Tag Archives: performance

Athletic performance

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Today I went to see Echo, a Cirque du Soleil performance. I thoroughly enjoy watching athletes perform challenging manoeuvres that I know I never could. One performance stuck out more than the rest. I think it was a father-son routine where dad juggled his son on his feet. It was impressive with respect to speed, agility, and just pure athleticism.

The other performances were good too, but all versions of things I’ve seen before and really didn’t ‘wow’ me quite like the human juggling routine. Still, a fabulous way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

This was a wonderful early birthday gift from my wife. ❤️

Special Events

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I was recently at a special event that was held in a venue it was never held in before. I had amazing seats that let me see not just the event up close but also the people who worked the event up close too. What I saw was an amazing community of people who all knew what their job was, and who did it with joy and camaraderie.

You don’t always see that in large organizations. You don’t always see that when a team needs to work in a totally new environment. It takes a special kind of organization that can make a large production work in a new environment, where stresses are different, and yet everyone still understands their role and can still create a really positive environment for themselves and their customers.

It’s hard to build a team where a positive culture permeates so well, and when you see it, you know you are seeing something special.

The past and the push

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When you hear great athletes talk about practice, they know what it means to push themselves. When they miss a shot, lose an easy opportunity, they don’t give up, they don’t negative self-talk, they double down and give more than they thought they could. When they are in a game and everything is on the line… there’s one more offensive rush, one more play to decide the game, they are 100% present with a singular focus.

I’m not a natural athlete, and like I said before, “…sometimes I could get in the zone. Sometimes the game slowed down for me and I could see more action around me. Sometimes I could see the play forming and feel the rhythm of the game. I didn’t have a switch I could turn on, I didn’t know what I could do to put myself in the zone. I didn’t have control of it.”

I wasn’t an athlete that could choose to get into that zone, it found me. And it might not have found me enough, but I have strong memories of those moments, I remember them and how powerful they were. But they are all in the past… and I find that hard. I want those moments again.

Perhaps I need to start archery again? Maybe I just need a regular workout buddy? I don’t know what will get me back to that, being someone who no longer does organized sports? What I do know is that I miss it. This isn’t about regret, it’s like nostalgia, yet different. It’s a yearning to feel the push, to feel the relentless drive, to be a reliable force in the pursuit of excellence.

It’s about feeling the push in the present.

Sunday VO2 Max

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I started doing Max VO2 training almost every Sunday a few months ago. I say ‘almost’ because my vacations this summer included a few misses, but as I head into the school year this will become the norm. However I’m struggling a bit with motivation right now because the Norwegian 4X4 Protocol I’ve been doing is really hard.

I always feel great having finished it, but dang it’s just not fun to start. 4-minutes at about 85-95% heart rate max, followed by 3-minutes recovery, four times. The total protocol is 28 minutes, but I can’t just get on a treadmill and go at 85-95% without getting winded and having to stop or slow down, so I add a 4-minute warmup which puts this workout at 32 minutes.

You might wonder, if it sucks so much why do it? Why do I bother? Because increasing Max VO2, (your maximum oxygen intake during exercise), is one of the absolute best things you can do to increase healthspan and lifespan.

See this Tweet by Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

Here is her podcast on The Longevity & Brain Benefits of Vigorous Exercise | Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

Writing this is my last bit of procrastination before getting on the treadmill… I’ve got to figure out a habit routine that makes getting this workout started easier!

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PS. I’m keenly aware that I’ve written about this a couple times already (here and here), but it’s what’s on my mind and it’s something I hope I can inspire others to do!

Imperfectly great

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Our open house last night was wonderful! Our students were amazing ambassadors for our school and really did an excellent job with their presentations.

I was discussing it with one of my teachers that did the bulk of the work supporting our students and we reflected on the presentation. My comments were that it was the the worst show we’ve done with respect to the technical side and the best show we’ve done with respect to the messaging.

The technical issues included long(ish) transitions/set up between parts of the show, a live feed failure (beyond our control), a microphone feedback pop right in the middle of a performance, as well as a few mic level issues. The thing is, these weren’t awful, they just weren’t up to our usual high standard.

When speaker Alvin Law came to our school a few years ago at the end of the show he said to me, “What kind of a school is this?” I was a bit confused by the question and he said, “I present all over the place, to big companies with massive budgets, and I’ve never had a sound crew so professional and have the sound work so well as with your kids today.”

I tell sound/tech crews that their job is to be invisible. When a microphone is too quiet, they get noticed, if a microphone pops with feedback or if there is a delay in setup, they get noticed. A good team isn’t noticed because everything works. Last night the tech issues were not awful, they just weren’t perfect. No one in the audience would point it out as disappointing, they would all recognize that this was a student run show and there were a few minor kinks.

That’s the thing about truly letting the students lead, it’s not always going to be perfect, but there is a positive vibe that is given off when students get to run the show, and ‘perfect’ is usually a less than realistic goal.

The overall presentation was really solid, in fact I think the messaging was very focused around student voice and you could hear that throughout the show. It’s funny because I can think back a few years to a show where everything went exactly as planned and the show was pretty much perfect. When I told my teacher that I thought this show was even better than the messaging of that ‘perfect’ show, he agreed and said, that show was too slick. It was polished but student voice didn’t come through.

We’ve gotten pretty good at letting students really lead. We’ve worked with perfectionists who stress about every assignment they hand in and taught them how some things need to be good enough, and helped them rethink the definition of done, while other things they do they should really make as perfect as can be.

While a big presentation to over 160 people should be as perfect as can be, when you are letting students run a show and the students who do so change every year, things won’t go perfectly every time. But the job is done. The presentation is over, and what we saw were some awesome kids, doing their best, and putting on a great show that really showed that they take pride and ownership in our school.

Last night was imperfectly great. The show was not as tight and seamless as we’ve had in the past, but it was authentically a student production. It had student voice, and I thought the messaging was the best we’ve ever shared as a school. Our students were awesome!

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Here’s a short video clip from the event.

Performances and life

We watched The Prom last night at Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS). It was an excellent performance, with clever comedy and fun songs. It was also a nice, cool night for outdoor theatre. My wife and I had a wonderful night out.

This morning I thought a little bit about the play’s theme: “The musical follows four Broadway actors lamenting their days of fame, as they travel to the conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana, to help a lesbian student banned from bringing her girlfriend to high school prom.”

While the town is fictional, I can’t help but be disappointed that this story doesn’t play in my mind as an era piece. It doesn’t come off as a 1960’s hick, small town story from yesteryear. Instead, it feels incredibly relevant to some of the stories coming out of small towns, and whole states, south of our Canadian border.

That equality and equity are still basic rights being fought for today is sad to the point of tragic. That there is relevance to the play’s message, and it’s not a piece about a long gone era is upsetting. However this was based on a similar story in a small town in Mississippi in 2010.

2010!

Good theatre tells stories that are relevant, I just wish this performance was less relevant today, and more of a historical telling.

Live music

Last night I went to listen to Michaela Slinger sing live. Putting aside that I’m too old to go out on a school night, it was a fabulous show! Some musicians sound great on their album but not as well on stage, and some like Michaela can do both exceptionally well.

My favourite song is Petty Things, which is actually a sad song about a couple drifting slowly out of love, rather than the relationship ending “with a crash and a bang”. Listening to it live, it’s just Michaela and her guitar and some wonderful audience participation. I think this song would work well in a venue with 20 people or a venue with over 20,000. It’s a song made to be listened to live.

I’m someone who has very eclectic taste in music. My first concert was the heavy rock band Deep Purple in a large auditorium. My next concert was the bluesy Buddy Guy in a tiny downtown Toronto venue. This coming September I’m going to hear the electronic new-age band Tangerine Dream, who originally started in the late 60’s. The only thing these performers have in common is that they play music. And although I am not an avid concert goer, I have to say that I really love listening to good live music… I just think I’ll have to stick to weekends, and leave the midweek nights out to folks a little younger than me.

No small parts

In the last 3 nights I’ve seen my daughter in the musical Carrie, a Broadway Across Canada presentation of Pretty Woman the Musical, and my daughter again in her final performance of Carrie.

I was reminded of the Konstantin Stanislavski quote: “There are no small parts, only small actors”. A stage performance requires every actor to play their part big or small. When they all do, the performance shines.

How many people are there where we play a small role in their lives? Are we playing small but important roles? Or are we just small actors? I think we have the choice to do either… and while it may not seem like a big role to us, it can be for the others we have a role with.

No small parts.

The ugliness of war

Last night we went to the play Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents. It’s two juxtaposed stories of Canadians during World War II. The main characters are a Japanese woman from BC, and her family who are sent to an internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbour, and a young Canadian from Quebec who joins the war, is sent to Hong Kong, and spends years in a a Japanese prisoner of war camp, first in China, then in Japan.

The story culminates into a dinner between her son and his daughter dating, and the PTSD suffering former prisoner of war being invited to dinner to meet her daughter’s boyfriend’s family in Medicine Hat, Alberta. This Japanese family lived here after they lost everything in BC, and had no reason to return when they were finally permitted to many years after the war.

It’s a story of family, love, and friendship through hard times. It’s also a story of patriotism, racism, and death. Yet humanity prevails. Ultimately it is a story of the ravages of war, the impact it has on those who fight, and also the civilians who suffer. It tells both of these sides of the story beautifully and leaves you feeling compassion for all the victims war… those who die and those who survive.

I am left reflecting on the fact that despite this being a Canadian story about World War II, it could also be a story about Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, or the Ukraine today. A story of war does not just come from history, there are similar stories happening today. Continuing and enduring stories of patriotism, racism, and death. They leave behind survivors that have suffered the ugliness of war. An ugliness that takes many lives and leaves both emotional and physical scars on those left behind. Survivors search for humanity in an inhumane world. We are fortunate if we do not face such hardships and we should be compassionate to those that do.

It was a beautifully sad play.

A message to high school teachers

If you are in a semestered high school, you are about to finish semester 1 and start semester 2. That means it’s time to give students final marks in half of their courses. How do you work out their marks? Is it a matter of just looking at your mark book and averaging or tallying up marks from September to now?

Consider this little analogy I’ve shared before… and ask yourself if there’s a kid or two who might deserve a better mark considering how they are doing now compared to 4 months ago:

__________

The Parachute Packing Analogy

I love the simplicity of this example! There are 3 students who are in a parachute packing class:

Students take 3 tests during the course.

Student A starts off strong and gets an A on the first test, gets a B on the second test, is over-confident, flounders and gets a C on their final test.

Student B is a solid B student and gets B’s on all 3 tests.

Student C struggles on the first test and gets a C, starts understanding the concepts and gets a B on the second test, then totally understands all the concepts and finishes with an A on the final test.

All 3 students have a ‘B’ average in the course.

Which student do you want to pack your parachute?

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You don’t ‘need’ to mark the way you used to. You don’t ‘need’ to mark the kid getting 46% just by the numbers, especially if their mark was 36% at the start of the year and they are much more successful now. You can bump the one kid up 2% for the ‘A’ because they did poorly on one test the whole semester… And totally justify not giving another kid that 2% because they are short of getting an ‘A’ from consistently getting the harder questions wrong, and have not demonstrated that they are a ‘A’ student.

Equal ≠ Fair

Equal is not equal to fair. You can be fair without treating everyone equal… with assessments, with support, and even with how much homework you give them.

Assessment isn’t just about averaging and tallying marks, and fairness isn’t determined by equal treatment.