One Thing Youth Sports Coaches Should Learn From Coach John Wooden
You are probably thinking, "Youth sports coaches can learn so much from the greatest coach of all." That cannot be disputed
. But the one thing that may be the most important of his teachings is not the most obvious one. Coach John Wooden often said that he felt like he became closer to his bench players than he did to the players who received most of the playing time. This is not a common situation at any level of sports and especially at the youth sport level. More often than not the opposite is true - players, who do not play very much, do not feel close to their coach at all. More often, they dislike the coach because of their lack of playing time.
If youth sports coaches could learn coach Woodens methods, there would be many less confrontational situations in youth sports. Most confrontational incidents occur because players, or their parents, feel like they are not being treated fairly. Parents feel like their kids are not getting any positive esteem building from being a member of the team and so often, they are right. Unfortunately, by the very nature of sport, this situation can never be solved completely. However, if youth coaches learned how to deal with the less talented players in a healthy manor, those kids would still benefit with increased self-esteem, which should be the goal of youth coaches after all.
Coach Woodens bench players gained self esteem and felt as if they were important parts of the team, despite the fact that they did not play often. How did he accomplish this? Coach Wooden accomplished this by explaining to his team that a team is like a smooth running car. He informed his team that even the minor components of the car must operate correctly for the car (team) to work. Therefore, he went on, all parts of the car (team) were important and not just the engine (star players). In fact, without the minor parts of the team functioning and pushing the stars, the star players and team would never reach their potential. In this manner, Coach Wooden convinced all his players of their importance and thereby build up their self-esteem.
Based on my experiences with some outstanding coaches in my professional career, here are some suggestions for youth sport coaches to help treat players who do not play as often as others:Coaches should:
1. Greet each player by name before practices and games, whenever possible.
2. Delegate equal time to all team members in practice.
3. Look for signs of improvement in all players, no matter how small, and point it out to individual, team and players parents.
4. Express the importance of each players contribution to the teams success.
5. Allow players to play their favorite positions in practice even though they may not play those in games.
6. Communicate often to bench players that they are important to the team and that they should stay ready at all times because you know they will be needed at some point in the game and/or season.
7. Always look for opportunities to put players into games. Games that are out of hand score wise and exhibition games are good examples of this.
8. Look for situations where players have a good chance of succeeding in games as opposed to situations where less-skilled players may be over matched.
9. Constantly teach sport strategy knowledge in games, especially to players who are sitting on the bench.
10. Recognize the different God given physical talent of players and show patience with less talented players.
11. Reward and encourage payers who display effort, dedication and attention.
12. Give all players a pat on the back and a smile at the end of games, win or lose.
Of course, many recreational sports leagues have mandatory playing rules, which is good. Coaches should always strive to give bench sitting players confidence and a sense of importance with their coaching attention. As mentioned, building and maintaining youth players self-esteem is the number one goal of youth coaches. Coaches, who make a point of paying extra attention to kids who do not play as much, become positive role models to all players.
by: Jack Perconte
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