKER_00: 0:48

Great.

SPEAKER_01: 0:48

Great.

SPEAKER_00: 0:49

Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_01: 0:50

Can you tell us a little bit about your role here in Dublin and your background with working with student athletes?

SPEAKER_00: 0:55

Yeah, I started in 1993. I was teaching math and coaching baseball at Dublin High School back in 1993. And then that transitioned in 95 to Kauffman. So I taught and coached for six years, became a dean of students, assistant principal, and head principal for 12 years at Kauffman. But during the time, I coached about 13 years total at Kauffman High School. So I did a lot of baseball coaching there. I coached my kids. So I've got a lot of, I don't know any about soccer and basketball, but I coached a lot of it when they were young. So do have a lot of coaching experience working with kids. And so I've had a lot of background there, had a lot of background working with athletes, both as a principal and assistant principal outside of just coaching. And now in this role, part of my responsibility is overseeing sports for Dublin schools. So I still get to have my hands in it and work with our athletic directors really closely. So I feel like I've had a lot of great experience working with athletes in Dublin City Schools, and we're so fortunate here to have so many great athletes come through and watch them do great things in school, watch them do great things outside of school when they leave here. So I consider being a part of athletics just a great blessing to have that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

Awesome. And before we dive into our topic today, I do want to share that Mr. Mike Ulring is one of the authors of of the Athletic Playbook. Can you share a little bit with us about the Athletic Playbook before we get started?

SPEAKER_00: 2:35

Dr. Marshausen came in, created Culture Playbook for Dublin City Schools. And so everybody was clear on what the culture, what we wanted the culture to be. Everyone knows what you want your culture to be, but putting the words on paper, making it visible, tangible, was important. It doesn't mean that your culture, you have to live it, but there it is and you can see it. And we had that for a And, you know, like all schools, you have issues with both student athletes, coaches and parents, all three groups. There's always things going on and behaviors are important and that's what sets your culture. And so just thought it would be really important to write down the culture we want for our athletes and our sports programs. So we created a book that was directed at the student athletes that coaches and the parents and we want them all to be accountable for their behaviors and I don't mean that in a bad way I mean that in a good way we want to take accountability for doing good things as well being a great teammate being that inspirational coach going above and beyond being that parent that is supportive no matter what and having that on paper sharing that with our parents sharing that with our athletes sharing that with our coaches and has been really important and we continue to learn and grow and hopefully that will continue to move through our district and our sports programs and be a big part of our expectations.

SPEAKER_01: 4:13

Awesome. Cool. So let's just talk about what we're seeing and hearing when it comes specifically for this campaign to screen time and student athletes. How does phone use or gaming before practices and games show up in performance or preparation for our student athletes?

SPEAKER_00: 4:30

Game preparation is very important. And the older you get, the more important it gets, I think, because the stakes get a little bit higher. It's just the nature of sports. It's one thing when you're playing eight-year-old baseball, and that's another thing when you're a senior in high school and you're the starting quarterback of a football team. So there's a lot of physical preparation over the years, but getting your mind right, being in the right frame of mind, to perform can't be overstated. It is hugely important. And just my experience as an athlete and coaching, and I was an athlete with, there were no phones. I started coaching with no phones and technology, and I've seen that progress and evolve in the world of athletics. And there's some great things with it, but there's also huge distractions and not just with sports, but with everything. And it's so important to be ready to perform at your best. And when you're not focused on the task at hand, you're focused on something else. It could be a huge distraction. And I think it takes away from game prep. So let's work on that. But then there's also what it takes away from your full mental, physical well-being. Thank goodness I don't have a lot of social media, but like I see scrolling on TikTok. I have four children, so I see it can dig this hole. And the next thing you know, you're looking at things, you're thinking about things, and it takes away from sleep. I'm sure we could do a whole podcast on the importance of sleep for physical and mental wellness. So it could take away from so many parts of an athletic performance. And, you know, everything in moderation, right? But setting those limits is important.

SPEAKER_01: 6:28

And we talk about that, you know, part of campaign is finding balance in the digital world because we don't want parents to feel like we're saying, get rid of them, don't use them, don't ever touch them. It's monitoring and moderation. No,

SPEAKER_00: 6:40

the governor is saying get rid of them. We're not having them in school, but we live in the real world of that's just what we have now, whether it's a watch, whether it's a phone. I mean, they're connected and we've got to create the right environment for them to be healthy and be connected. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:02

So what's the actual impact, both physically and mentally, for student athletes in terms of, you know, what is research showing us about excessive screen use and how it relates to the muscles and then pressure to perform?

SPEAKER_00: 7:17

I would focus on the mental side of this. There is a lot of brain science, neuroscience that is out there, and it is compelling to listen to a neuroscientist. I was just at a conference the other day and she was talking about neuroscience, a professor from Butler. And it was amazing. And I've had a neuroscientist come into school and for professional development and speak to our staff, but how the brain functions and what technology does to your brain. And when it comes to the synapsis firing correctly, it's just a big, crazy wiring ball. in your head and if you start functioning based on what you see or likes or any of that your brain starts to wire differently and it needs that and it feels that that's where they call it addictive what it creates is dopamine and it makes you feel good that dopamine makes you feel good so I'm gonna do it I'm stressed that's my go-to so what happens is you get into that pattern I would consider it a healthy way to de-stress because of what it does to the synapsis and how it fires and wires in your brain. I would consider going out for a walk, listening to music or listen to a podcast, but not visually see stuff that is not meaningful. And when you're trying to de-stress, you're trying to calm it down, not fire everything.

SPEAKER_01: 8:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 8:57

So find ways to do that using your technology or going out and physically doing something you don't even have to have technology it could be a walk a run whatever you do physically because we all know too that physical activity is a huge has a huge impact on your mental wellness so

SPEAKER_01: 9:20

yeah definitely not scrolling that's not the

SPEAKER_00: 9:22

healthy way

SPEAKER_01: 9:23

and I think about our athletes who are highly competitive and when they like they're there's already an intensity about them during their sport. And then if there's other stress when they're not in their sport, I mean, because the reality is performing at that level does stress your body physically and mentally. I know they enjoy it, but there's a stress that comes with it. And so then when they are stressed out when they're not doing their sport, it's like a constant, your body's just in a constant state of

SPEAKER_00: 9:55

stress. Well, here's the athletic competitiveness. It's hard. You're going to Yeah. the healthy way to do it. The healthy way to do it is probably through some self-talk or listening to something where you're reminding yourself that's part of the game. I did the best I could. When I get another opportunity, I'm going to go out there and make it happen. You have to build that confidence. I remember as a kid in high school and college, we wrote messages to ourselves in the bill of our hat underneath. And that's how we got our minds right. We take our hat off and just look at it and say, OK, I got this and go outperform. It's hard. It's mentally hard. And you have to be able to deal with that failure. And I think as an escape with some of this, the technology, it takes away our ability to deal with that failure and be successful.

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

Yeah, that's a great point. Resilience, building resilience and actually feeling the feelings.

SPEAKER_00: 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 11:27

As opposed to just

SPEAKER_00: 11:28

shutting it

SPEAKER_01: 11:29

off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

It's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 11:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:30

I was angry when I didn't do well. Yeah. I was disappointed. There were tears sometimes. Like, it's okay. You put a lot of effort into it. You want to do great for everybody. And so when you have these failures, it's okay. Be emotional. Get that emotion out. And then move through it. Work through it. And it takes practice. It takes working on it. And what the social media can do is take you away from the healthy mindset cycle and just let you forget about it, and then you come back and do it again. And at some point, when you can't deal with that, things fall apart, your resilience, and then you may end up not wanting to do the sport anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 12:17

You

SPEAKER_00: 12:17

just don't like it. Well, you loved it. You loved that sport, but you don't like it now because you're not able to deal with the mental side of the failure and get yourself back. Right. Right. And because they never let it, you know, they mentally could move through that. You don't see professional athletes scrolling on their phones on the sidelines. They're focused and they've learned how to manage that.

SPEAKER_01: 13:16

Yeah. And the other challenge with failure specifically, and I think is our kids seeing only success on social media. So everybody wants to share their success. Everybody wants to share their success. They don't share any of those failures. And so there's it creates this false sense of I can't do what everyone else is doing, even though they might have the same batting average as that person. They just they're not looking at it from that standpoint. They're just seeing those pictures and those videos.

SPEAKER_00: 13:46

That was the whole Facebook thing, right? Here's your life on Facebook and here's your real life. They do not match because everything on Facebook. Wow. Look at all these people going on vacations. Wow. They went. Wow. Look at that. They look so happy. That must have been the greatest. Why don't we go on vacation? Like it's the same. It's the same cycle for athletes because of all their access and and everything's videoed and posted. And, you know, I'm not a big fan of that because it takes away from the actual game in my mind. It's about people seeing me. Well, you you have to love the

SPEAKER_01: 14:25

sport.

SPEAKER_00: 14:25

Yeah. And whether

SPEAKER_01: 14:27

you're not doing to be sensational. at the game

SPEAKER_00: 14:30

or thousands online. It shouldn't really be a huge thing.

SPEAKER_01: 14:35

You shouldn't be doing it to go viral.

SPEAKER_00: 14:37

You're doing it because you love the game. And it's about the game. And there's a lot of things taking away from it. But social media certainly is doing that.

SPEAKER_01: 14:46

And Mike, can you tell me why it's, you know, we talk about sports being so good for kids because it does build that resilience. Why is that important once they're not playing that sport? What other life, you know, what other areas of life do those skills have value in?

SPEAKER_00: 15:01

When I was principal at Kauffman, I brought freshman parents in every year. And one of my topics to the parents was failure. And I'm going to teach your kids how to fail. At first, it's like, what is this guy talking about? Well, at Stanford, they have a course because you talk about the kids that go to Stanford. They're all academic achievements are overwhelming and they're not used to failing. They're not used to anything but an A, and they saw a problem years ago that these kids came in. This is not easy when you come here, and we're going to challenge you, and not everybody's getting an A. I'll tell you that right now. Whether you deserve it or not, you're not getting it, and they saw kids struggling mentally. They created a course called The Art of Failure. They taught kids how to fail and how to be resilient. I want to teach these kids early what adversity is. And I don't mean an F. You're getting an F. Maybe you got a grade on a quiz or a test that you've never gotten before. It doesn't mean, I mean, you're still probably getting.

SPEAKER_01: 16:10

It wasn't an A plus.

SPEAKER_00: 16:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 16:12

It was an A minus. Yeah. And we see kids in Dublin freak out about that. They get emotional when it's an A minus and that's still really good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:23

You're a mother. I mean, I'm a father. There's adversity everywhere you go. Every day there's adversity and the ability to face it and say, okay, I got this. We're going to do this. It's working as a team member, being a part of a team, collaborating, being there for each other. And then knowing when things get hard, you can do it. You're going to get through it. And those are lessons you learn through sports all the time. And hopefully it's not learning the that when things get hard, I'm going to scroll.

SPEAKER_01: 17:01

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 17:02

Yeah. I'm going to actually focus on what the issue is and I'm going to work through it.

SPEAKER_01: 17:08

Yeah. So if you like, if our listeners are a parent or even a coach listening to this, how can they help their student athletes build better habits? Some of the structures they could put in place.

SPEAKER_00: 17:20

Well, if I, if I go to parents and everybody's different, but set limits, I mean, and I, I've heard this from, um, Neuroscientists and I've actually lived it where your phone did not go to your room at night. Here's where the phones are and have breaks, have disconnected time that everybody's disconnected. I know it's hard. I know kids are going everywhere. We got travel sports everywhere, all over the country and people are busy, but find that time as parents, find that time to connect and check in with your kids and don't be afraid to ask hard questions. Yeah. We're not here for what that phone is about. So I think it's really important to set those expectations with your student athletes so that they can and talk to them why. You got to give them the why, not just because you're saying it, because we need to focus. We need to focus on each other. We need to focus on getting better. We need to focus on the game or the practice, whatever it might be. And we're here for a reason. And that has nothing to do with it. So I think that's a huge step. Right. That coaches could talk about it and lay the expectation down that this is what I expect and this is what this team expects and this is what the team needs and this is how we're going to be as successful as we can be.

SPEAKER_01: 19:14

Anything else you'd like to share? Any takeaways for our parents as they tune in?

SPEAKER_00: 19:18

I can empathize. I sit here and talk like I know everything, but I've got four children and I didn't do everything perfectly with their technology and I can't and see where I would have done things differently. And it's okay if you listen to this and you're like, man, I need to change something. Change it. Go ahead. It's not too late. It's okay to have your child disagree and be mad about it. It's going to be hard. If you're shutting them off of something, there's going to be a pain to that. They're going to appreciate it later. Could be a week, could be a year. But it's okay. It's your house. It's your phone. It's your and you've probably all heard that before. But what I guess my message is, it's not too late to change and to say, I'm doing this for you. I want you to be healthy and we just need to moderate. If you had a friend who was drinking all of the time, you probably talk to him about moderating. Hey, wow, maybe you shouldn't do it every night. Maybe you shouldn't. When we do go, maybe we shouldn't you shouldn't have that much like it's just a moderation and I think you would do it in other areas with your kids and this one this one's a tough one so I would just say I know it's hard but it's not too late if you think you need to make some changes go ahead and do it just be honest give them the why and let them be mad for a little bit and they might physically mentally feel and see that ooh in this amount of time Yeah. Great.

SPEAKER_01: 21:28

So thanks for joining us today. Appreciate it. So this is what Press Pause is all about is taking a moment to reflect and make small changes that matter. We will have resources related to today's episode on our website, including some game day readiness tips and digital wellness tools for student athletes. Remember, a little pause goes a long way and we'll see you next time. Thanks, Mike.

SPEAKER_00: 21:48

Thank you.