For some reason this definition has been lost. It had been replaced with the definition: to head an athletic team to insure that your child gets first dibs on playing time, positions, and overall favoritism in all matters pertaining to the aforementioned team. Lost is the art of teaching fundamentals. Lost is the fun of playing game. It has got to the point where it just sickens me. Kids that may not have parents to teach them how to play the game or parents have to work, get tossed aside,and given the minimum playing time. Coaches don't coach anymore. They make up a line up and play the kids that have already achieved advanced skills. Growing up, we had coaches. They helped you learn the basic skills that you need to play the game. On rare occasions, it was teammates father. Yes, JCSA I'm looking at you but you're not the only one. I've witnessed it at a church "Upward" league this year. It's like some compulsion, "WE HAVE TO WIN!!" Ridiculous. "I'm going to work with these five and the rest of you go in the outfield and shag flyballs." That's great coach. Parents payed $75 to watch their kid sit the bench for all but 2 innings while the same kids play every inning of every game. You're not teaching them to learn the game, you're teaching to hate the game. Now, not all coaches are like that, but I'd say most are. When I coached I rotated players to where most kids would sit at least once. It wasn't hard and I don't feel it cost us anything in the way of wins or losses. No, I'm not greatest coach. Far from it. But I taught fundamentals. It's comical when coaches get upset over a play because they didn't teach them what to do in that particular situation. Coaches, COACH. Quit worrying about getting your kid to the big leagues. There are over 300,000,000 people in the United States, this year about 800 will play in the bigs. You figure the odds since your not doing anything anyway.
This was what was on my mind today.
I have to agree with you on this one. But I do not think that it is all the coaches fault. There is not a lot training to be a coach for these programs. It is parents who get no benefit from the amount time they donate. They get grouched at from other parents. The only benefit they get is making sure their child plays. I think they should get trained and I also think that the coachs kid should play for free.
ReplyDeleteI have always thought that coaches should not coach their child's team. Kids sports have changed a lot. I mean we have parents shooting each other at kids sporting events. Kids sports used to be fun. Yes, they taught you the fundamentals and the coaches made sure everyone played. But coaches also told you the biggest thing was to have fun and sportsmanship. None of this is taught anymore! I was never one of the unfortunate ones who did not have the natural ability to be good at softball, but I always felt bad for people who didn't get to play as much as I did. But my coaches were always pretty good at making sure that everyone got about the same amount of time. I still think every player in kids sports should play the same amount of time!
ReplyDeleteLELA