Discipline Questions

Make sure they know the expectation and hold them accountable.

I don't believe that discipline is punishment but I will do various things like rolling them, up downs, jump squats etc.

I don't think too many things are unforgivable minus a felony I guess.

When they become a detriment to the team. I have only had one kid that has been this way and found a way to stay out and it was my fault. Most of the time they will quit IME

IMO, it starts with basic expectations of practice attendance and punctuality. There needs to be consequences within a program for ditching practice and being late without a good reason. An "unforgivable sin" for us is having three unexcused absences; a player won't come back to the program after he's missed that third practice.

Establishing those discipline policies sets a solid tone for the program which will head off many issues. But, there will still be laziness and poor attitudes from time to time in practice. Here are ways we handled those situations:

-Remove a player from a drill. "If you want to act like a spectator, you'll be a spectator. In practice and in games." If a player has to be removed from a drill, they automatically drop on the depth chart and they need to earn it back.

- "Condition yourselves during drills or we'll do it after practice." Pretty simple; any kid that gets more than two warnings about being lazy or having a bad attitude during any drill conditions after practice.

-Complete removal from practice: sit a kid out for the entirety of practice if they're a serious PITA and don't play them. This last season, our AD liked to roam around football and volleyball practices so we'd boot a kid, text the AD and he could escort him from the field and practice.

Turn it over to your asisstants. Then back em. Big stuff is different deal. Skipping class though? Make assistants do it. One more thing off hc’s plate.
I would say this about workout attendance as well.

1. It's got to start day 1, police the little things come out of camp like R LEE ERMY, and slowly open up as season goes.
set the tone early with a powerpoint or list of rules/laws within your program where there is no grey area, in which they know they F*cked up

    i.e.: no fighting, no talking back, no playing with the balls outside of a drill, disrespect isn't tolerated etc.

2. it depends you kind of get a feel for what is reasonable between what is just petty nonsense that can be verbally corrected and what should equal getting throwing out of practice/the program...

#1 rule in coaching in the modern era is NO TEAM PUNISHMENTS for disciplinary reasons (outside of a lack of effort deal)... no longer can you punish a team for the actions of one ... the reason being is back in our day the captains/tougher kids would be able to threaten the perpetrator and self police the issue... in 2020 this becomes litigation... so team punishments are a waste of time and can potentially lead to locker room issues... plus in reality the athletic kids just tough it out anyways.

3. Criminal behavior, doing something that gets admin involved, disrespecting the coaches, etc.

4. danger to the team or himself... in which they usually have a way back because afterall we are dealing with the developing human mind and most of them act out of emotion/feeling anyways and need to LEARN that actions have consequences.

  LMAO believe it or not I have made this joke before! 

"you looked like R L Ermey out there today" ... " just remember how the first half of the movie ends!"

To directly answer some of these:

Discipline IMO is a mindset, it's not complaining when things get tough and it's being a man and accepting responsibility when you do something wrong, myself included. So when I mess up (and I do) I man up and say "guys, I messed up, that's on me" and the kids respond to that.

Severity of the punishment is based on severity of the crime, if a kid is late to a practice, he should be "late" to the game (missed playing time), for example. When you start looking at the crimes, you will figure out which ones are worth reprimanding kids for and which ones are worth just having a conversation about.

Unforgivable is anything against the law, anything that they'd get suspended from school for, and a refusal to fix the issues when they're brought to the table. For example, if Jack is constantly back talking his coaches and he's already been reprimanded for it, but it still continues, he will make a decision, fix it now or hit the road.

For me the time to cut a kid loose is when you've given them ample opportunities to fix their issues and they still refuse to do so. At a certain point, you have to cut off the arm for the sake of the body. Some kids recognize this and take care of it on their own, others you have to break out the saw and bite down.

You need to keep your discipline policies in line with whatever the school district's policies are. Otherwise, it makes it easier for them to throw you under the bus when the parents complain. They'll throw you under the bus anyway, but it's harder when you are just following their directives.

Main thought is never have a rule you won't (or can't) enforce.  All must be clearly explained beforehand.

Unforgivable offense to us (resulting to dismissal) = 3rd unexcused skip of practice (or 2nd if you really need to make a point); substance abuse; & gross disrespect to any coach on staff (or other faculty member).

My other two cents; nothing invokes a behavior change quite like revoking playing time. We've had some fairly brutal "punishments" in the past that deterred most poor behavior but jerking a kid's playing time almost always does the trick. On the rare occasions where losing playing time didn't, those kids usually ended up quitting or getting kicked off of the team.