The Relationship between Athlete and Coach

» zipline - words from and parent and a coach

I couldn't agree with you more. I have two very athletic daughters and was involved in sports myself. I began coaching at the ripe old age of 14 and still coach 24 years later and counting. I can honestly say I have made a difference. I know that I have left something that will be past on. The young people I have worked with and will work with may not remeber my "real" name, but they will remeber me. And I hope some of the lessons and examples I gave the will be passed on. Coaching only has a very little to do with teach a sport, and a lot to do with teaching about life and how to be a person. Unfortunately, a lot of coaches do not know this. During a recent discussion between a coach whos number one focus was to win (which by the way, the team was not doing)and some very wise eigth grade players (young ladies), this statement was made. "Coach, you may not realize this, but there are greater outcomes involed in the game than the final score." This was a coach who had 10 basketball players. As usual at this age, there was very little difference in the abilities of any of them. He only played five of the ten for 3/4 or better of any given game. At least 2 of the five would never come out of the game. Four of the bench decided to confront the coach with this. they had never been told what they were doing wrong or how to improve thir skills at this point. They told the coach that they did not feel a part of the team. His response was that their job was to be the team the "real" team practiced against. FYI: the team's record at this point was 0 wins and 7 loses. The girls pointed out that his "team" wasn't winning, so why not try something different. He preceeded to tell each girl exactly what the were bad at, but never followed through with how to improve when asked. His comments that day were, you are not going to play unless were winning by a lot. (LOL) The girls took the discussion to the athletic director. While publically he supported the coach, something must have been said privately. Amazingly enough the girls all started to see a dreastic improvement in playing time, including starting. the coach still says he is changing a thing. They just deserts were that the bench out scored the startes 3 to 1 when you compared baskets to playing time. The player with thhighest baskets scored sat the bench the most. The only game the team won, the score was us 0 them 8 in the third quarte when 3 of the starters fouled out, one was sick and the other got hurt. The entire bench played and the final score was us 12 them 10. I think they proved their point. I just hope the coach got the point.

-- posted by zipline

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