EDUCATIONALLY SPEAKING -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

This column is Part II of what our community wants from coaches of youth

teams. Who should be making the decisions during the contest -- the kids

or the coach? I’ve seen all variations of this in action. At the Academic

Pentathlon, the coaches have to sit with the audience and be quiet once

the competition starts. This is true for all academic teams and a few

sports teams. Even a hand signal from a coach is a violation of the

rules. However, at high school football games, I see at least eight

coaches on headsets, sending in every play for the team members. At

basketball games, some coaches have a running banter with every member of

the team as to where they should be and what they should be doing.

One coach pointed out how hard it is to let the kids make the decisions

“because no coach wants to see his kids fail. But, they will learn far

more from trying (or not trying) and failing than they ever will from a

coach intervening every time they even hint at a wrong move.” Another

pointed out that “learning from mistakes is highly profitable and

benefits both individual and team.”

Another coach said, “We audible, with the quarterback having the chance

to make the decision.” A football coach was bemoaning the fact that my

daughter wasn’t on his team, since she could see the strategy and

remember the plays. Most of the teams that she has been on require her to

do that. What if we started letting kids make strategy decisions from an

early age? If they knew that the coach wouldn’t be there to tell them

what to do, would they be more dependent on their own brain? Or, do they

already have an aversion to risk?

What happens if a team member tries something new and it doesn’t work

out? The kids on my team said that if they mess up, they know it. What

they don’t want to do is keep making the same mistakes. So, the coach can

help them decipher what went wrong and how to fix it. By the same token,

the coach can point out what went right, and how to incorporate it into

future competitions. As one coach said, there may be a fine line between

creativity and panic. If a player tries something new and can explain the

thought process, it means the player is thinking of how the game is

played, which is the best possible result. At least in my case, I prefer

that truly creative things are brought forward in a practice situation,

so that the other team members and I can work out the kinks.

While no coach advocated humiliation of a particular team member in front

of the team, I think it is practiced in more subtle ways. The players

know who didn’t make the crucial shot or goal that lost the game for the

team. How do you think that player feels when she knows that there will

be a bus ride home in silence because of it? Or what if the team has

extra practices because of the loss? I have heard people say that the

player has trouble in those types of pressure situations. Isn’t the

pressure imposed in part by the coach’s reaction to the results? How many

kids question their own ability after that kind of situation, and decide

that they just aren’t good enough?

How do you pick the players and who gets to play? That is why I like the

city youth leagues so much. Anybody can sign up, and there are no player

drafts. You just play on a team from your school site. The rules require

every player to play so many minutes per quarter, so that everyone gets

playing time.

Not all coaches agree with this philosophy. One coach said that you put

the best players in first, because the less talented players can learn

more from watching the most talented players perform. Then, when you have

built up a sizable lead, you can play the less talented.

Another said that after having to deal with the rejection felt by kids

not making the team, he was glad to be coaching a high school team where

no one was “cut.” Another said that given the choice between a hard

worker and a talented player, he would pick the hard worker. “Hard work

is contagious, talent is not.” I have sat through a lot of games where

the A-team is always playing and the B-team is always warming the bench.

Just once, I’d like to see the coaches agree to put the B-teams in

against each other for 10 minutes and let those kids shine, too. Instead,

the B-team member only gets to play until he makes his first mistake, and

then is yanked from the game.

I think any player on the kind of team I coach is automatically someone I

want my kids to know, so I encourage members of my team to get to know

the opposing team players. I tell them to learn from them, so that we can

be a better team at the next competition. We try to see them as nice

people that are joining us in a duel of wits, wisdom, and words. How can

you denigrate people like that? The issue of the parents’ role in youth

competition will be in another column.

GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs Mondays.

She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].