Give us your tired, your broken of body, yearning to do something other than the sport their parents have been dragging them to since they were four...
Or words to that effect anyway.
I coach Olympic style sprint kayaking. I love doing it. I love working with some of the best young athletes around. But it's a pretty limited pool around Minnesota. For one thing, the water's a little hard to paddle on about 5 months of the year since it's frozen 3 feet thick. For another, a lot of people have this obsession with hockey in this state, and a firm conviction in parent's minds that if little Jane or Johnny doesn't make the traveling team by six, it's going to be so hard to keep up and be on that State Championship team when they are juniors, so that they can take their senior year to try for the National team and... and...
I'm starting to think I need to steal a page from the ambulance chasing lawyers and start hanging out at the ortho clinics. "Hey buddy, sorry to hear you blew out your ACL, MCL and patella. Why don't you come out and try paddling? With your power, I bet you can make the National team in 2 years" and "It's OK Mom, it's cheaper than a season's ice time" (not to mention a lot easier on the medical insurance co-pays).
All kidding aside, I am starting to talk to ortho friends and am working with one of the clinics to get a talk scheduled on 'competition alternatives' for their clients. A couple of target sports are football and hockey, gymnastics, and basketball. You might not think about basketballers, but anybody who can post up and drive the key has awesome physical attributes.
We've got 2 K-4s -- 35 feet long, 20" wide and tippy beyond belief until you get enough core strength to paddle them. My goal is to find enough athletes to paddle them well that we can take podiums at Nationals this year.
Give me your strong of heart, burning still with desire to compete. We just might have a seat for you.
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