Keeping Our Playgrounds Alive | Run Your Life #94

The guest you will hear today, Dr. Scott Kretchmar, has been on my show before and I’m so very happy he took me up on my invitation to come back on the podcast. The first time I had him on the show was about 18 months ago and in that episode, we really dug deeply into the work that he has done in the field of physical education. In particular the importance of helping every young person find joy and delight in their physical education experience. Scott’s work is all about inspiring young people to find joy through movement and when we do this it can change their lives forever. In our first podcast, Scott also emphasized that every person has their own story or narrative when it comes to physical activity. He asks us all to think about what those stories are and how those narratives have change over time. I recorded part two with Scott about a month ago and In part 2, we dive right a discussion about the importance of keeping our playgrounds alive as long as possible in our lives and he uses his own life as an example of this. Scott discusses, in detail, how his own narrative in regards to physical activity has changed. In particular how it has changed over the last 18 months since our last podcast. Although he still strives to be as active as possible, you’ll hear how Scott has had to modify his approach to being active over the last several months. Scott also talks about how an active lifestyle generates hopes and he shares some of the hopes that he has in his ongoing narrative of being someone who has embraced physical activity in his life. It was great to hear Scott reflect on some of his earlier days of teaching. In this episode, he describes some of things he tried out in his own teaching and how he learned the importance of translating mechanical instructions into feel instructions as a teacher and how this allowed him to move away from being strictly focused on the technique side of learning skills to allowing students to feel what it was like to execute certain techniques in different tasks and activities he had designed for them in PE. It was so good to have Scott back on my show and to reconnect with him. I love my conversations with him and it’s my hope that you will find a lot of value in this discussion. Scott is in my thoughts at the moment as he went in for hip replacement surgery last week. Scott, if you are listening to this I wish you the speediest of recoveries and hope that you are back on your bicycle soon and back out there golfing as soon as spring arrives. If you find value in this episode, drop Scott a line by email and let him know. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it. His email can be found below in the show notes. Dr. Kretchmar’s Bio Professor R. Scott Kretchmar is one of the leading sports philosophers in the country.  He has taught philosophy of sport for over three decades and played a key role in making it a legitimate field of scholarship and study.  He is one of the founding members of the Philosophic Society for the Study of Sport and served as its president.  He has also served as the president of the Philosophic Academy of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.  He is a retired professor at Pennsylvania State University in the Exercise and Sports Science department, where he has served as department chair. He was elected as the president of the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education and is leading the way to making the subject of sports philosophy an important facet of the study of Kinesiology. Scott has received numerous awards over the course of his career and the impact that he has on the field of physical and health has been felt around the world. Connect with Scott Scott asked me to share his email address and invited people to reach out to him at: [email protected] Themes Discussed: Personal Narratives, Physical Activity, Pedagogy, Hope, Passion, and Purpose