Sport is a part of the fabric of our communities. Imagine, for a moment, that sport opportunities for young people vanish. Can you get your head around the void this would create in the development of your son or daughter? How would you go about replacing the sporting experience. Think hard…
Sport, in many ways, is the ultimate classroom for young people. Discipline, courage, skill development, communication, compassion, confidence…… are all developed through a healthy sporting environment.
Can we afford to have this important experience compromised? I think not. Is there an element that is more vulnerable than another?
If sport were a recipe, what are the core ingredients? This seems fairly straight forward: facilities, equipment, officials, players, coaches and parents. Each group has their role. They all contribute to amazing experiences for young people. But what would happen if one of the key ingredients wasn’t available?
Let’s assess part of the list..
Players – Of course, this is why sport exists. They show up. They run. They throw. They compete. Ideally, skills (sport and other) are developed and they have fun.
Coaches – Most youth sports require a coach. They guide. They inspire. They instruct. The majority of coaches wish to positively impact the young people they lead and hope that their time with them will simply make them better – on the field and in life. Believe it or not, they want to have fun too.
Parents – Are we, for a stretch of time, professional taxi drivers and cheer team members? One could make a case for this. We want our kids to be awesome. To have fun. To make us proud. To do things that make them look special. To provide us with that moment where we say, “their mine…and they just did that!”
So which group’s involvement is most imperative? Or another way to look at it is to consider which group might have a reason to not be part of something so essential to the development of our future leaders?
I am quite certain there will always be players to coach. Kids love to be active through play. They also like to be a part of a team. It is cool and fun to put on a uniform and tag yourself as one of the boys or girls. As they get older, they value competition and skill development to a greater degree. This makes them feel like they are making progress. It is rewarding.
If there are kids to coach then there will be parents in the mix. Parents love to see their children engaged with an activity they enjoy. They also use sport as a way to measure their child’s progress and to figure out what the future holds for them. The games, regardless of age, are meaningful for many of us. Maybe more than we care to admit.
Coaches…. Do they have the same essential need to participate as players and parents?Does the experience for the coaches match that of the player and parent? Do they feel rewarded for their time and supported in the right way? Or might they be on the endangered species list?
The Western Black Rhino officially became extinct in 2011 and the causes were as follows:
1. The horns of the rhino were highly valued for knife handles and a status symbol
2. Farmers killed the rhinos to defend their crops
3. Protectionist efforts failed to be sustained over the course of the last two decades
There are no Western Black Rhinos left.
Let’s rub the crystal ball. What could cause quality youth coaches to become extinct?
1. A lack of satisfaction in the coaching experience, possibly due to parents questioning coaches to the point where their ability to teach and lead is significantly impacted
2. A trend toward players who lack the commitment to have fun, work hard and embrace being part of a team
3. Protectionist efforts fail to support coaches who volunteer their time
Now, my intention was to find a way to draw a strong parallel to the extinction of the Western Black Rhino. My standards are high, so I give myself a pretty average grade, but we do need to support and protect our coaches. They have a challenging role that some parents and players struggle to appreciate.
Some food for thought on ensuring that one of our treasured species never becomes extinct:
Let coaches coach. Whether it be coaching a group of 9 year old basketball girls or 15 year old hockey boys, the challenges a coach faces in organizing players for competition, ensuring they are on the same page and committing to roles is complex. More and more I am witnessing parents and fans instructing kids from the stands, often without even knowing they may be making the coach’s life more difficult and creating confusion for their son or daughter. Place yourself, at the age of 14, in the middle of a classroom (kind of like being in the middle of a soccer pitch). On one side of the room you have math teacher A (coach) and on the other side of the room you have math teacher B (parent). You respect one and you love the other. As you try your very best to solve math problems, teacher A and B yell instructions at you that conflict. One says, “use the numerator” and the other says “use the denominator” – what do you do? Which do you use? And this is a really important math assignment, so you feel the pressure and at 14 you really don’t have the emotional tools to deal with this situation. Coaches instruct. Parents cheer. This will keep our coaches healthy and happy.
99% of all coaches would prefer to play all of their players more than they do. Coaches have a series of obligations, and depending on the level, that may conflict. Examples include providing equal opportunities, rewarding players for commitment to the team, winning games and an assortment of other measurable and non-measurable targets. But most coaches would like nothing more than to see all of the players doing what they love – playing. However, like life, this isn’t possible (wouldn’t it be nice to just “play” all of the time?) and, frankly, those parents who chose to not question the coach and allow their child to manage their own sporting world are providing one of the true gifts of sport – resiliency.
Protect our coaches. At some point time, people who cared launched a plan to protect the Western Black Rhino. For a stretch, their efforts succeeded, but either the will of the protectionists died or the motivation to destroy the rhino won out in the end. Let’s get behind our coaches and support them. Key to this is recognizing that the environment they live in is changing (parental expectations, social media pressure, time commitments required to be competitive) and we, as parents and sport community leaders, must ensure that coaches are healthy, happy and productive.
Let’s allow this important species to thrive!
