If I examine how things in youth sports have changed not just from when I was a young athlete going through the steps of participating at the recreational, competitive of school based team levels but even from when I started coaching until today, it is very obvious that the coach-athlete dynamic has changed and the most importantly the expectations and needs of athletes especially those in youth sport have changed dramatically.
Now, one thing that I can't say with certainty that has changed or gotten or worse or that it is just that I am more aware about the phenomenon. is that the number of overzealous, pushy, high-pressure parents has increased exponentially. Or at least if it hasn't increased, the way these parents manifest themselves has. Attend any kind of tryout, showcase or even a simply league game and you have plenty of parents handing our athlete profiles with interactive media links, parents filming their kids every action so as to compile a library of athletic exploits. Young athletes now seem to play some form of organized sport year round. It would seem that one main consequence of this (and not surprisingly), burnout rates in teen athletes has gone sky-high in the last decade or so. However, on a more anecdotal level, and from both personal experience and via discussions with highly qualified coaching peers n I say that the "typical" kid who participates in sport just isn’t as athletic as he or she used to be. In today's society of instant gratification and multiple options for entertainment give my the perception in any case that the interest in participating in organized sport is just not as interesting an option that it might have been for my generation, and in addition, the athletes are a bit desensitized to the overall training process. They would seem to view everything as just another game/practice, so the value of each training exposure is a bit less. This was something that just didn’t happen when I was a younger individual participating in sport or even at the start of my coaching career and free play was so heavily emphasized. We would spend countless hours on the field, diamond or even on the street playing a multitude of sports. As a a young coach, I often witnessed athletes arriving excited to start training, now, I see many arriving with their noses buried inches from their phones, checking texts, emails and social media until the last possible minute before having to get started. So we see an influx of two issues, the parents pushing their kids into as highly competitive situations as possible, registering them into all kinds of development camps, travel and showcase teams, off season training academies and pushing them towards peak athletic performance even at the younger ages, couples with other forms of instant entertainment. The easiest way to evaluate coaching competence is wins and losses. This is nothing new, it has always existed and when we are talking about professional sport, with the amounts of money involved, it makes perfect sense, but is it really the main priority for youth sports ? When I was a coaching course instructor, young coaches, even at the youngest of ages groups would talk about their team's win-loss record, and must of the discussion seemed to center or results performance and how somehow their coaching ability was the main reason for success. This is nothing new, but today, with the demand for instant success, and the apparent unwillingness to put in the time and effort it would seem the demands and expectations are worse. However, for me, and this is my coaching philosophy and I don't expect everyone to consider me better or most self aware than anyone else, I think as coaches at the majority of non-professional levels we can be involved in, we have a responsibility that far exceeds win, losses and championships. As the course instructor at the very first course I ever took, started off with, " Always remember that without athletes, there is no need for coaches" This is something that I have always kept in mind throughout my coaching career. For me, coaching is about putting athlete's first, about creating an environment for them to enjoy and thrive. Now, when I talk about putting athletes first, that does not mean lowering expectations to make things easy for them, only telling them what they want to hear, or somehow allowing them to dictate every decision you make as a coach. Putting the athletes first is planning out how you coach by taking into consideration the needs of the age and competitive level of your athletes, their needs and expectations and then acting accordingly, all the while making sure to focus on creating responsible individuals that can take skills onward in their lives in a positive environment. Sounds easy huh? So how one who might think similarly to me go about accomplishing this? Well here are some thoughts...... ( from this point on, I will be using she pronoun for simplicity, only because, coaching girls and women has been my experience. Sports are games, and games be definition are supposed to be fun. If a kid works his butt off, but the outcome isn’t what she’d hoped for, you should talk about the value in the process rather than dwelling on the target destination she didn’t reach. Crack jokes to lighten the mood, and then try to find a learning experience in losing, as opposed to pointing out all the errors they made and the reasons they lost. In my experience, parents and coaches who overreact and take the fun out of the game are the single most common reason kids give up a sport. Under-reacting can be equally problematic. The process is definitely more important than the destination, but if a kid doesn’t take the process seriously, she should hear about it. If she is disrespectful to an official or coach whether their coach or an opponent, doesn't apply herself in training, shows up late to practice, or poorly handles something that is 100% within her control, she should be disciplined for it. Blindly accepting behavior or actions that are contrary to the process so as not to be seen and " the bad guy" is not doing any justice to the athletes either. I've posted a few times about the issue of sports specialization at a young age. My personal opinion and one shared by many is that early sports specialization doesn’t work as well as people think. Kids are more likely to get injured, and they miss out on a well-rounded sports experience that fosters better athleticism and social interactions over the long haul. It's important for young athletes to be exposed to various forms of sport. It allows them to choose which one might be a better fit for them, athletically and socially. Remember, one very important role of coaching is to out athletes in situations where they can succeed. At the younger ages, this includes finding the sport that best suits them. Even when the sport in question remains constant, play is different than practice, as it is far less regimented, and there is far more quality movement because there are fewer stoppages for teaching. It also presents a far more interesting environment and greater opportunity for social development. Kids need to play more – and in a variety of disciplines. Adolescent athletes need practice. Kids don’t need more competition, though; our modern athletic society already plenty of that. If training is too regimented, you can create athletes who don't develop good decision making skills and it will also affect their ability to adapt quickly to changing situations. So I mentioned earlier that sports are fun and therefore they need to be fun. This is very true, but it also important to accept that win and losing is part of sport. I think we have a generation of kids who have been desensitized to losing. I have seen swings between those who are so focused on winning that they lose sight of the process and coaching the right habits, and those who want so much not to be seen as results driven that they create an environment where it is ok to fail. Losing is part of life, but that doesn’t mean that we should be satisfied with it. It should motivate us to work harder so that it doesn’t happen again. This doesn’t just apply to sports, either; it applies to life. Years on, after participation in sport is done, people won't remember the majority of their wins or losses but they will remember the skills that sports provided them to deal with life. Society has history of "overcorrections" when expectations and perceptions change. What is right one day, might be wrong the next and then actions are taken to swing the pendulum goes too far in one direction after a long period at the other end of the spectrum. When we feel that too much focus in given on winning that it might create a segment of youth that feels as some fort of athletic elite and another that is excluded, we compensate by wanting to much to create an environment where everyone is treated exactly the same. Anyone around youth sport has experienced the handing out of participation trophies which reward nothing else than simply showing up. Participation trophies are the counterbalance of the overbearing parent or crazy little league coach. Rather than bring the pendulum back to center by educating kids that the true reward is the satisfaction that comes from knowing they did the best they could do, we've given every kid a trophy to make her feel special - even though all the kids get the same trophy. Yes, the kid who shows up late to practice and swears at the coach gets the same trophy as everyone else. A trophy is something a kid should look back on years later as a reminder of fond memories of hard work, teamwork, and a job well done. It shouldn't be something that gets thrown in a box with a few dozen other participation trophies that have absolutely no sentimental or educational value. My biggest concern with participation trophies, however, is that they a) diminish the value of exceptional performance/service and b) condition kids to think that things will always work out okay in the end. Sorry, but the sooner we make kids realize they don't deserve a party every time they accomplish anything, the better off we'll be. One of the issues with sports in today's reality is that sports participation is seen as just one among many activities. Too many young athletes feel they can show up at training or games and simply turn on a switch and perform and the level required. For those who really want to take sports seriously, there is a mindset that needs to go with it. This means making sure that athletes, especially the younger ones understand the importance of proper rest, eating and recovery for injury. Taking care of the mind the and body are important factors for athletic performance. As coach, lead by example, give the athletes the chance to success and teach them to be responsible for their own success. It is a fine line between taking the time to fully explain every decision, why, what, and what the benefits to each and every athlete, vs simply barking out instructions and assuming they understand the why or figure it out for themselves. It's about finding the right balance. having the athletes understand that sometimes things are going to be asked of them "just because" and while they might not always understand the big picture behind the decision, they have to learn to trust their coaches that it is being done for the best interest of the group. It is also important that as a group that sometimes, as they say, sometimes the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one ( this was actually a line from a Star Trek movie). It will happen when you as a coach, make a decision that is best for the group but will disappoint one or a few of the team members. That said, I think it is very important to create an environment where you as a coach create opportunities and challenges for them to demonstrate responsibility. Whether there are specific team related tasks, like being responsible for making sure all the training equipment is out for practice, running warm ups, or organizing team building activities as examples. Fostering accountability for the success of the group is a powerful thing. I have a scenario I always use when giving presentations about coaching. I start by explaining that in pretty much every team or workplace group, there are generally 3 groups, around 20% high performers, 20% low performers ( or disinterested people) and the balance which fall somewhere in the middle. I then ask those attending to tell to which group the coaching should be tailored and why. Obviously the choices of to which group the coaching should be focused is limited to three but the reasons as to why can be varied. Once I have taken a few examples, I point out that the reality is that a good coach finds a why to tailor the coaching in order to reach all 3 groups. This is about being equitable in coaching. It doesn't mean treating everyone the same way but rather giving everyone the same opportunity. I won't delve too much into the details of what I mean by this for the purposes of today's blog post but if you are interested, you can get more details on the specific topic via this link to a previous post specifically sharing about equal vs equitable equity-vs-equality-in-coaching.html The point is to say that athletes only need to relate to one or a few coaches on the staff. And the reality is that as long as they can at least relate to one of the coaches, that is ok. However as a coach, for team sports, you need to be able to relate to all your athletes. You can't pick and choose to whom you give your coaching efforts. You have to deal with all the members of the team and give them all a chance to succeed. Yes, despite your best efforts, some won't succeed, some will quit the team or the sport and some will dislike you. This is going to happen, but if it happens, make it because the athlete made the choice, not because you didn't give her your best efforts. It's taken a bunch of words to spit out all my random thoughts on this front, but I wanted to finish with one last thought that isn't so random: I think there is a lot that is right about youth sports these days. More girls are playing sports than ever before. There are loads of wildly passionate coaches out there who are trying to do the right thing. Information on training and coaching is more readily available than ever before. Sports medicine has improved dramatically to help kids with injuries more quickly and effectively. We have to remember that at the end of the day, less than 1% of the kids who participate in youth sports will become professional athletes. However, sports are still an outstanding medium through which to instill a variety of favorable qualities beyond just athleticism. To that end, I hope that some of the suggestions here will help to make kids not only better athletes, but better people, too. I think this really happens when coaches are able to truly put their athletes first and understand that while coaching can sometimes feel like a thankless job, being exposed to criticism/ second guessing from athletes, parents and the casual observer and for the most part with little or no compensation, their is a reward in seeing your athletes become great individuals. It might be years later when a former athlete will thank you for all you did for them, or tell you that something you said or did for them when they were young helped them succeed as an athlete, but let me tell you from experience, there is no better feeling than this when it happens
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
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