School Teachers as Coaches

School Teachers as coaches

I have been married to a teacher for the last 25 years. I witness firsthand the tremendous pressure they work under on a day to day basis. The ridiculous “Common Core” that assumes the mantra that teachers should be robots controlled by the State dictated pre programmed written curriculum. Students should be tested continually for what they learn to determine both the teachers and students aptitude. NO!

I have spent parts of the last decade in the classroom and 21 years as a head college coach and I am here to tell you that teachers do not have it easy by any stretch. They want to teach. They are creative. They want to help the less educated see “the light.” Many many teachers are frustrated by the environment in which administrators and parents think that they should control the way teachers teach. But I digress.

Many teachers who coach youth and high school sports change dramatically when they get to coach. I am not sure whether it is because of the frustration of their jobs. Could it be they watch all these DI and pro games and simply mimic the coaches’ behavior and strategies? Might it be partly because of the pay for play mentality that parents have put so much extrinsic financial pressure on their child’s athletic journey that they want a return on their investment?

Teacher after teacher I see mismanage kids who play sports for them to such an extent that if they ever tried that in their classrooms they would be fired. The very thing that works for them in the classroom is dismissed by them as soon as they start to coach.

Teachers spend more time in class with the students who need help, not the gifted ones. They don’t yell at the students who are talking tests. Do they yell at the parents who come and question what they are doing in the classroom?

I would like to see teachers band together and reinstitute the higher moral ground in coaching that exemplifies what they do in the classroom. Then, I would like the administrators back them up and tell the parents to stop all the nonsense that has contributed to the escalation of negative stress in youth and high school sports.

I am not saying it doesn’t happen with other adults in other professions when they get the “whistle.” It does. But I am wondering why the teachers, who know a different way, a better way for the children to develop and learn, choose to ignore their training and success in the classroom.

It all starts with EPUT. Equal play under 10.That stops the angst to a very high degree. There are some fantastic opportunities to coach life skills, accountability, fun and trust with equal play that many try to dismiss. There is no data to back that up. Play for fun!

The brain and body in balance

 Brain and body

When you go to kindergarten do you take one course all day every day? When you are in middle school do you take one course all day every day? When you are in high school do you take one course all day every day? When you are in undergraduate in college do you take one course every day all day? Only in grad school do you start to specialize. The brain and the body need to be connected in balance. End of lesson.

John Calipari and Knowing how to win

After the loss to Kansas, Coach John Calipari told the press: "We had our chances in regulation," Calipari said. "What I told them after is, I've got to do a better job of teaching these kids how to win. They do not know how to win a game." . Of course they don’t.. Do you know why? Because no one knows how to win, nobody. Nobody knows how to teach winning. On some occasions winning a game sends a confusing message when you have not played well.

 His kids have to concentrate on what they are doing every second they are out on the court. They cannot concentrate on the task at hand and still say to themselves “If I do this the team will win, that’s what coach taught us.”

I understand what John meant, but I take great exception to the message sent to youth and high school coaches everywhere by this statement. It’s like when people said Derek Jeter knew how to win.

Let me explain. For those of you who have been to one of my presentations or read some of my blogs, you know John Calipari is front and center in a portion of our talks.

Three years ago Kentucky won a national championship. 2 years ago they did not even make the tournament. Am I to believe that over the summer, after they won the championship, he forgot how to win? Did he forget how to teach how to win? Last year, he got his team all the way to the final four. In the semi-final game his team lost. Once again, at that horrible place and time did he forget how to win?

This year his team has struggled to some extent. He still has awesome talent on the roster but they just aren’t jelling as he would like. He has commented about their lack of consistency and development.

 I want to say at this point during last season he basically went with a platoon system. If one group wasn’t doing well, the next group came in and played. Play by performance by group. It worked. The interterm competition between the players for EARNED playing time lifted the whole team up. Every one runs faster when they are being chased.

I am not saying that he could have duplicated it this year with this roster. BUT>>>>

How’s your way working so far????

The Panthers and the Zen

Panthers and the Zen

I have been reading with interest as much as I can about the Panthers over the last two weeks. I have read interviews from Coach Ron Rivera, and the general manager Dave Gettlemean. Both men, being humble and thankful were keenly aware of their journey and good fortune. They both attribute part of their rise to the Super Bowl to LUCK. That’s right; they both said they got lucky.

Dave credited his predecessor with providing useful parts for the team’s success, both on and off the field.  One of the things he stressed was how fortunate he was to be in this position. Ron talked about the journey. He had been passed over for head coaching jobs on 7 occasions. He talked about his aha moment when he felt the team turned the corner towards success. He gave his players freedom.

Now last night’s game was not pretty by any stretch of the imagination. A couple of things caught my eye. First the Panther players were not so inclined to give up a ball to a fan when a great play was made. I understand that. It was the Super Bowl. They seemed to have lost some of their strut. The last fumble when Newton seemed to make what one announcer called “a business decision” to not go after the fumble was quite revealing to me.

Peyton Manning on the other hand was humble. The 15 yard down and out pass was no longer thrown with force and zip. It was obvious that this was not his team. He handled it with class. The constant yelling at the line of scrimmage before each play was for the most part gone. He had been told not to do it and he listened.

The speech he made the night before was forgotten after the first snap of the ball yesterday. Players like to talk about that after the fact, but in reality, the cant think of it while they are playing. It was recounted and remembered after the game, only because they won. He did manage to get in a plug for Budweiser twice. But, mostly he was thankful, appreciative and humble.

I have never been a fan of SWAG. Too many things have to happen out of your control to go around showing off or strutting.  It does work for some people, but not nearly as many as people seem to think it does, and certainly there are repercussions and accountability factors in play. If you want to celebrate, show off, and prance, so be it. It’s not my cup of tea. BUT, when games like this happen, and days like yesterday happen, I sit back, smile and am amused.

No one talked about the Zen yesterday after the game.

One of my favorite expressions is…..

Peace of mind is victory

The 5 kids sitting at the end of the bench

I broadcast another high school varsity game on the radio. I got there early because I wanted to see the JV game. One team played lots of kids. They subbed in early in the first quarter.   At the 3 minute mark this coach subbed in 3 kids. By half time all the kids had played. The kids on the bench were engaged in the game and cheering on their team mates when they weren’t playing. They had fun.

The other coach did not sub until late in the first quarter. He only subbed in one kid. He was up yelling instructions for most of the game. They had brought a chair from their school, with their school colors, that was taller than the ones provided by the host school, and the yelling coach used it for timeouts. It was awkward to say the least.

If you have been following my program and blogs you know how I feel about constant instructions being yelled at the kids while they are playing. It does not work.  It is called bottle necking in Psychology. The kids have a hard time retaining the instructions because they are overwhelmed with data and can only process a little at a time in their brains while they are playing. (Parents this goes for you too!)Plus, you are telling the other coach what your team is doing wrong.

My broadcast location was on the floor in the middle of the gym directly across from the two teams. What I want to stress to you today is the last 5 kids on the losing team bench for both the JV and Varsity game. They were totally disinterested. Even if the coach needed them to play meaningful minutes they were not prepared to do so. What if a player got hurt? How about an academic problem? Why not play these kids?

 These kids needed to know math to play for their team. They had to divide the score, by the time left in the game, calculate this with the coaches’ ego in managing a game to win to see if they might get a chance to play.

 Next they had to then either root for their team to play poorly if they were losing, or want them to run up the score if they are winning. Neither trait is going to help these children later in life.

It was remarkable to me to see their negative body language in warm ups and sitting on the bench during the game. They knew they weren’t going to play. What was stunning to me was that neither the JV or Varsity coach on the LOSING team noticed these kids except when he yelled at them for something that was going on in the game while they were sitting. Relationships, the key component to successful coaching was missing.

One last note to give you a concrete example as to the cause and effect of this kind of coaching. One of the kids who did not play got into an argument with his mom after the varsity game was over. It was loud and he was very agitated. Whatever the problem, was, it was surely exasperated by the athlete not playing.

What is the cost of the new 15 seconds of fame?

Consequences: Cause and effect

Scenarios are playing out across the country with kids and families devoting themselves to get those 15 seconds of fame. They don’t think that is what it is going to be, but for most kids, and that is 99% of them the dreams of the DI scholarship and pro career come down to this.

What if an athlete gets to play 15 seconds in one game at one hallowed stadium, arena, or court? What if those 15 seconds is all he gets? What if he only got those 15 seconds because the assistant coach told the head coach to play the kid so it would help him get another walk on to commit? The assistant explains to the coach that maybe they can find that late bloomer if they keep doing this and get their own “BIG” before he becomes a “BIG.”

Let’s take this concept and extrapolate it across the country to all sports. There could easily be 100,000 kids and families going through this scenario each year. They have invested all the time, money, and mental stress to get their child to this one point in his continuum. This child then uses social media to tell all his friends and kids he played with that he made it to the Promised Land. He has to be careful though, not to upset the other scholarship players on the team or the coach with his story as to jeopardize his spot on the team.

What if other kids he played with did not make it this far? What if they are playing, maybe even starting, on a lower level college team and resent this event? What if they meet back at the old high school and have to face each other?

Back in my day we would be thrilled for the kid. We would take joy in his success. We would not use it for our own status and benefit. We would still play pickup games and have fun and genuinely share in the good fortune?

But what about the parents connected to this player? What do the parents of the kid who didn’t make it that far say to their own child? How does the snubbed child rationalize and justify being bitter? How does it affect his future playing, coaching, work, and relationship skills? He too spent his whole life trying to get to the DI Promised Land. He may even have had more accolades that the player who made it.

Who does the coach favor when they both come back to one of his practices?

How does the coach handle it? Does he brag to all he knows that one of his kids “made it” and played at a hallowed venue? Does he use this with players coming into or up to his program as an “attainable carrot?”

What are the long term ramifications of this kind of journey for our children, parents, and coaches?

Championships made lives influenced

The true sign of a great coach is how many players you develop and get significantly better under your tutelage than championships won. You influence a lot more players lives every day in practice and off field demeanor and modeling behavior for future life skills than you do winning championships. By the way, the two things are directly related.