Dealing with discipline is always an important aspect of coaching. Athletes will misbehave at times; it is only natural. How coaches respond to misbehavior depends on what level they are coaching and their own coaching personality.
Most youth sports are considered a voluntary activity. More often than not the typical parent/coach has practices after they put in a full days work on their real job. The volunteer coach puts in a great deal of time, dedication and energy. In return they expect the young athletes to pay attention and cooperate. This makes a great deal of sense to adults, but alas, some young athletes do not follow the coaches’ “I’m doing all this work for our team, so I expect that you at least pay attention, follow the rules and try your best” logic.
What a coach may say or do about uncooperative, disruptive behaviors is a book in itself. There are many ways to skin a cat. The bottom line is to get the child to change behavior. If what the young athlete is doing needs discipline, than the discipline is given so they will not do it again. Discipline should be given to change what has been done, in hopes that it doesn’t occur again.
If punishment is necessary, make sure it fits the crime. Never put a kid in the electric chair for just running a stop sign. Being disruptive when the coach is talking, should require a different reaction than someone punching one of their teammates in the nose.
I had basically four types of disciplinary actions. (Remember, I was coaching college age students, during a different era) If what the athlete did was not very disruptive but just annoying I would talk, yell, or threaten them. Knowing the athlete and what best works to get them to change their behavior is important. Yes, sometime just telling someone that what they are doing is got to change is all that is necessary. Some kids get the picture right away.
If what the athlete did was a little more severe, (like coming late to practice, or not wearing all the protective gear we required them to wear, something of this nature) I would have them run “Maverick Reminders”. This would be a series of wind sprints after the practice was over. Once again the amount they would have to run would be dependant upon the severity of the action. Five all the way to 10, 50-yards sprints.
If bad behavior continued or the athlete did something major, like fighting, missing class’s, practices or something worse, they would have to run “DAWN PATROL.” Dawn Patrol was getting the disruptive player up at 5:30 AM. With me in attendance he would then have to run two miles. If a player had three “Dawn patrols” he would be suspended from the team. They would also be suspended if they did something really detrimental to the team or school. I was the judge of what action constituted the suspension.
The rules and punishments were always given to the players at the start of the season. I made sure they understood what was considered misconduct and what the penalties would be.
It is true that discipline does not always work and that it can create problems when used ineffectively, but when used appropriately, discipline is effective in eliminating undesirable behaviors without creating other undesirable consequences. You must use discipline effectively, because it is impossible to guide athletes without it.
Quote for the week: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” -Helen Keller
http://www.edmondsun.com/sportscolumns/x519237988/CORTESE-How-to-discipline-a-young-athlete
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