Sports Stuff

As a large part of my becoming familiar with my students revolves around activities outside of class, I’ve noticed that certain types of kids are attracted to certain after school sports. This is largely conjecture on my part, but it seems that you can tell a lot from a student based off what sport they like to play. At Ariake Middle School, we have seven different club activities that I will briefly discuss: tennis, girl’s volleyball, boy’s volleyball, soccer, baseball, kendo, and music.

My all girl tennis team plays soft tennis, which is a bit different than the tennis you usually see on TV in a number of small ways. I’m not sure if the team is female exclusive by design or if, like a nearby high school, it just happened to become populated by enough girls to drive the boys to other sports. The girls who play tennis tend to be some of my strongest students. As tennis is the least demanding of the sports for girls, I think it attracts those students who want to belong to a sports club but don’t want it to be too demanding. Don’t get me wrong, the exercise routine these girls go through is still insane, but in terms of lap counts and amount of exercise required, it still falls short of volleyball. The overall impression I get from the club is that it’s populated with academically minded students. This is also the club where somewhat introverted or disinterested students tend to congregate.

Girl’s volleyball is where my genki (energetic) girls go. Their workouts are a bit more demanding and their practice slightly more complex than tennis. Highlighting their aptitude for exercise is not to say they aren’t smart, as my single highest graded student is a member, it’s just not the first thing I think of about the group as a whole. This club is also filled with some of the most polite and engaging students I have. Here is where I find my really good communicators, those students who may not know as much textbook English, but don’t shy away from trying to talk to me regardless. A lot of natural born leaders are in this group too. The downside is that this is the club where I’ve heard the most instances of bullying. I suppose the same factors that produce self-confidence can also lead to some butting of heads from time to time.

Boy’s volleyball follows a similar pattern as the girl’s, with a lot of polite and energetic kids. Sadly, this is the smallest of the clubs for boys and, in a reversal from the girl’s team, I think it’s actually the least demanding of the boy’s sports. Some of the first boys whose names I actually memorized were from this group, as they are among my better students.

Soccer is probably the hardest for me to really peg down. As far as my experiences with the team go, they tend to be good at communicating ideas and do a lot more showing than speaking when trying to convey something to me. At worst, they will shake their heads and tell me that English is impossible when I try and talk to them. The goalkeeper showed me how to do the warm up exercises and the only words he used were “come on” and it was still comprehensible. A few of my enthusiastic yet disruptive kids are also in this club. They’re excited about English class, but constantly interrupt or are noisy. I suppose overall I’d call this group middle-of-the-road in most aspects.

Baseball is where my showmen go. Many of the conversations I’ve had with these boys are about how good they are at baseball or any number of activities: whose the best batter, the best catcher, the best runner. One of the boys repeatedly tells me he is the MVP of any team he is a part of. They are really entertaining and they use English alright when it comes to things they are excited about, but they are some of my lowest students academically. All the same, being a bit brash means being outgoing and these kids tend not to shy away from English conversation, even if what they’re saying makes no sense whatsoever.

Kendo is the only club at my school that currently has boys and girls on the team. Similarly, I feel it attracts a variety of kids, but there are still a number of similarities between them. The first and most obvious is that kendo students are students for life. Without exception, every one of my current students has been practicing kendo since they were first graders in elementary school, or even earlier in some cases. Kendo also seems to be a family thing. If there is one member of the family that does kendo, chances are all their siblings do too. I also get a sense that, no matter what the student’s personal traits are, be they shy or outgoing, they have the most respect for authority. I think this is a result of kendo having clearly delineated levels of proficiency. Though everyone progresses as they play a sport and seniority plays a factor across the board, only kendo has ranks and those with higher ranks are naturally looked upon to lead. I feel these kids understand that the same principle can be applied to life experience and are always courteous to the teachers.

Music, unsurprisingly, are where the high achieving academics tend to be. Though I say this with all of three members on my schools team, they are without a doubt some of my best kids. Music also tends to attract the really introverted kids. In this case, I’m not talking about merely shy students, but those who do not talk at all and are occasionally prone to panic attacks in social situations. A good deal of the students who used to be in the music club are now club refusers and it wouldn’t surprise me if a number of the incoming first graders repeat this pattern next year.

Of course, there are a number of other factors that determine what club a student joins. I know a few who don’t have any interest in sports and only play because their friends are on the team. This is just meant to be my general observations of the clubs after a year of practicing and interacting with them. If you’re an ALT, teacher, or sports enthusiast and have noticed a similar, or completely different, trend in your clubs, I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on the subject.