In little league sports, It is ultimately up to the coach to teach the kids. Coaches must teach the kids everything involved with the sport including sportsmanship, rules, respect, proper techniques among other things. Without proper leadership from a coach, the team won’t get far. Youth sports is arguably the first step in becoming a great athlete. Thus making coaches in youth sports an important part of the kid’s careers.
Changing the Game Project has a good article on a current problem that many little leagues face with their coaches. Often times they are insufficient to be leading a team, even a team of young kids. The article states, “Far too often, untrained or insufficiently trained coaches are entrusted with the well being of our young athletes. Sadly, the result of poor coaching often go beyond having to forfeit a game” (“Do We Have a Coaching Problem?”).
Having a bad coach as a kid can have a big impact on the future of the children involved. For example, I remember one of my middle school football coaches yelled at his players a good bit. Whenever we made a bad play you could hear him yelling across the field. This threw me off somewhat because coaches are supposed to teach kids, not be a downer on them. I remember always being scared whenever something bad happened. This should not be the influence coaches have on kids or anyone for that matter.
It is important that coaches be a good roll model to the younger and older kids alike. They should teach them respect and sportsmanship above all else. The game should come second. If a coach values winning more than the influence he has on his players, I think he is doing it wrong and it really says something about his character. Parents should not want a coach who values competition over teaching their kids the right way to play sports.
Chuck Klosterman was kind of the “bad” coach I am I referring to. In his chapter from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, he describes how he coached his baseball team in his later high school years. In the chapter “George Will vs. Nick Hornby”, he talks about his coaching style and how many parents didn’t agree with it. He made his kids do physical conditioning which I don’t necessarily disagree with, but that combined with everything else made him the coach that I don’t think parents should associate with. Klosterman even says he is not an adequate coach: “During the summer in 1988, I worked as a totally unqualified Little League baseball coach” (130). I think Little League board members need to be more picky on their coach selections. They need to pick good, solid people because they will have a big influence on the kid’s lives.
Sources:
“Do We Have a Coaching Problem? | Changing the Game Project.” Changing the Game Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
Klosterman, Chuck. “George Will vs. Nick Hornby.” Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. New York: Scribner, 2003. 130. Print.
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