As I entered the locker room to address my team before a tournament game last weekend, for the second time in as many weeks I was over-powered vocally by a coach from the adjoining locker room screaming and cursing out his team. \u00a0Both times myself and my team were basically forced to listen to a curse-laden tirade while we were attempting to get ready for our own games. \u00a0One of them even went so far as to kick the exit door open on his way out. \u00a0These incidents led me to contemplate a few issues after our own games and evaluate the lessons being taught by these coaches.<\/p>\n
1) What lesson is being taught to these kids? One of the only things continually crossing my mind was: “I really wouldn’t want to play his team – if that’s the way he acts and ‘controls’ himself during tense situations, I can only imagine how the children he is coaching will maintain their control.” \u00a0Kids are like sponges, they pick up on the smallest things leaders they respect do. \u00a0While I can’t say for certain whether or not the players in those locker rooms respected the coaches, I can almost guarantee they are absorbing poor behavioral habits in times of difficulty\/stress. \u00a0If a coach completely loses his cool when something doesn’t go right, how can he\/she expect a player to maintain composure when something happens to them during a game?<\/p>\n
2) Why do parents put up with this? \u00a0In our area, the cost to play midget hockey is substantial – usually falling in the $2,500 range for non-Tier I (AAA) programs. \u00a0With that much money on the line, I don’t see how parents could be willing to put up with actions like these and continue to allow their children to be exposed to this sort of behavior coming from an ‘adult.’<\/p>\n
3) What are the long-term effects of this learned behavior? \u00a0It is easy to see the short-term effects coaches who are out of control can have on a team, but the long-term effects are much harder to quantify. \u00a0Habits, no matter how small, play an enormous role in the long-term development of people. One of the best simple habit examples is the age-old saying: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” \u00a0Imagine the long-term impact and difference between consistently practicing that habit versus: “A candy bar a day keeps the doctor away!”<\/p>\n
Now, don’t get me wrong. \u00a0There is a time and place to raise your voice to make a point, but I don’t think there’s a place in our game to degrade and personally attack youth. \u00a0I definitely have things I struggle with handling, as I’m sure every coach does. \u00a0This is OK – nobody is perfect. \u00a0I’m sure there have been instances where I was out of line with my actions. \u00a0My simple hope is that you and I, as a coaches, take the time to evaluate our interactions with our teams. \u00a0Make sure they’re appropriate. \u00a0The kids are watching you. \u00a0Coaching is a position of leadership. \u00a0Let’s make sure we’re leading them in the right directions – not only in hockey….but in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Post hockey game tirades in youth hockey are a detrimental part of our game. The impacts coaches have on their impressionable players is tremendous. Two recent weekend encounters led me to contemplate just how much impact coaches have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[42,95,279],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.hockeyshare.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}