|
|
Post by touchdowng on Feb 3, 2010 9:06:39 GMT -6
Okay, here's the situation. - 15 year olds
You're team just lost a tough game. It's a team game but one of your leaders (captain elect) got into loaf mode and allowed the game winning score.
You're his coach and you sorta jump him and say, "Why did you let up?" Of course he has no answer.
After the game you learn from his teammates that he has sent out on Twitter that he really misses his old team.
Do you
A. Ignore it?
B. Address it with only him?
C. Address it and make him apologize to the team?
D. Address it and suspend him a game?
E. Address it and strip him of his captainship?
F. A combination of the above
This actually happened on one of my kid's teams and the coach told me what he was going to do. When my kid showed me the tweet, my response was. True character comes out when times are tough. I'm hoping the coach will do something.
What would you do?
|
|
|
|
Post by bucksweepdotcom on Feb 3, 2010 9:16:01 GMT -6
Coach,
Without knowing more about the kid and situation. I might call the kid in for a face to face. If he is a good kid maybe there are other issues. If he is a dick the meeting might have a different tone. So my guess would be answer B. And depending on his attitude may attitude would also be adjusted.
|
|
|
|
Post by bucksweepdotcom on Feb 3, 2010 9:17:20 GMT -6
"thingy" interesting replacement for the word I used.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachbw on Feb 3, 2010 9:49:24 GMT -6
I would address it alone with him, and then either he and I would address it with the team (depending how the one on one meeting went). One thing I would want to find out from talking to him was if the "loaf" was caused by not wanting to play there, or if the posting about missing the old team was caused by taking heat for giving up a game winning score. Very different situations.
|
|
|
|
Post by iacoachq on Feb 3, 2010 10:15:51 GMT -6
1 on 1 first. Behind closed doors. Don't be hostile with your approach, the kid is obviously going through a very tough time. One thing I've learned is this is actually the least of their problems and there's an underlying issue.
Then assess from there.
|
|
|
|
Post by touchdownmaker on Feb 3, 2010 10:49:35 GMT -6
Thats simply unacceptable. Id address it and make sure the kid knows that lying down /aka quitting is unacceptable and you feel thats what happened. Id also TEACH him that morale is everything and posting stuff on twitter like that is terrible for morale. kids dont know that stuff unless you teach them.
we get kids running around school all day "im quitting , we are gonna get killed" and they are destroying morale and making practice drugery by doing that. you have to teach them not to do those things.
|
|
|
|
Post by olinecoach61 on Feb 3, 2010 11:04:13 GMT -6
I would sit him down for a face to face. He's only 15.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachnichols on Feb 3, 2010 11:22:36 GMT -6
No way can you ignore it. Not at that age. Address it one-on-one. Make it clear if it continues, he's gone and go back to his old team.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachguy83 on Feb 3, 2010 14:53:27 GMT -6
I would talk to the kid 1 on 1 and find out what is really going on, because I've found that a lot of times there is more than meets the eye.
|
|
|
|
Post by touchdowng on Feb 5, 2010 20:41:11 GMT -6
One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard was: "Always keep your mind and your @$$ in the same place" Sounds to me like that's the type of conversation you need to have with that kid. I also have a question - has this happened before and you let it go or not notice it? I mean I don't know about anyone else, but I get in their @$$ if they loaf or let up on a 3 yd off tackle play...and that's in practice or a game. But 99% of the time, the kid who gets ripped on in a game is the same lazy @#$%#$%^& that I've ripped in practice...and evidently didn't have anyone else to play in his spot otherwise his lazy @$$ would have been standing beside me. I hear what you're saying. What makes this more a problem is the kid (remember age 15 ) is one of the two team captains as voted on by the team. I believe what the coach did was strip the kid of the captainship. To me that was appropriate. Doubt this kid will ever tweet anything negative about the team or a future employer. |
|
|
|
Post by tiger46 on Feb 6, 2010 13:29:05 GMT -6
I would've had a 1 on 1 conversation with the kid. Try to make him understand what it is to be on a team. Since the team already knew what he'd posted, I'd have let them decide whether, or not, to strip him of being a captain and his position on the depth chart.
|
|
|
|
Post by vince1265 on Feb 10, 2010 19:40:21 GMT -6
Sit the young man down and let him know that it is totally inappropriate for a captain to act that way. If he misses his old team he needs to go back. Your captains costing you games because lack of effort? He wouldnt be my captain long. He needs to get up in front of the team and explain. Only way the kid is going to be able to gain any respect and trust of his peers.
|
|
|
|
Post by touchdowng on Feb 11, 2010 8:42:57 GMT -6
One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard was: "Always keep your mind and your @$$ in the same place" Sounds to me like that's the type of conversation you need to have with that kid. I also have a question - has this happened before and you let it go or not notice it? I mean I don't know about anyone else, but I get in their @$$ if they loaf or let up on a 3 yd off tackle play...and that's in practice or a game. But 99% of the time, the kid who gets ripped on in a game is the same lazy @#$%#$%^& that I've ripped in practice...and evidently didn't have anyone else to play in his spot otherwise his lazy @$$ would have been standing beside me. I hear what you're saying. What makes this more a problem is the kid (remember age 15 ) is one of the two team captains as voted on by the team. I believe what the coach did was strip the kid of the captainship. To me that was appropriate. Doubt this kid will ever tweet anything negative about the team or a future employer. How ironic. At the school that I work at we've had a little unrest with state budget, levy, etc. Same thing the rest of the country is going through. Because we're looking at some different ways of delivering our education next year there's been some heartburn amongst the staff. The problem was that the heartburn (people bitchin') turned up on Facebook. One individual was a little too vocal and actually went on the attack calling out certain people from our district. Yep, the district got wind of this and this teacher might have his butt in a sling. Also, due to the fact that his Facebook is tied in with his school email - dumb. Looks like a 45 years old professional would have benefitted from a twitter mistake back in his younger days. That public posting stuff is FOR REAL. Don't do it! |
|
ou812
Sophomore Member
Posts: 226
|
Post by ou812 on Feb 11, 2010 21:00:22 GMT -6
Ignoring it will assure that you will have more problems.
There needs to be a sit down.
The HC needs to address the lack of effort first. If you are not giving your best, you can take a rest. We can't win with lousy effort. The other players need to see that the coach will sit anyone even, or especially, a star if he is slacking. You can replace them in practice first. If the effort isn't there in a game, I'll bet practice is worse. If that doesn't work, send them home and make them watch the game that week.
When the young man posts it on twitter, there must be some sort of discussion with the team. That young man must apologize and start to try to win back the trust that he lost with some of his team mates.
You don't have to kill the kid, but he has to know that he is not in charge and challenging the HC for control of the team is a "no-no." If he is contrite and works hard, it will go away, if he is not, it is probably time for him to spend his time doing some individual sport.
|
|
|
|
Post by coachcb on Feb 12, 2010 7:11:04 GMT -6
Ignoring it will assure that you will have more problems. There needs to be a sit down. The HC needs to address the lack of effort first. If you are not giving your best, you can take a rest. We can't win with lousy effort. The other players need to see that the coach will sit anyone even, or especially, a star if he is slacking. You can replace them in practice first. If the effort isn't there in a game, I'll bet practice is worse. If that doesn't work, send them home and make them watch the game that week. When the young man posts it on twitter, there must be some sort of discussion with the team. That young man must apologize and start to try to win back the trust that he lost with some of his team mates. You don't have to kill the kid, but he has to know that he is not in charge and challenging the HC for control of the team is a "no-no." If he is contrite and works hard, it will go away, if he is not, it is probably time for him to spend his time doing some individual sport. I agree with you, for the most part. However, I would talk to him about the Twitter post first; his statements on there shine light onto his poor performance. I would try and work from there; ask him why he made that post on Twitter and what issues he was talking about and go from there. I had an 'over-active' LB (ADD) this last year who was just showing no effort or enthusiasm for about a week. After jumping him a few times, I finally pulled him aside and asked him what was going on. I came to find out that there were some external issues going on; he was taking on hockey along with some other extra-curricular activities at the same time. His folks really try to keep him busy and it was taking a toll. So, I told him just to come talk to me; about ANYTHING; total open door policy. This completely turned him around; I showed that I was concerned about him, past his performance on the field. It gave him some initiative to push a little deeper. |
|
|
|
Post by davecisar on Feb 14, 2010 6:20:16 GMT -6
Turner Gill at the Glazier clinic talked about this on Thursday, he said:
He trains his kids how to communicate and work with his staff and other players
If a player has any type of problem he must come and talk to the coaching staff, the coaching staff must be very specific with how the player can turn the problem around.
If a player brings up a problem to another player in the lockerroom, the gossiping player needs to be asked: Have you talked to the coaches about it?
If the player has tallked to the coaches then the next response is, if you are doing what the coaches told you to do, you will be alright.
Gill mentioned a number of things he does in order to get his kids to "buy in":
He wants his kids to know who he and his staff are
He wants his kids to establish a bond, a trust
He talks a lot about why. he just doesnt tell kids to do things
He and his staff at the end of practice share who influenced them the most and why
After all the coaches have done this- 3-4 weeks, the players do the same
Coach Gill has 26 character traits he feels are important, the trait is defined and there is a scriptural verse at the bottom. Those are e-mailed weekly to all players and recruits
He does an eval of every player and sends it along with a personal letter to the player at the end of the season.
He has established an encouraging atmosphere from the laundry people to the OC/DC
Coach Gill lets everyone from the receptionist to the janitor know that they are important and have a role in the success of the team, he lets them know their efforts are appreciated
Coach Gill with "coach up" the receptionist who passes a player in the hallway who doesnt smile at the player call him by name and tell him hi etc
They back the encouraging atmoshpere with positive visualization and technology, they get film clips of the players great plays and infuse that back to the playes with a personal DVD
He talked about training his coaches and players to be "coachable", he wont hire anyone that doesnt have a learning attitude or anyone that cant be humble enough to admit when they are wrong
He's looking for the same thing when recruiting players.
Coach Gill was not a super polished speaker, but you can tell he is passionate and confident about his approach to coaching.
It looks as if he may be the polar opposite of what they had before, not to dig Mangino, I think he is a great coach in his own way. He coached circles around teams with lots more talent.
|
|
|
|
Post by illiniwek on Feb 14, 2010 6:38:07 GMT -6
Not saying anything that hasn't been said, but first thing is to have a one on one conversation with the kid and give him a chance to fix it quickly without making it a public issue. Great breakdown of the Turner Gil speech Dave. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
Post by Defcord on Feb 14, 2010 11:18:03 GMT -6
I know this is going to sound a little crazy, but I was in an area with a lot of transferring that occurred. I took over a program that had consistently finished last or next to last in conference. Obviously our best kids were leaving year in and year out. So we put in a rule if you talk about transferring you better do it because your days with us were over. Our staff told our players if we heard it they were gone. We were lucky to have the support of the administrators.
The first thing that happened was that kids stopped talking about transferring. The second thing that happened was that kids stopped transferring. Kids started like the previous poster said keeping their ass and their mind in the same place. And we started to win. I was at that school for three years and we went from 10th place out of 10 teams in conference to 4th place out of 10 teams two years in a row. We had the best record our last year for the school in over a decade. It is was all because the kids were committed.
John Wooden told his recruits that if they came to UCLA during their freshman year they would want to transfer but they would want to transfer from anywhere they chose to be ready for the feeling. The grass seems greener on the other side.
As far as captains go. I have never liked having captains and will never have them again. Seniors on the field can act as captains to talk to the officials but we will never have team captains. I do like to pick two or three players I know are respected by teammates and also are not afraid to talk to me to build a bridge. I am like all other coaches. I can be an a-hole and I want to know when I am being one unfairly so I need a few good kids to help me out. But as far as captains I never really saw them serve the purpose so we went away from them in the traditional sense. Besides I read somewhere Saban said tht when LSU won it all they didn't need captains because everyone on their team was a leader. I liked that.
|
|
