I'm apologizing in advance for both, creating a non-football thread and for this post being long. I meant only to find information on and help with girls track.
First, I'd like to say that I am not a HS coach. I coach youth football. So, I have a lot of respect for those that make their living coaching athletes.
Secondly, I'll answer beardc's question:
'Have you ever had a player complain about your coaching?'
Yes.....during practice, during games, during the season and, probably when they're at home.
I need to clarify something. Not even once has my daughter complained about her coaches. She has heard enough conversations between my wife and me as we discussed the football team that I coach. She has also been in the stands and ran chains on the sidelines and heard some of the rude, ugly, mis-informed things parents and spectators can say about me and other coaches. I've been in the stands also when watching other teams. That's at youth level. I can imagine what a HS coach has to put up with.
The way that I found out about how practices are ran for the girls is through a few simple 'How was your day?' conversations that I have with all my kids almost daily. When my daughter expressed a desire to improve her track performance the first place I directed her to was her coaches. Ask questions. Be proactive, etc...
My daughter practices on her own time after homework, chores, etc... to become better whether I choose to help her, or not. I don't want to discourage her by telling her that practicing without knowledge or instruction isn't going to do her much good. So, I figure I may as well help her.
I am not trying to be a know-it-all super dad. In fact, I don't know a thing about coaching track; which is why I came here to ask professional coaches for guidance.
Example: My daughter goes to practice the longjump last weekend. My wife goes to take a look at her. When they returned my wife is jokingly criticizing our daughter on how bad she is at longjump- one of my wife's events in HS.
I asked our daughter why is it that she doesn't do it like the coaches taught her?
Her reply: I did.
Me: What did they teach you?
Her: One coach told me to take 50 steps back, run and jump.
Me: What else?
Her: (shrug) That's all. What else is there?
She didn't know that she needed to launch as close to the end of the board as possible. Didn't know how to land. Didn't know that her landing would be marked at the spot closest to the edge of the board, that it is measured from the edge of the board no matter how far back from the edge that she actually jumped or anything else beyond 'count off 50 steps. Run and jump.' And, she didn't know because no coach bothered to tell her. To be fair, she didn't bother to ask, either. She just did what the coach told her to do.
Now, I admit that the coach covered longjump basics. I just think I can help her build from there with a little help from the coaches here. Also, I am quite sure the coach knows a heck of a lot more about long jumping than that. But, she needs to learn to ask questions. My daughter can be a bit of an introvert and isn't assertive when she needs to be, at times. Probably due to her past in-the-stands experiences at my games, asking her coach questions may be interpreted by her as questioning her coach's ability. They are not the same. I've tried to explain that to her.
If any coaches have any more help or information for me, I'd appreciate hearing it. But, it may be better to send it to me in a pm. That way, we don't further distract a football board away from it's main focus- football.
Huey, Tog, other moderators and whomever(if any) coaches reply would be better judges of that than I am.
