We are half way through the second week after the end of our season and by this time, the student-athletes that I coach are probably settling into a routine that doesn't include being together and on the soccer field for 5 days a week. It's the first real period of downtime since mid-August so hopefully they are working hard on their studies and healing up all the accumulated aches and pains from the season. They will be back in the weight room as of next week, preparing for the winter season and come early January, back to training on the soccer pitch albeit at a less hectic and demanding pace. University Student-Athletes. They have a perfect life. They receive tons of gear, get special attention from professors, have tons of friends and have unique privileges that no other students have. This is the image that a majority of people have about university student athletes. I was never a university student-athlete, but being in my 16th year coaching at Concordia, www.stingers.ca gives me a realistic insight into what my athletes and those on other team might go through in a typical academic year. While situations might change from team to team or university to university, there is a certain constant that I am sure any individual who participates in university sport goes through. Here is what it is really like to be a student-athlete in university… To a degree, university-athletes are always in season. Yes, everyone thinks there are only a certain number of games and your season lasts for a few months. Some sports only play in the fall and some are stretched over the entire school year. Generally the longer seasons have games spread out over a longer period of time and have less back to back games, but the fact is that for the rest of the year athletes have to ( or maybe in some cases, should be training because let's be realistic, slackers exist everywhere) train to be in the best shape possible for “the season”. They have to eat healthy, workout every day and keep practicing in order to maintain skills, endurance and strength. Days are long are stressful, however, classmates doesn’t think realize because they only see a student-athlete carrying out the study portion of their reality.. But what classmates don’t understand is that maybe the student-athlete had an early morning lifting session or practice, or got home late from a road game. That maybe the student-athlete has to rush out from class to practice, or any of the other responsibilities associated with the athlete side of their existence. They can’t skip class even though they are exhausted from waking up before sunrise every day that week, because if you skip, it might go against team rules and exclude them from practice. So they attend class, and maybe after try to squeeze in lunch or maybe a 20 minute nap before heading back to the gym or field for practice. They will go through a 2 or 3 hour training session, cool down, maybe an ice batch, hang out with teammates for a bit, and then the day is done, but wait, they are now physically and mentally exhausted, but still have to get home shower, eat, and study or do homework before you finally getting to bed, only to wake up in a few short hours to do it all over again. That's on the assumption, they can sleep and don't lay in bed looking ahead to the next game, wondering if they will dress, start or play. Their every move is watched. There is no room to mess up/ There is the stereotype that student-athletes are exempt from having real responsibilities. What many don’t know is that there are responsibilities that are unique to student-athletes that adds to the pressure. Many they are from out of town or province, away from friends and family which for many is their connection to normalcy. They might be on scholarship, but lose their spot on the team, they lose the financial support and for some, that might mean not being able to pay for school. Male money to help with expenses by working? When would that be, before a full day of classes, lifting and practice. They are student-athletes, so coaches will ( should) emphasize that school comes first, and they have to do well in classes but can't use the excuse of being up until 3 a.m studying for a test as a reason to slack off in practice. It's a never-ending cycle of finding a balance between being a student and being an athlete. They rarely ever get a break. Coach canceled practice today, doesn't mean its a day off. They have to go to the athletic training room for rehab on that constant ache and pain, have to take the recruit around and convince them to play at the university. They might have to meet the coach, watch film for the game that upcoming week. Free time is filled doing something associated with their sport, so when practice is cancelled, is it really cancelled? They don’t have many friends, as they schedule forces them miss a majority of the social events especially during the competitive season. Often too tired in and after class to mingle, most free is time is consistently spent with teammates. Let's be honest, put a group of people together for extended periods of time, in competitive situations, mix in fatigue, stress, and desire to perform, there are going to be conflicts, disagreements and some drama, even if nothing major. So these close friends, well sometime you need a break from them also. They might have many people on the outside consider great privileges. However to earn these, they have to go to every class, do well in school in order to stay on the team, can't miss practice or any team event. To be successful, they have to eat healthy, work out on top of practicing and be able find time for sleep sometimes on demand. They have to take care of their bodies to prevent injuries, miss social events for practice and games and carry the responsibility of being a very public face on their university ( and not just athletically ) every time they head out anywhere wearing the school's official colors. That's the reality of the student-athlete but I a am sure most do it gladly because they love the sport and because they get to create shared experiences with individuals that will become their closest friends for life. Yes, there is recognition and sometimes a little glory, yes there are certain benefits that come with being a student-athlete, but they are earned through hard work and commitment.
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When I speak to my athletes at the start of the season, I lay out my expectations for the team and the upcoming season. At the foundation of my coaching philosophy is two words that I share with the team.
"Individual Accountability" For me, these two words and the attitude that goes with it sets the standard for everything we do as a group. No matter what kind of organization you belong to, there must be accountability for the organization to survive, let alone thrive. People within an organization must be able to hold themselves and each other up to the standards of the organization. If you are not willing to be held accountable by teammates, you cannot grow and develop as a team member the way your team needs you to. Accountability is about being responsible. You must be responsible for your words and actions, but you must also be responsible to the team. Responsibility to the team means being responsible to teammates, to the team’s leadership, and to the mission and standards that the team has established for membership. You know you have achieved accountability when people expect the best from you even when no one is watching. This should be the goal of all team members. When team members are accountable to one another and to the core values of the team, true progress can be made because everyone is willing to do what needs to be done and then fix what needs to be fixed when they are not getting it done. Accountability requires clear, honest communication. If there has been a violation of a team standard, people need to clearly state what the violation was directly to the person or persons who violated it. They need to be able to say exactly what needs to be done to change the behavior and to move forward in a positive fashion. This will only work, however, if there has been clear, honest communication from the start. That starts with one of the earlier team themes I discussed in an earlier post – Trust. When trust is present, then open, honest communication works because people do not feel like they are being attacked. They trust the message and the person delivering the message. But this can only happen on a consistent basis if leadership has fostered a climate of trust There are two levels of accountability - accountability to yourself and accountability to others. The first way to establish accountability is to hold yourself accountable. While all members of a team need to do this, the first people who must do this are the leaders of the team. This starts with the head coach. If the head coach is willing to hold himself accountable and be held accountable by others, he sets the proper tone for the team to be a team that is based on accountability. From here it spreads to the rest of the coaching staff and then to the team captains or team leaders. If all of these people are on board with holding themselves accountable, the team has a chance to be a team that functions as one accountability unit. If there is no accountability at the top, however, how can they expect the rest of the team to ever hold themselves accountable? The other level of accountability is accountability to others. Within this level there are two types of accountability to others. The first type of accountability to others is when people on the team are willing to have other people hold them accountable for their words and actions. If a player is not working her hardest and a teammate calls her on it, the player who is accountable will listen, recognize, acknowledge, and then adjust her actions to show that she is now holding herself accountable. She is basically saying, “You’re right. My bad. I will pick it up right now.” And then she will do just that. When this player behaves in this way, she has moved from being held accountable by others to now holding herself accountable. The second type of accountability to others is in many ways the tougher one of the two. This accountability is when team members have the courage to confront a teammate who is not handling his responsibility to the team. This is accountability in action, but it is not easy. It requires the ability to confront people directly. While any team member may sometimes do this (and that is often the mark of a highly accountable team), more often than not it is the leadership that has to do this. Whether it is the head coach, assistant coaches, or team captains, the leadership MUST confront violations of team standards, or the team will fray and eventually self-destruct. You cannot be a leader if you are not willing to confront people who are violating your standards. It does not mean you have to be harsh. You can be tactful and respectful when confronting. However, you must confront the person directly and firmly. The team member must know that what he is doing is unacceptable on this team, and the behavior must change or there will be consequences. Strong teams have strong leaders who are willing to step up and say what needs to be said when it needs to be said in order for change to occur for the benefit of the entire team. For your team and program to thrive and become the best it is capable of becoming, there must be accountability – accountability to yourself and accountability to others. Coaches and captains must always set the example for how to behave within their program, and accountability is one of the best ways to lead by example. Hold yourself to a high standard and let your team see that. By doing so, they will have a much better chance of following suit. Incredible heights can be achieved when all of the team members are willing to be held accountable to high standards. In recent months, we have various female sports teams both the at the national and club at odds with their federations or administrators about the pay inequity that exists between male and female national team members. US hockey and soccer are the two stories that were most evident in North American media coverage, but this dispute is going on across the glove. With the rise of professionalism in women's sports and the increased media coverage and marketability, female athletes are demanding their fair share of the compensation.
As an example the US women's soccer team has been a top team on the international scene since the inception of women's international competitions. However, regardless of their ongoing success, the players receive a small fraction of performance based compensation and salary when on national duty with respect to their male counterparts. The men's team, while regular participants in Olympics and World Cup have not performed any where near the women's program. Add to this fact, the reality that the men are getting compensated for their national team duty on top of their salaries as full time professionals , the gender salary gap is even greater. One can't even argue that the compensation is relation to revenue since the success of the women's program has generated significant revenue of which the women see a very small portion even on a pro-rated basis of compensation to revenue. Women’s treatment in sport has always been a manifestation of wider gender inequality and, as sports evolved and professionalized, became self-perpetuating. The huge funding disparity between male and female sport means that women have had fewer opportunities to play sport, have suffered from inadequate coaching and facilities compared with those enjoyed by men, and have been paid meager sums, even for playing international sport. This has damaged the quality of sport – and therefore the attractiveness of the product to fans and broadcasters – in two ways. Those that have played have often not been professional, so had less chance to hone their skills; and the lack of financial rewards mean that many leading players have retired prematurely. Women’s sport has been shaped by administration being almost exclusively a male preserve. This explains why, from 1928 to 1960, women were not allowed to compete in races of more than 200 meters, because it was felt that running for longer made them too tired. It took until 1984 for women to make up one-fifth of competing athletes in the Olympics. The gender pay gap is in large part due to the lack of seriousness that women's sports tend to receive from their male administrators. Even when their is the appearance of support, often times it is merely lip service for the appearance of being politically correct. The lack of suffiicent recognition of female sports is not limited to one or a few of the more traditionally male driven sports but fairly present to some extent or other in many sports. “Let's get women to play in different and more feminine garb than the men,” Sepp Blatter, who was president of FIFA for 17 years, said in 2004. He wanted women to play “in tighter shorts,” because “beautiful women play football nowadays, excuse me for saying so”. World wide many tennis, cricket and golf clubs had until recently and still have access restrictions for woman membership and participation. Some tentative progress in gender equality is now being made off the pitch: More women are moving into positions of leadership within sport and while the process is slow, it does allow for the needle to move when it comes to gender bias and eventually pay equity. On the field, equal prize money is becoming more common. The World Athletics Championships equalized prize money in 1995 and all grand slam tennis tournament have paid male and female champions equally since Wimbledon begun doing so in 2007. Globally, 25 out of 35 major sports pay equal prize money to men and women, found a BBC survey in 2014. Olympians are still not paid prize money by the Games, although most countries offer their medal winners prize money, and sums are equal for men and women. Yet the most lucrative sports remain far away from equalizing remuneration. Even in sports with equal prize money for marquee competitions, there are often huge discrepancies lower down. Tennis,is the prime example where the men’s number one, will earn twice as much the women's #1. While winning majors is lucrative, the less prestigious men’s tournaments pay far more than the women’s events. In terms of soccer, the difference in prize money for the World Cup is staggering where it can reach as much at 25x greater one the men's side. The differences are far greater in club competitions, in which women’s teams have struggled to gain a following. Of course TV coverage and lower attendance affect revenues, but the relative comparable of revenue to salary for the most successful men's and women's franchise in different sports in tough to fathom. The greatest cause for optimism is in the rising quality of female sport: the gradual increase in spending on women’s sports is now being reflected in a product that more spectators want to watch. Global coverage of women's sports is growing and the reality is that the anyone wanting to attract new viewership to sports would realize that women's sport and attracting women to follow sport are areas where their is the highest potential for growth. And while there remains a dearth of females who coach men, Andy Murray’s appointment of Amélie Mauresmo as his coach two years ago was a seminal moment: never before had a professional men’s tennis player appointed a woman as coach. "Have I become a feminist?" Murray later wrote. “Well, if being a feminist is about fighting so that a woman is treated like a man, then yes, I suppose I have.” Yet, despite such heartening developments, some hard-won gains are at risk. Greater gender equality in the funding of US sports has actually led to a huge decrease in the number of female coaches. As men have increasingly sought jobs coaching women, the number of female coaches of intercollegiate women’s teams has dropped from 90 to 40 per cent since 1972, when Congress passed a law mandating gender equity in every educational program that received federal funding. But the logic of pay being determined by market forces only seems to work one way. Even when women raise more money than men, they can also be paid less. In the US, five female football players recently filed a complaint against US Soccer over wage discrimination. They are ranked number one in the world, 30 places above the men, and generated nearly $20m more revenue last year – but are still paid significantly less. In many ways the Olympic Games in Rio represented a growing trend of women taking a bigger stage in sport, with over 45% of competing athletes being women, a record for a summer Games. Yet true pay equality in sport is still far away. While there is progress, reaching a respectable pay equity reality still seems far off, if not a pipe dream. Why people dislike soccer is a mystery. Those who don't really follow the game often complain about the lack of scoring or action that might take place over 90 minutes, or that soccer players are all fakers and fall down complaining about injuries at the slightest contact.
I was destined to play soccer right from the beginning. As the son of immigrants from Spain and my dad being a diehard Real Madrid fan, he was going to get me into the sport no matter what. When I first stepped onto the playing field at age 5, soccer in North America was really not mainstream. The pro league was struggling at best and while the arrival of handful of other world stars like Beckenbauer, George Best, Giorgio Chinaglia Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Gerd Müller and especially the arrival of Pele with different club increased the visibility of the game somewhat, it was short lived and didn't really bring soccer into mainstream. In terms of youth participating, soccer ranked far behind hockey, baseball and football and was seen as the sport of immigrants where the coaches were often a player's dad who was an immigrant or son of recent immigrants. Canadians are passionate about their hockey and baseball is called America's pastime but the cultural implications of soccer go well beyond the impact that either of those sports have on the national identities of their respective countries. I am not a soccer historian nor do I have expertise into the sociological impact that soccer has had on various cultures world wide but let's be honest, it is the global game. One look at the number of countries where soccer is #1 or at the number of people that participate in soccer in some form or other, confirms that while the game might be sneered at in North America, it is the game that is beloved around the world. When the increase of television coverage, social media, broader worldwide access, soccer enthusiasts can find soccer games to watch pretty match 24/7 from leagues anywhere in the world. Soccer remains the most watched sport worldwide and the World Cup the most watched sporting event. So why is soccer so beloved, what makes it bring out the passion in fans, or create the intense rivalries that we have all seen images about. Well I have a few thoughts on the subject... I mean if I didn't what would be the purpose of blogging today. Big games and rivalries are a big reason why people watch soccer. Sports rivalries exist everywhere and when teams have passionate fans, it adds to the atmosphere. Locally, hockey fans talk about Montreal Canadians vs Toronto Maple Leaf or Boston Bruins, baseball fans will talk about Yankees vs Red Sox. However North American sports rivalries will often depend on the success the teams involved are having at the time of the games. A very unique reality about soccer rivalries is that they are often based on culture, religious and social factors as much as they are about the game itself. Unlike North America, where in each sport, each city will generally have one franchise representing it, major European cities will have multiple teams ( or clubs ) which represent a neighborhood, social or religious group and then the bragging rights take on such a higher meaning. It creates great debates and intense confrontations. Just look at games that involve Rangers ( protestant ) vs Celtic ( catholic) , Real Madrid ( upper class) vs Athletic Madrid ( team of the people), Real Madrid ( central government) vs Barcelona ( catalan pride) , not to mention on the so call derby between rival clubs in the same cities Everton - Liverpool, Manchester United vs City, Arsenal - Tottenham, AC Milan vs Inter Milan, Roma - Lazio and oh so many more. Move on to international games and you find teams carrying the pride of their country on the shoulders as they step on the field. With major international competitions taking place at varying intervals, players might get one or two chances to represent their countries on the biggest stage and they often look to be at their best. Big games usually have big expectations, and the teams can usually deliver because its more than the 3 pts on the line but all the bragging rights that go with it. This is something that brings a country together every four years. Even though there are a bunch of friendlies and other tournaments that your club can win, this is the one that countries are always hoping to capture. The World Cup symbolizes that your country is the best at soccer in the world. Forget the Super Bowl, World Series , NHL Stanley Cup playoffs or NBA championships. The winners of these competitions are often labeled as World Champions but only the World Cup's outcome determines who is the best in the world. Spain had a great run between the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup. The only country to win 3 major competitions in succession. After decades of underachievement, those 4 years allowed Spanish soccer fans to walk around head held high and full of pride and believe me, it was a huge deal. If your team is the best in the world, you have been entitled to brag. Humiliating your opponents is unsportsmanlike, but the pride in you says otherwise. In my opinion, soccer develops a pride for one's team like no other sport. Followers of a team stick with them no matter what. Their are clubs whose competitive ambitions are limited to ensuring they remain in the top division, knowing that they will never win the championship and yet achieving their goal is the same as winning the greatest honors and those fans revel in it. Soccer is a sport that has generational and family implications. Parents loved the sport and pass along the passion for soccer onto their kids. The support for a specific club is passed down through generations. Families head out to the stadium for home games, fully dressed in team colors, chanting the club songs and dreaming of glory. For me it was watching the 1982 World Cup in Spain with my father and his Spanish friends where I really started to grasp more about my Spanish roots. Watching this group of expatriates, beaming with pride as their country hosted the biggest competition for their beloved sport, made me see the game in a whole different context. The images of national team fans jumping with joy, crying with devastation or screaming with frustration at the changing fortunes of "their" team made me realize the passion. pride and emotional investment that soccer fans put into their teams and the love of the game. Take a closer look and this is the same for fans of different club teams. Just the fact that teams are called clubs, tells you that soccer fans seems themselves as a part of the group, invested in their success and dependent on their results, not just a lovers of the sport going to watch a simple game. My dad decided I was going to play soccer while most of my friends were playing hockey and baseball. I had no reference point to understand the rules of game itself and it was left to me father to explain the rules. I was put on a team with a bunch of kids that I had never met. I opened the door to new friendships and development a passion that over time became a focal point in my life. The sport itself is beautiful. Anyone can play the sport. It doesn't matter if you're scrawny and 5'2" or 6'1" and muscle bound. It's such a great game for anyone to play. You don't even need proper equipment. You can play at the beach, with a volleyball, barefoot, and have your goalposts be two backpacks. You can play by yourself, just by juggling the ball. It's easily the world's sport, other than North America. Which is a true shame because most people are so ignorant that they take soccer as just "another" sport. That is the biggest lie I could ever hear. It's not just a game, it's a passion. Sports change us as humans. They can break down the barriers of language, race, creed and color. We can all enjoy sports together, regardless of what separates us as people. Nothing has demonstrated the equality sports can provide more than soccer. For the love of soccer, learn to like the game. |
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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