Youth sports teams excel through great team leadership and role modeling, and that almost always starts with the coach (Sports Success 360). In best-case scenarios, good coaches create an optimal sporting environment where young athletes play safely, have fun, and develop both on the field athletically as well as off the field through character development learned through sports.
Unfortunately, coaches who blow off the significance and importance of positive coaching can negatively impact the overall sport experience for kids, often leading to a lack of fun for kids, increased likelihood for injuries, and possibly even premature quitting from sports altogether.
Since youth coaches at the little league and pop warner levels are almost always volunteers, it is important to examine if taking on the responsibility of being a coach is a good fit before signing up to lead a team. Quite a bit goes into coaching – even at the youth level – so ask yourself the following questions and see how you stack up:
1. Are you invested in coaching for the right reasons? If you are dedicated to helping kids grow and develop through sports by teaching them life skills, maintaining healthy training methods, and instructing them on how to develop athletic skills, then you are probably well on your way to becoming a good coach! If, on the other hand, your main focus is winning championships, you might want to look at other, more advanced coaching opportunities instead of youth sports.
2. Does your schedule allow for the time commitment required from coaching? Youth sports can be a time-consuming experience when you factor in meetings, practices, and games, so check your schedule ahead of time before committing to coach to make sure you can fulfill your responsibilities to the team.
3. Are you motivated to take on the challenge of being a coach? While it would be nice to simply “show up” and play, sports teams require quite a bit of effort form the coach. More specifically, coaches have to evaluate talent, inspire and motivate kids to compete, help kids deal with adversity, and of course, deal with parents.
4. Can you make the experience fun for kids? Above and beyond all else, the number one reason why kids play sports is to have fun! As a coach, it is your responsibility to ensure the sport environment you create for the kids you coach is a fun and exciting place, and that you work hard to ensure that your team environment isn’t too “business-like.”
5. Do you communicate well, and can you handle criticism? When coaching kids you will soon learn that they don’t always communicate the same way as adults, making it difficult sometimes to truly know what’s bothering them. Good coaches find ways to develop unique relationships with their kids, which allows for trusting, meaningful conversations to take place. Coaches should also be prepared for parents who “Monday morning quarterback” and second guess the coaches decisions in games. If you have a short-fuse and are not willing to take criticism, coaching might not be the best place for you to spend your time.
www.drstankovich.com
If you are a coach, or know someone who is a coach, you are probably already aware of the
enormous amount of time and energy that goes into being a coach. In fact, it has become very common to hear about pro and college coaches suffering from exhaustion, burnout, and countless health issues commonly associated with simply going too hard for too long. Recently
Andy Staples discussed this growing problem in a Sports Illustrated on college football coaches and the related dangers of the job (January 20, 2010).What may be even more concerning — and surprising to many people — is that these same issues previously only identified with college and professional coaches are now becoming commonplace at the scholastic and youth sport level as well. In my experience I have seen a similar, growing trend develop whereby increasingly more amateur coaches are feeling pressured to win, and as a result put in extraordinary amounts of time and energy, often leading to staleness, fatigue, and sometimes full-blown burnout that taxes their leadership style and strength.In some of these instances community expectations have become so high that coaches feel they have to put into an enormous amount of time developing team cohesion in order to build a “winning” program. In other cases, coaches bring this overload schedule on themselves because of a number of different reasons, including:a) their own high expectations of what they would like for their team,b) they see what the college and pro coaches do, and simply follow suit,c) they see what their colleagues are doing in amateur sports, and feel the need to keep up!Making things even more complicated is the fact that more and more people today expect youth/interscholastic coaches to log in ridiculous amounts of hours while in the role of a coach, quickly forgetting the obvious dangers of the coach living this type of lifestyle (while also overlooking that youth coaches work for free, while interscholastic coaches work for very little money!).Coaches who devote disproportionate amounts of time toward coaching can be more at-risk for a variety of health problems (as the Staples article identifies), and are also more likely to experince substance abuse, marital problems, and employment issues/concerns. In short, amateur coach burnout is no laughing matter.For these reasons it is important that we pay attention to the lifestyle of coaches today — even at the amateur level.
www.drstankovich.com
An interesting concept in psychology is “perceptual contrast,” which is defined as follows: when we see two things in sequence that are different from one another, we will tend to see the second one as more different from the first than it actually is. Retailers are very familiar with this idea, as evidenced by how nearly every item is “marked down” from the original price to a much lower price, resulting in the perceptual experience of a big contrast (and super savings!). For example, an item “marked down” to $19.99 from $69.99 appears to be a great saving (and therefore a more desirable item) when compared to a second item marked down to $19.99 from $24.99. Quite often what is around something gives the object greater (or different) meaning, resulting in different perceptual experiences.So how does this idea play out in sports, you might ask? Well, for successful coaches who have consistently set the bar high by consistently winning in the past by developing successful team cohesion and team chemistry, the “contrast” that occurs is often quite dramatic after just a few losses: fans become agitated about how the program is seemingly crumbling! It certainly appears that the more success a coach has, the less room for error when a loss occurs (or a semi-mediocre season for that matter).On the other hand, when the bar is not set so high, expectations are usually much lower, resulting in more “wiggle room” when it comes to on-field success. The thinking is that if you are just a so-so program, then winning is unexpected and when it does occur it’s viewed as a bonus.My point to this article is to take a closer look at how we perceive things (in this case, coaches) and to remember that our perceptions do not take place in a vacuum —- instead, we perceive the world through various filters, including how something is doing currently compared to the past. If the contrast is stark, the margin for error is usually thin, often resulting is negative criticism, greater scrutiny, coach burnout, and often the loss of a job if you are a coach.So is this way of thinking and perceiving “fair?” Probably not – especially for coaches who feel on the hot seat every year when being “successful” simply isn’t good enough. But this is the reality, and most coaches do realize these kinds of expectations exist in successful sport environments. Now after reading this article you know the “science” behind why we fans act in the ways that we do when appraising coaches!
www.drstankovich.com
I just completed reading an interesting article on coaches and their level of aggressiveness toward kids who play for them on a team. After reading the piece I began to think about the debates I have been a part of over the years — some sport fans think coaches need to be volatile, aggressive, and “in your face” in order to win over their players and help the team reach it’s full potential. The standard names that come up when thinking about this “old school” type of coach include, of course, Bobby Knight and Woody Hayes.Other sport fans think that a more “civil” and toned-down approach to coaching is the way to go – this is not to suggest that the environment be so peaceful and nice that it resembles a church more than it does an athletic team, but instead points to the notion that you can have a relatively tranquil sport environment, and still win games.I have to admit I am more on the side of the second argument, even though I am sure there are others that will disagree, and politely remind me we are talking about sports, not a child daycare! I get it, I really do, yet I have always believed that you can get just as much, if not more, out of people by building relationships, earning their trust, and praising them for their efforts (even if they fail). I have personally never felt as though yelling and berating someone would help me more than having an honest, frank conversation; and I never believe physical aggression should be used to make a point or to get someones attention (sorry Bobby Knight, I am not down with the choke hold).So am I saying my theory is “right?” No, far from it – telling someone how to coach is like telling them how to parent – and it is certainly not my place to tell someone what to do. In my personal experiences, however, I have found the “win more bees with honey than you do vinegar” approach to be a winner — but it is also hard to argue that the “old school” intimidating coaches don’t get positive results with their approach, too. The big question to me is not what approach works better as it applies to wins and losses, but instead, what is the cost that comes with an approach that includes bullying, intimidation, and sometimes even physical aggression?One last note: It’s always been interesting to me how much parents, fans, and even the players themselves will take — so long as the team is winning. Lets face it, the bully-type coach doesn’t last very long if he (or she) isn’t winning, but if a team is winning then a lot goes unnoticed and over-looked. Interesting, huh?!www.drstankovich.com
If you are a parent, coach, or any other adult responsible for providing mentoring for kids involved in youth sports, please pay attention to a very serious concern we are seeing in girls and boys sports across our country today – that is, the increasing amount of kids who are using various performance enhancing supplements used to improve on-field performance (
Parents Video Package). Included in this catch-all category of enhancement aids are anabolic steroids, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), creatine, and just about every other protein powder, energy drink, and vitamin supplement on the shelves at your local general nutrition store. In my experience there are many concerns and “gray area” issues that need to be acknowledged and addressed regarding this issue so that kids can continue to safely and successfully participate in youth sports.Admittedly, it is incredibly difficult to say exactly how many kids are using supplements today, as this data is very challenging to obtain (many kids simply won’t admit to using them). Having said that, there is no doubt in my mind that more kids are using supplements every year and I have arrived at this conclusion through one-on-one sessions with youth athletes, as well as countless conversations with coaches, parents, trainers, and various other athletic personnel. There are many reasons for increased supplement usage amongst youth athletes today, including the following:1. Terrific Marketing: Have you ever walked into a nutrition store? If not, make it a point to do so soon – once there, look around at all the fabulous marketing aimed at getting consumers to believe that many of the supplements available will help speed up training, reduce recovery time, and ultimately help you get into the best shape of your life in little to no time! Sexy people, big muscles, and 6-pack abs on the fronts of packages will have you chomping at the bit to bring some home for yourself, I promise (throw in an energy drink with some power-monster name and your head will spin!).2. Pluralistic Ignorance: this is the “everybody is doing it, so it must be good” heuristic people fall prey to when making personal choices. With supplements, many kids end up trying things because they see other kids on the team getting stronger and faster and immediately think they should jump on the bandwagon, too – which leads us to point #3….3. Erroneous cause-effect assumptions: So do these supplements really work? Can we with 100% certainty say that the juice, powder, or pills your child is ingesting is responsible for his/her improved strength and speed? It is almost impossible to make this claim, as there are other competing hypotheses to consider when making that assumption. More specifically, the placebo effect and self-fulfilling prophecies must be examined when looking for cause-effect relationships. Think about it – when a young person begins using a performance enhancing supplement he almost certainly believes it will “work,” and with this excitement the child will almost always begin to put in even more effort and hard work in the weight room, the track, and anywhere else he can improve his strength! I have never once met a young person who has gone on to use supplements and gotten lazier – but I have consistently met kids who while using work longer and harder.Of course not every child today is using a performance supplement, and regarding the efficacy of supplements I cannot say with 100% certainty that they don’t “work” beyond a simple placebo effect. However, regardless of whether they work or not, there are many reasons why you should be concerned about the rates of usage these days, including some of the following:1. Kids bodies are still growing and when they use untested, unapproved supplements not scrutinized by the FDA there are many things to be concerned about! In fact, many of the products available today have only been around a very short time, and consequently, we have no long-term data regarding side effects, withdrawal effect, or even interaction effects if your child is currently on another medication.2. There is an erroneous assumption of “legal = safe.” Many of us believe that if a product is legal it has to be safe — unfortunately that is simply not always the case (cigarettes are legal but most would agree they are not safe).3. There is a real gray area when it comes to responsibility and oversight of kids who choose to use supplements. In conversations that I have with parents and coaches, I regularly hear parents tell me coaches should know what kids are using (and determine whether its safe or not), while coaches tell me parents should know what their kids are using and how safe their decisions are! Making this even more challenging is the fact that these supplements are legal, leaving schools virtually handcuffed when it comes to instituting polices and procedures to guard against usage.The bottom line is this: Most experts in the sport sciences will tell you that there is no substitute or shortcut to motivation and hard work. They will also advise you to help your child learn how to improve his or her athletic talents by putting the time into their sport, rather than to look for faster ways through pills, powders, or sports drinks. When you consider all the risks involved with kids who choose to use supplements, and with the reality of less than 7% of all high school kids going on to play college sports (and an even smaller percentage on partial/full-ride scholarships), you have to again ask yourself is it really worth all these risks??
http://www.drstankovich.com/
Comments