Practice with compassion
Practice with compassion
I went to a few of my dad’s practices this winter. He is a co-coach and working with a high school girls basketball. It was interesting to watch how the girls responded to each of the coaching styles. One is a yeller and the other is a joker both very successful coaches in the past. This team had very little basic skills and hadn’t won many games in the last few years. Their self-esteem was shot and most girls didn’t even want to be playing really. With in a few weeks more and more girls started coming out and they were really trying hard to do what was asked of them. The joking and praising coach defiantly was the way to handle this insecure team of girls. They were praised for executing plays as taught even if it didn’t work out. They were stopped in the middle of a play in practice and shown examples of moves instead of just told what they did wrong after practice. It was a very positive season for the girls and they ended up working their way to districts which hadn’t been done for a long time. The point I saw was to observe your team and see what is going to work with them. Each group will learn and respond differently and the coaches job is to get the best out of each team while that team is learning and moving forward.
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Comments
But i do not think you should coach all the players the same. Some of your players might be able to handle the yelling and that is the type of coaching you use on them and for those that do not like the yelling then you figure out another way to coach them, either by encouragement or talking.
I appreciated reading your insight as to the need to coach the athletes according to individual need. Often, the team is like a family, and there are many correct methods to teach and inspire, just as parents in a family approach the discipline of each child according to his/her own need. The coach that seemed to yell will be more effective as a coach when the athletes begin to recognize the concern he/she has for them.