Ask Carol About
Running Laps as Punishment

Dear Editor Carol,

How nice that you are a first grade teacher and are doing a running program at school! I wish Brett's school would offer this. His first grade teacher is a good teacher, but makes the kids run laps at recess only if they misbehave. I don't agree with this and think it sends the message that exercise is punishment. I was amused, however, that she quickly discovered it's no punishment for Brett, as he loves it!

Good luck with your running program, and please let me know what you think of running laps as punishment.

Sincerely,
Brett's Mom

Dear Mom,

This is a tough question to answer for there are many variables involved. As you said, your son loves to run, so running laps is really not a punishment for him.

I have given much thought to this topic and have personally witnessed this practice on two occasions. The first was in the family. My son, when on the basketball team, felt humiliated by running laps. It was not that he didn't love to run. He was a great athlete. In this instance, running laps, was used as a consequence, for trying to express his opinion on the effectiveness of a basketball play. Right or wrong, he was bitter about his coach's authoritative reaction to him.

I have also seen it used with young kids on a track team. The coach used it on a young child for a very minor infraction of his rules. The child was told to run laps and he seemed to enjoy running the laps. This coach was a bit strict, in my opinion, but the kids were attentive and seemed to show him a great deal of respect, so I decided to keep my opinion to myself.

I have posted this question, of running laps as punishment, on the Runner's World and Kick running forums. I have received a wide range of responses from runners. Let's see if I can roughly summarize some of the responses and then draw some conclusions.

1. SEASONED ATHLETES
It seems that guys who were on high school basketball and football teams weren't too offended by this practice. They saw it as a way for the coach to get them out of his way for a short time or to stop team/class disruptions. They also felt it allowed the players to escape the coach's clutches. Many of them were pleased by getting to run laps, because they loved running anyway; particularly guys who were also on the X-C teams.

2. KIDS IN GYM CLASS
Some felt humiliated. One told about having to run through the boys' gym. Some felt that it could have made them hate running for life. One woman mentioned that it took all the fun out of finding out what her body could do.

This makes sense. If you have a lot of confidence in your running and body, why not show off as you run through the boys' gym, but if you don't have too much confidence in your body or athletic ability, it could make you want to avoid gym class forever, especially as a teenager who is seeking peer acceptance.

3. PARENTS and TEACHERS
Some voiced the opinion that this practice was sending the wrong message to kids about running; the message that, "Running is a bad thing."

There was quite a bit of discussion about what punishment is and if it is effective in changing long term behavior.

Whew! This is a lot to take in, comprehend, and analyze. This whole topic is a confounding one particularly because of the impetus in our country at this point to implement 'lap' programs in the schools where kids count laps at recess and are rewarded for running them.

Many teachers who have running programs, do the opposite of using running laps for punishment...if a child is misbehaving, they bench the child and don't allow them to run the laps.


Kids earn toe tokens for lap running in a first grade lap program. They tie them on their shoelaces.

MY CONCLUSIONS
Please react to these. Point out my errors in judgement or let me know if you agree.

1. First, running needs to presented to kids in a positive light. Young kids should be involved in running programs, with rewards, be it intrinsic or extrinsic. The benefits of running should be taught, experienced, and learned. We want our kids to love to run.

2. Discipline needs to be maintained on teams, in classrooms, and in running programs. A good coach/teacher needs to know their kids and be able to quickly implement whatever it takes to stop the disturbing behavior of that particular child (at least for the short term). It may be pulling the kid from running, having the kid run to let off steam, or the use of consequences totally unrelated to athletics and it need not be the same consequence for every child. Like our findings show, individuals react differently.

Most agree that it should not involve yelling, but I know from experience that sometimes teachers and coaches need to yell to get the attention of a large group or of a child who is out of control.

It was unanimous that running laps, as punishment, should never be done in excess, that is even if running laps is the consequence of choice by a coach, a couple laps would do the trick, but a kid should never have to run a distance such as 5 miles, that is as a consequence to behavior.

3. Kids on teams in high school are probably more resilient to this type of consequence for infraction to rules, but not always. A good coach/teacher will find a way to inspire kids, make them want to succeed, and make the most out of their training. A good coach/teacher will also find the time to communicate through conversation with a kid to get his/her point across and to find out where the kid is coming from.

Run for a lifetime,
Carol Goodrow
KidsRunning.Com

Thanks again and again to all the runners who took their valuable time to pull from their past experiences and share their thoughts on this topic. Please send us a note and let us know your take on this topic. Do you have any questions about a child's running program? Feel free to email the kid's editor at carolgoodrow@verizon.net.