Coaching (and teaching) - The Bear and Badger

Facewon

There's lots of angles, and I understand the parent position, but it is frustrating to hear folks accuse us of lack of diligence etc, when we, for instance, literally watched the bottom 30 players in u16s for 2 hours intently trying to make decisions between a bunch of near identical players.

Facewon

Second phone call Saturday was to a parent who's son I've coached for 3 years. Mum my team manager for all of those. He stayed in third team while newer players went up.

He's decided not to continue. Ouch.

I understand the decision, and I'm going back and questioning how I handled his expectations during the season.

He started all season, played big minutes, but his defense has always been awful and he doesn't box out.

And he's become more turnover prone as the years have passed and he hasn't gotten stronger.

He got obliterated by other players at tryouts though.

And the disconnect between what he and his parents saw (apparently I realied on his defense) is stark.

(on the def front, he was clearly told, repeatedly, it was a weakness.)

Left me pretty gutted Saturday night. On top of a bunch of other players having sooks about selection, and faffing about in the 18s.

Thankfully, woke up Sunday, got down to training and had all players excited to start new season. New coaches looking great, a good meeting with coaches after then a seperate session with our 14.1s and 16.1s.

Back with hand picked players and guys who are dedicated and keen.

10 selected. 10 there early and ready to go.

Was able to have a personal chat with a cut player while that was happening, and it was 1000x more productive than parent chats.

Admin nearly done too. For now.

cockbeard

Even at that age, we as players know when we are not good enough, I'd try to make sure the player is the last person you speak to on the call, it should be easier than attempting to justify your decision to deluded parents who think their boy is the next Michael Jordan, or worse feel that they have to succeed as they've "invested in them"

Wookienopants

Oh god I remember dealing with difficult parents. I spent 5 years working as a school sports coach and about 10 years working as a martial arts coach with kids.

The worst part by far was dealing with the parents who thought their little angel was being held back because I wouldn’t let them grade or let them play on the team even though their little “angel” was constantly pissing about or skipping training or putting in zero effort.

“My boy is the only one who isn’t grading, this isn’t fair!”
“Does your boy know his kata? Does he know his combination drills?”
“No, that’s your fault”
“No, the other 25 kids know theirs, your boy chose to piss about and ignore all instruction because you raised him to be an entitled little prick who doesn’t listen to adults”

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