Welcome to Coaching the Best

While there are lots of good youth sports coaches, sadly, there are still way  too many coaches in this country who are failing to teach and model ethical  behavior or, worse, physically, emotionally, and  psychologically abusing children in their care, playing favorites and  placing winning ahead of having fun and skill development.

Some coaches are well-meaning but may not have the skills, temperament or  personality to be good coaches. They are easy to spot.

Less easy to identify are the coaches who appear to know what they are doing  but are still bad coaches. In particular, there are three kinds of coaches to  watch out for:

The drill sergeant

Watch out for coaches who:

• treat young athletes like warriors going into battle
• think that making a child cry is the most effective form of motivation
• believe sports is place for “boys to become men”
• push players to be tough and play through pain and injury (“suck it up”) and  never show emotion, or
• bahing girls or their sports

The entrepreneur

Some coaches, especially at the elite level, are coaching for personal or  financial gain and will do just about anything to win and get ahead.

In particular, be in the lookout for coaches who use charm and flattery to  make unrealistic claims about your child’s talent. They are usually the coaches  who lead your child (and you) to harbor unrealistic dreams that there is a  scholarship or Olympic gold medal with his or her name on it if only he:

• practiced more
• took a particular “nutritional supplement”
• attended a particular summer camp (funny, how often it is a camp where the  coach is a paid instructor)
• transferred to the school where he is the coach, or
• spent an extra year in middle school so he would be older and bigger when he  got to high school (“redshirting”).

The Loose Cannon

Be on the lookout for coaches who:

• constantly yell or scream at players
• argue with officials
• exhibit rapid mood swings
• are impulsive
• have an inflated sense of their own importance
• have an unhealthy need for admiration
• exhibit an unhealthy lack of empathy
• turn on anyone who disappoints them
• try to make you inadequate and question your credibility if you dare to  question their judgment
• are overly defensive and controlling about even minor matters
• jump from job to job, never staying in one more than a season or two (this  is a sure sign of trouble ahead).

Avoiding bad coaches

The best way to protect your child from a bad coach is, of course, not to let  him play for such a coach in the first place.

Do whatever you think is reasonably necessary to find out about the coach before the season starts when, hopefully, there is still time to find him  a place on another team:

• Talk to parents of athletes who have played for the coach
• Ask them if you can talk to their children to get their perspective
• Find out if any complaints have been filed against the coach with the local  police, club, league, or national governing body.
• If the club conducts evaluations of coaches (as it should), ask to see them,  or, if they won’t provide the actual evaluations, ask for a summary and for  information on how he ranks against other coaches.
• Trust your instincts: it is better to be safe than sorry.

“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” Ara Parasheghian