Locker room tirades deconstructed
The tirades of GB coaches seems to be on a lot of people's minds lately. Up in Trenton, for example, the the Trenton Central coach has been placed on some kind of unofficial suspension following an allegedly profanity-laced tirade after a preseason scrimmage. The team and most of the parents seem to be rallying around the sort-of deposed coach, but it sheds light on a rumbling issue throughout sports, especially girls' sports.
What is acceptable?
As I've said and written before, I can't pretend to know what it's like to coach high school kids on a daily basis, and the spectrum of emotions that it must inspire over the course of a season. I have been able to observe the demeanors and coaching styles of literally hundreds of high school coaches, however, and I can tell you that those styles are just as diverse among the successful as the unsuccessful. There is no magic range of volatility that allows for lasting results, and there are no lines of laxity or rigidity beyond which no coach can field a team that's both winning and happy. I tend to think of the locker room tirade as a nuclear option, a last line of defense, because what is there to do if it doesn't work? To reach that point in the preseason, as the TC coach apparently did, is certainly ominous for the success of that team, but whether it was proper or warranted depends on particulars of the situation.
I think it's perfectly OK for a coach to blow up at a lack of effort, a lack of focus and concentration, a loss of composure or on-court selfishness. I even think it's alright single individual players out for shortcomings in these areas. High school kids are very near adults in just about every way, and sports is the perfect place for them to learn accountability. Personal attacks against individual players for problems that come from off the court and outside the gym are obviously not OK. Coaches often run into problems here over issues of conditioning -- the story linked below mentions such a case from a few years ago -- but I think if a player comes to practice and busts his/her ass every single day, there isn't anything more you can expect. Most coaches get it.
Sometimes coaches say things to athletes in girls' sports that make me wince, but then I just try to imagine that the coach was talking to a male athlete and I usually realize that the stuff is not so bad, or at least that it's not uncommon. A lot of SJ's best -- and most controversial -- girls' coaches get in trouble with those outside the program simply because they treat their female players the same way they would treat male ones. Interestingly, it's usually female coaches who can pull it off, at least for a while. Parents tend to tolerate it less from a male coach.
For the record, I don't get the feeling the thing I witnessed the aftermath of at HC the other night actually crossed the line. In fact, I'm not aware of any current coach in SJ who crosses that line. They may exist, but I haven't heard about it. To assert that such things were happening would be irresponsible.Assuming that line isn't crossed, a coach is within her/his rights to use anything she/he deems necessary to spark the team. In the HC case, I only wonder if it was necessary or warranted after a loss to a physically superior team.
For those interested, here's a link to a story about the Trenton Central coaching controversy:
http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1135069556227750.xml&coll=5
I'll be at Sterling-Haddon Heights tomorrow night. See you there.
What is acceptable?
As I've said and written before, I can't pretend to know what it's like to coach high school kids on a daily basis, and the spectrum of emotions that it must inspire over the course of a season. I have been able to observe the demeanors and coaching styles of literally hundreds of high school coaches, however, and I can tell you that those styles are just as diverse among the successful as the unsuccessful. There is no magic range of volatility that allows for lasting results, and there are no lines of laxity or rigidity beyond which no coach can field a team that's both winning and happy. I tend to think of the locker room tirade as a nuclear option, a last line of defense, because what is there to do if it doesn't work? To reach that point in the preseason, as the TC coach apparently did, is certainly ominous for the success of that team, but whether it was proper or warranted depends on particulars of the situation.
I think it's perfectly OK for a coach to blow up at a lack of effort, a lack of focus and concentration, a loss of composure or on-court selfishness. I even think it's alright single individual players out for shortcomings in these areas. High school kids are very near adults in just about every way, and sports is the perfect place for them to learn accountability. Personal attacks against individual players for problems that come from off the court and outside the gym are obviously not OK. Coaches often run into problems here over issues of conditioning -- the story linked below mentions such a case from a few years ago -- but I think if a player comes to practice and busts his/her ass every single day, there isn't anything more you can expect. Most coaches get it.
Sometimes coaches say things to athletes in girls' sports that make me wince, but then I just try to imagine that the coach was talking to a male athlete and I usually realize that the stuff is not so bad, or at least that it's not uncommon. A lot of SJ's best -- and most controversial -- girls' coaches get in trouble with those outside the program simply because they treat their female players the same way they would treat male ones. Interestingly, it's usually female coaches who can pull it off, at least for a while. Parents tend to tolerate it less from a male coach.
For the record, I don't get the feeling the thing I witnessed the aftermath of at HC the other night actually crossed the line. In fact, I'm not aware of any current coach in SJ who crosses that line. They may exist, but I haven't heard about it. To assert that such things were happening would be irresponsible.Assuming that line isn't crossed, a coach is within her/his rights to use anything she/he deems necessary to spark the team. In the HC case, I only wonder if it was necessary or warranted after a loss to a physically superior team.
For those interested, here's a link to a story about the Trenton Central coaching controversy:
http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1135069556227750.xml&coll=5
I'll be at Sterling-Haddon Heights tomorrow night. See you there.
posted by SMc. @ 4:52 PM
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