No one gets better
sitting on the bench, no one. There is not one thing sitting on the bench does
for an athlete that is not far outweighed by playing. In this ever changing
world we live in teaching children fair and honest competition and
sportsmanship is only learned by playing. Children learn by internal
realization, not external force. Sitting on the bench and not playing
scientifically speaking, affects the brain and cognitive ability to learn. Have
you ever traveled all day on a plane or car? How tired are you at the end of
the trip? You just sat all day. You get to your destination , say an amusement
park, and you don’t get to go on any of the rides. That's how the kids feel.
That is not a ripe environment to learn. As a head hockey coach in college we
had a simple philosophy. If you dress you play. No, not just one minute at the
end of the game either. At my company Frozen Shorts, we teach completion to
coach’s parents and athletes in our talks and seminars. Survival of the fittest
never meant one person. It meant a community. Inclusion not exclusion is the
new way to build championship teams. I am a very competitive person but I would
bench my mom in the last five minutes of a championship game even if she was my
best player. And it wouldn’t faze me. I would make sure I put her back in,
along with every other athlete thou. Failing is not failure. It’s not my job to
decide when how or even if the light goes on. My goal is to just keep flipping
the switch.
Work at it every day at our Co. there should never be U10 kids
sitting. You have to build the base. No one gets better sitting on the bench.
For 99% of the kids HS is it. Body doesn’t develop fully until 22, 23, and 24.
Most teams have 2 good kids and two not so well. Everyone else is interchangeable,
but they don’t all get to play. You always run faster when someone is chasing
you
