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Post by coachinghopeful on Nov 15, 2009 20:00:50 GMT -6
For a graduate research project, I'm writing a paper on the role of coaches as mentors to their players. Specifically, I'm looking at the ability of coaches to impact lives in ways that extend beyond the football field (or the baseball diamond, basketball court, etc--this is not football specific). I'd love to hear some of the opinions of others on the board about these things.
So, my questions to you are...
1.) What lessons do you believe a young person (male or female) can learn from sports that extend beyond the playing field? How can these lessons be taught in the context of a team sport?
2.) Which do you personally place a higher priority on:
Winning football games so your team is successful and your job is secure...
OR...
Teaching lasting lessons to young men, even if those lessons may come at the expense of winning ballgames or make your job situation dicey? Please be honest here.
3.) What obstacles stand in the way of a current HS/MS coach in being a mentor to young athletes?
4.) Have you ever found yourself assuming responsibilities for your players that you believe should have been handled by a family member or a teacher (walking with them on senior night, giving them rides to and from school, etc.)? If so, please explain.
5.) How can a coach-player relationship "go bad" and actually have a negative impact on a young person's life? Have you seen this happen?
6.) What are the greatest "success stories" you've seen involving players' lives being improved by their participation in sports? These don't have to involve athletic scholarships or honors.
Please be honest here, guys. I'd love stories, anectdotes, etc. to help flesh out your opinions. If you're not comfortable posting this stuff on a public forum but would like to give me some feedback, please send me a PM.
I really, really appreciate anyone who takes the time out to help me with this. Thank you in advance.
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Post by kylem56 on Nov 15, 2009 20:29:09 GMT -6
1.) What lessons do you believe a young person (male or female) can learn from sports that extend beyond the playing field? How can these lessons be lessons taught in the context of a team sport? Teamwork, sacrifice, value of a good work ethic, being accountable for ones actions, mental toughess, and many more. The nature of the game itself requires teamwork and accountability in order to operate. For those who achieve success on the football field, you will find kids with a great work ethic.
2.) Which do you personally place a higher priority on: When I first started coaching, I thought winning games was the bottom line. As I matured, I realized it was more about preparing young men for life. Teaching life lessons. I read a great quote in Bill Walsh's book "The score will take care of itself" which says 20 years from now you will not be remembered for the wins and losses but for the impact you made on the young men you coach. Winning games is great but when that player is grown up with a family and he endures adversity, whether he won that district title his junior of high school isn't going to help him persevere. Like in the book Seasons of Life, when someone asks Coach Joe Ehrman if the season was successful, he answers I don't know, we will find out in 20 years when these kids are fathers and husbands. If I lose and they fire me, ok fine, because if I am any good of a coach I will find somewhere else.
3.) What obstacles stand in the way of a current HS/MS coach in being a mentor to young athletes? From my experience, Negative parent influence. Parents who tell their sons when they come home Friday night after a game "your coaches don't know {censored}" or let them do the wrong things off the field.
4.) Have you ever found yourself assuming responsibilities for your players that you believe should have been handled by a family member or a teacher (walking with them on senior night, giving them rides to and from school, etc.)? Oh yes many times. Ive had to help kids fill out college applications, numerous rides to and from practice, give them money for lunch, gand even buy some kids clothes so they dont have to wear the same shirt and shorts every single day.
5.) How can a coach-player relationship "go bad" and actually have a negative impact on a young person's life? Have you seen this happen? Coach-player relationships can go bad when you stop critcizing their performance and start demeaning the player. Also being inconsistent with demands can also lead to a relationship starting to go bad. You have to be willing to build them up as much as you may break them down.
6.) What are the greatest "success stories" you've seen involving players' lives being improved by their participation in sports? I have only been coaching for 5 years now but I cant describe the feeling when I see a kid who comes in as a freshmen with little talent, and then you work with them, develop them, and by the end of their senior year they receive an award or scholarship.
Sorry if the anwsers are brief, make sure to send me a copy when its finished, I enjoy reading papers like this.
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Post by mariner42 on Nov 15, 2009 23:48:40 GMT -6
1.) What lessons do you believe a young person (male or female) can learn from sports that extend beyond the playing field? How can these lessons be taught in the context of a team sport? I think the lessons learned are actually kind of individual specific, but there are certain ones that carry over, such as personal responsibility, accountability, discipline, unselfishness, the value of perseverance. In order to really succeed and/or excel at sport, all of these things must manifest themselves at some point. I'm young, so I haven't had to make the distinction yet, but I'd hope that I side with the second option. I've made minor decisions of a similar nature that didn't really affect things in any HUGE way, but it was a bit of a morality moment. LITIGATION. And parents not wanting you to 'raise their kids', etc. ALL THE FREAKING TIME. I frequently give kids rides home, buy them meals, loan them a buck or two, give out relationship advice. I enjoy doing it, I just wish I was getting paid more than my substitute teacher salary to assume responsibilities that I believe are more in line with a teacher's type job. Can't think of an instance where things really went sour. It was usually a case of no relationship at all. Um... Me? I won't pretend like I was heading for an early grave or anything like that, but I do know myself and I can say that my life would be SIGNIFICANTLY worse if I'd never been an athlete in general and football player in particular. I don't really do things half-way, which would've certainly led to some pretty negative behavior patterns if I'd never gone down the path I chose. I learned a bunch of character traits and such, but really, what really mattered was that I was doing something positive and healthy (emotionally/lifestyle-wise). |
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Fridge
Sophomore Member
Re-Building the Bocholt Rhinos (18+) in Germany for 2024.
Posts: 148 
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Post by Fridge on Nov 17, 2009 10:34:46 GMT -6
So, my questions to you are... 1.) What lessons do you believe a young person (male or female) can learn from sports that extend beyond the playing field? How can these lessons be taught in the context of a team sport? That you have to fight for those things, you really really want, and that great work and believe will almost everytime be awarded. Don´t take anything for granted. I always tell my players, that the same effort they give on the playing field is necessary in school or later in their working life. If they fight hard and always try to be the best, and not get happy if they only reach 80%, then they´ll be winners. 2.) Which do you personally place a higher priority on: Winning football games so your team is successful and your job is secure... OR... Teaching lasting lessons to young men, even if those lessons may come at the expense of winning ballgames or make your job situation dicey? Please be honest here. In Germany it is not common to get paid for football, it´s way more idealistic here. We have normal jobs (myself 41 hours/week), and coach in our free time (actually coaching takes up to 30 hours/week). So that question cannot be answered by me, the way you want it. I never want to be addicted to a team, because they pay me. I always want what´s best for my players. 3.) What obstacles stand in the way of a current HS/MS coach in being a mentor to young athletes? For me, nothing :-) But as said, I´m no "school" coach. 4.) Have you ever found yourself assuming responsibilities for your players that you believe should have been handled by a family member or a teacher (walking with them on senior night, giving them rides to and from school, etc.)? If so, please explain. More than I could quote. I am working for the police (office job, I am not a policeman), so I had some few guys having problems with law, or have been threatend by guys in school. Their parents did not care at all. I once had daily contact with a player, whose parents got divorced. He had to live with his mum, but she beat him, locked him out, if he came late from practice (even in winter, when busses were late). One time, it was below 0°C and snowing in winter, she locked him out and he wanted to sleep in their yard, because all of his friends lived next-town, and there were no further busses available. I had our club chairman and some sort of a youth counselor talk to his mum (they knew her for years), while I was keeping contact with him. I was close inviting him to my home for some days, until situation cleared. But I lived 1.5 hours away from that place, and he´d never have a chance to go to school at home for that time. I think the numbers increase. There are more and more parents not interested in what their kids do. I´ve had kids for 3-4 years and never met their parents. Not even, when they are injured and transported to a hospital in a different town... But I will not complain. I am happy with my new team. There´s at least one family member per player supporting the kids and our club... It´s nice to see, that things are different where I am at right now. 5.) How can a coach-player relationship "go bad" and actually have a negative impact on a young person's life? Have you seen this happen? Not seen a Coach/Player relationship go bad due to any incedent. People change and loose contact, but not due to a certain incedent. We once had a staff member (his task was something between Team Manager and Team Counselor) who was something like the best friend for the team. He traveled with the kids, went to the cinemas, handled every problem they had. We than, after him beeing the staff chief for 6 years, found out, that he was sort of collection worn shirts, socks, and even shoes from the players, paying them money for their clothes... It was during our preseason camp and we were some ours away from home. Sent him home, escorted by our club chairman (good friend of family) and guided him into professional help. The team never ever had contact with him again. It was some sort of "long time not seen" so they "forget" what happened. But it was a tough time during camp, because noone really could understand, what went wrong in his head. No problem :-) Hope it´ll help you. |
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Post by jackedup on Nov 17, 2009 13:47:57 GMT -6
1.) What lessons do you believe a young person (male or female) can learn from sports that extend beyond the playing field? How can these lessons be taught in the context of a team sport?
[glow=red,2,300]Discipline. In everything things we do on the field, discipline is required in order to succeed.
[/glow]
2.) Which do you personally place a higher priority on:
Winning football games so your team is successful and your job is secure...
OR...
Teaching lasting lessons to young men, even if those lessons may come at the expense of winning ballgames or make your job situation dicey? Please be honest here.
[glow=red,2,300]Can we combine them and win some games while teaching lasting lessons. If not, then I would say teaching lasting lessons. I was one player on a team that needed to learn lessons in order to grow up. And that's what we did. We learned lessons and we lost. And though we lost, in the longer run I am a much better person for the lessons I learned. [/glow]
3.) What obstacles stand in the way of a current HS/MS coach in being a mentor to young athletes?
[glow=red,2,300]There are no obstacles. Alls it take is a little time. You just have to show them you care and that takes time.[/glow]
4.) Have you ever found yourself assuming responsibilities for your players that you believe should have been handled by a family member or a teacher (walking with them on senior night, giving them rides to and from school, etc.)? If so, please explain.
[glow=red,2,300]Everyday! I am a shuttle bus for most of my kids in the summer and fall. I pay for camps, buy food, even buy them equipment when they need it.[/glow]
5.) How can a coach-player relationship "go bad" and actually have a negative impact on a young person's life? Have you seen this happen?
[glow=red,2,300]When the boundaries are not clear, any relationship can go bad. It is the coaches' responsibility to make sure the players know you, an adult, do not need a teenager as his friend. But that as the adult, you can care for him/her as a parent would. [/glow]
6.) What are the greatest "success stories" you've seen involving players' lives being improved by their participation in sports? These don't have to involve athletic scholarships or honors.
[glow=red,2,300]In my 10 short years of coaching football, I've been fortunate to have players come back to coach with us. They enjoyed their time and learned from being with us, that they feel the need to do the same with our current players. [/glow]
Hope this helps!
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