Relieved of my duties...why?

Well, I also has some disagreements on game day with them screaming and yelling at the kids. I didn't say anything to them. But I had a feeling I would have if it had continued. I dont think blaming 10-12 year old kids by screaming and calling them out in front of their families the right approach.

I think this is a valuable lesson to me that not everyone is willing to take suggestions the way I would. I guess I could have worded it better and I feel like it must have came across wrong, I didn't expect him to put into place everything I said, I was just offering what I saw. Oh, well. Lesson Learned I guess.

Yea, you direspected in several ways, maybe you were justified in questioning him but still the same you disrespected him. The main thing is whether he was right or you were right, he is the boss and you always lose the arguement with the boss whether you are right or wrong.

It sounds like it may not have been a good fit you anyway if you had reservations on how they handled the kids on gameday.

Part of coaching should be understanding when a situation just doesn't mesh with your beliefs and/or philosophy. Learn from it and make sure next time you are working with people who share a similar belief system as you.

If I were the head coach, I would have maybe spoken with you in person and explained why I took offense though before simply letting you go.

better off for you ducej11. Just like relationships, not everything (staff) is a perfect fit and we just have to leave it at that.

At least you can find a gig that better suits you. This should be a good thing

deucej11,

I'm a youth coach, also. In my limited experience (5 seasons), there are very few youth coaches that I have met that are smart enough to admit that they don't know something and big enough to accept asked for criticism. And, I've never met one big enough to accept unasked for criticism and make changes. And, being that you were new to the staff, the HC could easily have mistaken your intentions by suggesting how to improve his offense. I consider myself to be an open-minded HC. But, if someone that I just brought onto the staff started telling me how to run my practices, etc...it would have thrown up a red flag even with me.

That being said, I think your post was fine. You were brought on to work with backs & WR's. It was your job to let the HC know what areas your group needed to improve and how you thought that you could get the job done. You didn't tell him to scrap the spread or, that his way of practicing sucked. You did a nice job of offering up drills to achieve improvement on what they were already doing.

As a youth HC the one thing that I hate to hear from my AC's- especially on game day is, "That play ain't working, coach. We need to call something else." We don't have the luxury of coaches in booths. My AC's have specific things to watch for to help with play-calling, as do I. "That ain't working" with no elaboration on what he saw that was causing a problem, etc... isn't worth crap to me.

As for practice, if an AC thinks he has a way to improve what we already do, I want them to tell me. And, if he wants to change what we do, he definitely needs to come talk to me. Obviously, no HC wants an AC that continuously questions what the HC does. And, after the HC has made a decision that should be the end of it. It's now that AC's job to get done whatever the HC wants done.

Examples: Had an AC go behind my back and change the way our DB's covered WR's before our play-off game. His changes were stupid beyond all measure. Opposing team scored two TD's from simple pass plays. I was less than happy with him. Had it not been a play-off loss and the end of our season, I'd probably have fired him. However, had he came to me and offered his suggestions, I'd have not said, "That's stupid". I'd have explained to him why we do things the way that we do and, what problem areas I see in what he wanted.

Another AC had a better way of improving the way I taught log blocking and kick-out blocks. He came to me with his suggestions and explained why he thought his way was better. I gave him the go ahead and his way was better. I really appreciated the results.

Seems to me that your better off without them.

duce,
one thing I have found out over the years, the more incompetent the person, the more sensitive they are to suggestions to improve. Like Brophy said you are better off. Good luck in finding the gig the fits you.

Coach:

In general, I thought there was nothing wrong with your suggestions or your approach (although I probably would have gone a little slower - maybe just offer up one suggestion at a time rather than throw all your ideas at him at once). When you're new it's also always a good idea to ask permission before offering up suggestions (e.g. "Hey coach, I know I'm pretty new around here, but you did bring me in to work with the backs & receivers - I think I have some pretty good ideas on how to improve their performance. Would you like to hear them?"). But, I think the one big mistake you made was to send an email instead of just talking to the HC. You should never criticize in writing (and make no mistake - any time you suggest changes, it's going to be taken as criticism). When you write your criticisms/suggestions, several dynamics are at play, none of which work in your favor:

• Missing non-verbal cues - most people are aware of this - you can't convey tone, gestures, etc in an email, so it is very easy for benign comments to come across as sarcasm or otherwise be misinterpreted.
  
  
• You get no feedback from the reader. If you talked to him, he might have cut you off relatively early and given his explanation for why they practice they way they do and that he's not interested in changing. But, when he reads your written email, in his mind he's making those comments, so when you continue on in writing it comes across on a subconcious level as insuborination (kind of like, "I already told him we're not changing the practice schedule, why is he still going on with this crap??"). I know it sounds pretty silly, but I've seen this dynamic at work numerous times.
  
  
• It allows the reader to question your motives. Whenever someone sends me something in writing that they could have easily discussed with me in person - even if I know and trust the person - it sends up red flags and causes me to ask a bunch of questions: Why is this in writing? Is the writer trying to set me up - trying to establish a paper trail for some unknown agenda? Is anybody else going to see this - has anyone been CC'd or BCC'd or will the author forward this on to other people? How can this be used against me? etc., etc.

I didn't come to understand this because I'm some sort of genius - it's because I made all the mistakes myself and learned the hard way. LOL.

the problem was not the offensive itself. THe problem was he never took the time to really teach it to the kids. So our qb, who knew the formations and plays, had to take the first few seconds after the break of the huddle to line everyone up. And then they didn't really know what they were doing. The offense was a little too complex too. It was a spread style offense with 18 formations!!!!!!!! That's crazy! But I was willing to work with what the coach wanted but just wanted to maximize practice time. His practices are not structured. He kind of flies by the seat of his pants. So there is a lot of standing around.

Duece, I have been on both ends of your situation (although i didn't let my assistant go), you are always better off talking to the hc in person when he is by himself. Anytime you allow a person the opportunity to "share" your thoughts with others without being there to make sure they really understand what you mean is bad news. My suggestion is learn and move on to a system that fits your style and beliefs. Good luck!!

duce---lets not let how well-written the email was cloud the issue. Basically, you spent one walk through and one game day with this team, ( a very unsuccessful team) and then sent an email essentially saying "Coach, it is obvious why your team is getting crushed. You should be doing this, this, this, this, this, this and this.... instead of what you are doing. "

Now, just because you are probably right...(and chances are a guy running a spread offense with 9 different formations dealing with 10-12 year olds doesn't know what he is doing) doesn't mean that guy you are calling foolish won't take exception to it.

Brophy is right. You are probably better off. You wouldn't have had a rewarding season.

I'm willing to bet they's been through this before...this sounds more like a contingency plan, than just an off hand reaction.

We just had to do that ourselves...ok it was my doing

I second this!

Consider it a blessing.