No way, Dad...for real?

"I played for coaches that weren't satisfied with the conditioning workout until somebody threw up!" I said to my son when we were walking away from the field. It was 655am and we were walking away from the field after one of his less spirited workouts. He had complained about being tired and a little out of breath. Ordinarily, I would've said something to the effect that he was 9 years old and that 9 year-olds aren't supposed to get tired and should be able to run all day and that when I was 9...well, you get the picture. But today, I went for this tactic. I think the sensationalism worked on him.

"For real?!" he said with eyes as wide as saucers. "Why???"

"Oh yeah! That's right!" I said very matter of factly, giving it that higher pitched inflection for emphasis. "He was crazy. Most coaches are...especially the high school and college ones." I tried to keep my smile concealed as we walked up the hill. I caught myself though, thinking that if I overdo it, he might react in just the opposite way than I had intended and never want to play at all. "That's why we're working out right now...so you'll be ready when you get to high school. It'll be easy for you." I'm not sure if you if he was buying it, but he seemed to be mulling it over in his head for a minute.

"One time our coach came into the gym and said 'put those balls away...we won't be needing those today' and we then proceeded to run 35 suicides...," I explained to my daughter as we walked out the gym after her basketball practice. Her eyes widened too, but she didn't say anything. This is yet another mannerism that she gets from me.

"We blew a 9 point lead late in the game and he wanted to make sure we were focused and we remembered a thing or two about keeping our intensity until the final horn sounds." All she could say was "Wow!"

"When we were done with that, he took the balls back out of the equipment closet and we ran the fast break drill for an hour straight!"

My motives were a little different in this conversation, as we had just been discussing conditioning at her practice and how her coach chooses to take care of that facet of the game. Unfazed, she had the appearance of someone that would gladly walk back in the gym and play for another 2 hours.

I stopped short of making up any stories about walking 6 miles to school, uphill both ways.