Hey @##@! Coach...

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marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Sometimes it needs to be said. I am sick of totally (@!@!@&*! posting on facebook recently how they toughen up kids and other BS excuses for how much of a total $^&@!@&^ they are.

RANT ON

Dear %#^#& Coach....

Your are not being 'tough on them'
You are not teaching them life lessons
You are not teaching them how life isn't fair
They are not 'softer' than when you were a kid and somehow it is your job to fix it
You are not Vince Lombardi
This isn't a sports movie
It isn't tough love
Louder isn't more motivating
Screaming wont make them play better
The older ones KNOW when they made a mistake and the younger ones NEED to be taught they made a mistake and how not to. They don't need to be humiliated.
They won't 'appreciate what you did for them later'
That one 'exception' is not an excuse to abuse everyone else.


You are just a jerk and an A$$ and you are using this to justify just how big a jerk and A$$ you are. You are just a grown adult yelling at a child.

And to the parents and the other people around this - it doesn't matter how much this jacka$$ knows about the sport or how he gets scholarships or wins or whatever, it doesn't excuse their behavior. There are plenty of coaches out there who don't need to humiliate, yell, scream and act like that who know the game just as well and can coach 1000x better. You enable these coaches by letting your child play for them.

Just like new techniques in skills and practice organization, coaching has moved on as well. There is plenty of material out there for you to learn and adapt your ways. There is no excuse.

Yes, there is a fine line. You can expect and demand the highest level of play and performance from the players you coach and still not have to be a full time or even a part-time a$$. And yes you will have to make tough decisions and bench and cut players and other areas which will not be pleasant for anyone involved. That is the role you play.

If you have a boss who behaves this way towards you, you should leave your job or report them to HR. It isn't normal. Or acceptable. Try teaching that lesson.

Oh and last and not least... that line that girls need to feel good to play good is 100% true for boys as well. They may cover it up better, but they hate you being a jerk every bit as much.

RANT OFF
 
Last edited:
Jul 4, 2013
126
43
Most people agree that players need some degree of accountability. But when the ratio of loud accusatory bs after a play starts to exceed the useful coaching prior to the play, it's pretty awful. I always start to feel as if it is more about the coach than the players. Coach is supposed to be part of the team after all.
 
Apr 26, 2015
704
43
Yeah - DD's HS coach was like this. DD really wanted to play HS ball and really loved the girls she played with. They had a true team mentality and that was something DD had not experienced. Not that it makes it ok...just trying to give some perspective as to why she played for a coach like that. The coach asked DD to play on her TB team. We politely declined.
 
Last edited:
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
We work hard at developing players. Developing coaches seems like the step we missed in that process.

Somehow we need do develop appreciation for those coaches too. I am very appreciative of a whole bunch of people who went out of their way to help my kids. They weren’t perfect but they sure accomplished a lot.
 
Last edited:
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
I could never yell at another person't kid..wouldn't feel right. Yelling at my own kid however, well I needed to exercise a lot of restraint in that regards when I did coach my DD in youth basketball for a few seasons.
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
There are very very very few real coaches in youth athletics.

There are plenty of good coaches in youth sports today. The inherent problem with coaching is you'll never make all the team parents all happy all the time. There will be someone who thinks you're doing something wrong. With the almost blind faith belief some parents have in what is posted on social media in today's world it's easy for a disgruntled parent to trash talk a good coach.
 

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