Last year a peewee hockey coach was suspended for making the players do push-ups. Last week, a major junior coach was suspended for putting the players through a “bag” skate after the team performed badly and lost.
Today I see where a Midget AAA coach was suspended for yelling at a player in a meeting and saying he was a “f#*%king distraction” that day in practice. Obviously I don’t know the details of any of these situations and there are absolutely times when coaches go over the line. But I’ve had lots of coaches over the years and I’ve done lots of coaching myself. The best coaches I ever had were the ones who always held me accountable, pushed me and my teammates beyond the limits that we set for ourselves and, yes, occasionally flipped out and swore.
Those were the coaches I always knew had my back and wanted nothing more than for our team and players to grow and succeed. Athletes and kids need adversity to grow. I’m not condoning every type of behavior, but I can’t help but think that in the BIG PICTURE we are doing our daughters and sons a disservice by creating such a “safe” “adversity free” environment for them.
Gordon MacFarlane,
Summerside
