Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
“Oh girls they want to have fun
Oh girls just want to have
That’s all they really want
Some fun
When the working day is done
Girls – they want to have fun
Oh girls just want to have fun,
They want to have fun,
They want to have fun”
Cyndi Lauper’s tune is a catchy one for sure. You start singing it and any hope of accomplishing anything that day just flies out the window because you just can’t get it out of your head.
Well I’ve got it in my head now because I think it’s the perfect way to describe the Aggressive Baserunning Clinic’s I get to do. As you can see in the pictures the clinic’s I conduct like this one for the 12U Atlanta Flames are no picnic. We “work” on attacking the bases and not just waiting around for other players to knock them in or for coaches to tell them to go. We “work” on each and every player sliding flat on the ground and distributing their weight evenly. When I say that we work on Diving I mean that we “work” on each and every player actually diving in the air just like Super Woman.
You might think that getting girls to do something like this would take a miracle. But guess what? You would be wrong. Dead wrong.
These are softball players. Hardened athletes who are willing to do whatever it takes to win ball games.
Once I help them get over their initial fears of the unknown and make it “fun” just look at the results. For a little fun in the dirt they are willing to work harder and push their bodies beyond anything you may have imagined. Once they catch on that GETTING DIRTY is “fun” there is nothing they won’t do.
As you study their faces you’ll see that each is unique for sure but each is also intensely focused. Not the kind of expressions you expect to see when having “fun” I suppose. 
Your image of “fun” likely involves girls being silly. Cutting up. Laughing. If you were with me you might even say out loud that these players don’t really look like they are having “fun.”
I have perhaps a different perspective of “fun” than most folks which is likely derived from my premise that athletes enjoy pushing themselves to accomplish new things.
That while they are in every sense working hard externally, internally they are actually having “fun” because they know they will go to bed that night a better player. A tougher player. A player who has skills that will never be taken from them. Skills that they will use in the coming weeks, months and years to differentiate themselves from their competition.
Some shutter at the thought of hard work. They cringe at the concept of discipline. Pride? Passion? Excellence? Merely cute quotes to “share” on Facebook or Instagram.
Three things that I can tell you with absolute assuredness:
1. The young ladies on the 12U Atlanta Flames were indeed having a ton of “fun” while working hard because for them Pride – Passion – Excellence is what they are striving for as athletes and as young women.
2. There is no greater “fun” in this world than looking young ladies right in the eye and seeing that they truly get it.
3. I wouldn’t trade the moments like in this picture for all of the money in the world.
