NAPPING
Did you ever nap at work? Be honest. Conference period, private office, cozy nook or closet, turn off the lights and the phone, catch a quick 40 winks. Never? Hardly ever? What about when the pandemic has you WORKing from home? Different scenario, isn't it?
In a late-March article by Ray A. Smith in The Wall Street Journal (Disclaimer: Again, the WSJ is my go-to for mostly unbiased news and commentary) it was noted that "...[many] people returning to offices in the coming months face an end to one
of the secret perks of working from home: the daily nap. People who
say they rarely napped before the pandemic have picked up the habit over
the past year, worn out by dramatic work-life balance challenges that have extended the work day, Zoom fatigue, insomnia and the simple fact that remote work makes short snoozes possible."
One man "thought naps were indulgent until he began working from home. 'I became
brutally aware of what my body is saying. And not just when to rest, but
when I’m productive and when I’m not,' he said. In June, he began taking 45-minute naps after feeling sluggish
post-lunch."
"A 28-year-old, who interns in social media and data analysis ... says the naps recharge her when she feels tired by midday. 'Instead of powering through that, it’s best to just not give into
subpar work. Relax, then refresh and go back to it,' she said."
Interscholastic swim coaches put in some really long days, often arriving at school as early as 5:00AM and not leaving until 7:00-8:00PM or later. Meet days they may not get home until almost 11:00PM or later. When you're young you can deal with it, but as we keep tacking on the years we're less likely to be able to do so. A nap might help, as the 28-year-old stated above. It also is no surprise to find many coaches of various sports consuming coffee, tea, and caffeine-laced sodas throughout the day. My A.D. was rarely seen without a small Styrofoam cup of industrial-strength java in his hand, no matter the time of day.
When we were in preschool and kindergarten, a midday nap was customary, although probably needed more by the teacher than us tykes. Naps and siestas are similar, both being short periods of sleep, but siesta is a Spanish term that comes from the Latin phrase "hora sexta", or "the sixth hour" after awakening, which is about midday, and typically after lunch. The siesta is historically common throughout the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, China and, through Spanish influence, the Philippines and many Hispanic countries. The combination of warm temperatures in these geographical regions, and heavy intake of food at the midday meal contribute to the feeling of post-lunch drowsiness. Trying to get back to work under such conditions may result in the aforementioned subpar work. Naps are claimed to be the norm in non-China Asia and their productivity doesn't seem to suffer. Mr. Smith writes: "[While] dozens of studies have shown the benefits of taking naps, such as increased alertness, stigma [in the USA] about napping at the office endures."
Some takeaways:
o [While employers] are increasingly sensitive to employees’ need for downtime, they’re still unlikely to
sanction in-office naps.
o Ideally, naps should be less than 30 minutes and taken earlier in the day to avoid interfering with nighttime sleep.
o It is recommended to nap in a partially-reclined chair or anywhere else where you’re not lying completely flat.
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NEIGHBORS
The NISCA Annual General Meeting ("The Conference") was held recently, and this year it was a pre-planned virtual event, all meetings held on Zoom. One difference noted was that during these meetings, there were up to 25-30 people in a photo/video montage on a Zoom screen. You've all seen them, everyone's faces visible all the time. This seemed in stark contrast to the usual in-person experience, where the same friends sit at the same tables all around the meeting room, some you can see, some you can't, some are faces and some are back-of-the-head, some are behind you or out of your peripheral vision, so out of sight. This was quite different. And while quiet casual side conversations or comments are the norm during in-person meetings, you can't do that on Zoom.
I bring this up because the pandemic has altered our lifestyles in our neighborhoods, too. People venturing out to take strolls around "the hood" started meeting neighbors who, although they lived near each other, had never met or rarely said hello.
Anne Marie Chaker wrote recently in the WSJ, "As the pandemic re-centered people’s lives around
their homes, neighbors have grown closer to each other. In a recent
survey ... 32% of more than 3,000
respondents said they have gotten to know one or more of their neighbors
better since the pandemic began.
Many of those new relationships will endure. 'There is this quality of
a powerful shared experience, and many people have really helped one
another,' says Richard Weissbourd, director of the Making Caring Common
project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, which studies
families, communities and social relationships. As school and
schedules resume and people are leaving the house more, 'you still see your neighbors. You remember and feel reconnected.' "
I wonder if the new faces and voices we've encountered during our virtual Conference will become new and enduring friends? We can hope!
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OLDER FOLKS (you thought this was about napping, too?)
In a previous column on mentoring, the notion was shared that older, more experienced coaches could be valuable mentors to younger coaches. Very often a friendship will develop out of a mentoring relationship and, as if reading our mind, the WSJ's Clare Ansberry wrote an article (March 3, 2021) titled "The Power of Friendship Across Generations." The article was about close friendships between people who are 15 years or more apart in age, and the writer claimed that "[these] intergenerational friendships tend to be long-lasting and enriching."
When first getting started in my coaching career in the early 1970s, I looked forward to every issue of Swimming Technique magazine, because I was learning so much from it. One of the frequent contributors was a gentleman from Washington state named Dick Hannula. I thought he must be one of the best high school and club coaches around, certainly the one with the most useful and helpful ideas I encountered, so I got up my nerve and sent him a letter with about a hundred questions, not really sure he would take the time to answer this young kid in south Mississippi. But he DID. He answered every question with clear and concise thoughts and in reading it (over and over), I felt as comfortable as if he and I were sitting across a dining room table sharing coffee and yakking like old friends. (I still have the letter!)
Fast-forward almost 50 years. Dick Hannula is 92 years young and remains a friend to this day. I sent him an email recently, advising him how to watch the Women's and Men's NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships on ESPN3. He emailed back shortly:
Dana, Thanks for the tips. You woke me up on the championships. I
finally got in today and the first race I see is the 100 Y back. Kathy
Berkhoff goes 49.74 and is under 50 seconds. This was special for me.
In 1966 or '67 no woman had broken 60 seconds for the 100 yard back, and
my swimmer, Kaye Hall, was the first woman under 60 for the event. She
did it in a special exhibition event within one of our boys' swim
meets. There was no girls high school swimming at the time. I can't
remember the exact time now but it was in the 59's and a new American
Record. She did 58's later. She was on our Tacoma Swim Club. We had
been timing her at the end of practice and rang a cowbell at the point
of the American Record. When she was within a stroke of the finish, we
set up the exhibition swim for the record. Announced it and had a
capacity crowd for the meet and her swim and she delivered.
I hope some of you have, have had, or will BE a mentor to someone like Coach Hannula has been to me, and make a difference in your and their lives and enjoy the ripple effect you start.
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