What do you think?
I've watched 12 Oahu teams (OIA & ILH) play this year and have seen some really good things from the head coaches on the bench, but have also seen some of the worst behavior in terms of publicly berating players that I've ever witnessed.
How do we allow this?
Who have you seen this happen to?
From my personal experience, it comes down to the moral compass and direction that the athletic directors of each school believe in...
I have met all sorts of A.D.'s, from lazy A.D.'s, to proactive A.D.'s, to A.D.'s who choose their coaches on the premise of winning at all costs, to political A.D's who put their friends on staff who may not be suitable to be coaches...
The standard that an athletic director sets forth will reflect how a coaching staff intereacts and coaches their kids...An athletic director knows more or less the coaching style of the coaches they hire...
Personally, I feel kids need to feel the pressure of a demanding coach, because a demanding coach reflects what most of these kids will experience in life...
As an alum of Kamehameha I am so saddened by the transgressions of a few students of my alma mater. Bad light continues to shine brightly on our campus. I don't believe the endowment was set up for illicit videos.
I played with Fred Lino, Albert Nihipali, Elvis Olivera, Jared Nihi, Louie Vargas, etc. These kind of things didn't happen. Kids always want to have a fun, but you need a moral compass and integrity.
@ Imua90,
With the advance technology that our society is progressing in/with and at a "fast" pace, it not only offers more positive opportunity, convenience and advancement ...however, it opens up more unfortunate "temptations" towards the youths of today (no matter the school), its very unfortunate!
I agree, these unfortunate "choices" that our kids make in these days were hardly ever heard of back in the good ole' days.
..in college we had a coach named Steve Tucker, he came to our program and turned things around.. we went from last to first place, then we combined with HPU and ended up taking the national championship in NAIA basketball..a first for Hawaii in any sport..
..20 years later, i wondered whatever happend to Steve Tucker so I googled him and found that he is one of the most winningest coaches in the American Basketball League which is a step down from the NBA and now there is talk that he might land a head coaching job in the NBA..
..I thought, no way!!.. Steve Tucker!! the guy who would yell at us like there was no tomorrow.. the guy who, when we took second place in one of our tournaments, took the Hawaiian Koa bowl trophy and, in front of the kupuna, threw it to the ground saying "second place is not good enough".. the guy who was loud, vocal, culturally insensitive, rude, and did everything counter to positive coaching.. yet the guy won a lot of games..
..now, as i think back and reflect on this post, i have to ask myself, "do i want to be like a Steve Tucker--the most winningest coach with NBA coaching potential, or a Koko Santos--who I also played for in highschool, he had a poor record, yet was positive, culturally sensitive, and helped us not so much in winning games, but helped us win in the game of life...
...in this process of self-reflection, i came to the conclusion that winning games does not translate to winning in life--i think under 1% of our kids will have a chance at professional basketball (NBA) yet we act as if 99% will have that opportunity.. positive coaching helps our kids win in the game of life which is much more important that simply winning games... positive coaching should be the goal even if many fall short...
...just some thoughts..
Socrates,
thanks for the input. Many of the coaches should see this and use ur advice. That was well said.
..thanks westoahudad... i forgot to mention that it took me a while to come to this conclusion... i think back when i was coaching my son and feel sick to my stomach.. i became the "Steve Tucker" that i now regret..
..yelling at my son, telling him he lazy and no more heart in front of his teammates thinking that would motivate him.. and yes, we won most of our youth games but i think in the process i lost my son..
..lucky god gave me another son who just started playing of which i'm the coach again... and oohh lord i pray that i can be the coach/father i'd like to be so that i don't lose him too..
..positive coaching gotta stay alive, for if it dies, we die too..
..just a thouht..
Hello Luna86 are you a Lahainaluna grad? I enjoy football and basketball. The only football blog I see is the UH one which I do not follow much. I have been on this site for 1 day now. I enjoy reading some interesting points of views and opinions. I think often children are products of poor examples and bad exposure. I see taunting and insults being thrown around in various areas of this blog. I hope everyone can set a good example for da keiki so we can all learn together. Socrates did you play for Hawaii Loa?
Socrates, nice to have you here and your thoughts as well.
What you described about the type of coach you were with your son is still happening each and every day, I saw it last week.
If I were involved with either school I might say something to the AD, but on the other hand, how can you not see players being humiliated, berated, and cussed at the entire game? Every adult in the gym could have said something that night.
If you do not enjoy working with children, you should not be coaching. Period.
That's why the AD dictates whether he let's coaches be like that or not...
Love, I agree with you that the primary responsibility of the AD is to "coach the coaches." I also agree with your earlier statement that a "demanding" coach is desirable.
The line I'm concerned about is where demanding becomes abusive. Like Socrates (the poster, not the philosopher), I used to be a screamer. I used to say things like "Baseball is War!" It's not. I feel pretty bad about a lot of things that came out of my mouth. Luckily, I met some really successful coaches-- coaches that won-- who weren't screamers and didn't use negative tactics to motivate their players. I learned from them and they were true mentors. One of the biggest fallacies in sports is that you can't win AND teach life lessons in a positive environment.
Intimidating children is NOT teaching "life lessons;" children do not need to be educated in that manner. We'd never allow a History teacher to talk to our students in this manner. The athletic arena is in many ways a classroom.
I challenge each of us to pay attention to the atmosphere and body language of the head coaches in both the boys and girls tournaments coming up. In fact, there's an OIA championship game tonight that is televised. It's not like sitting behind the bench but I think we'll get a general feel as to coaching style.
I wonder if most AD's truly view athletic competition as a place where life lessons are taught.
@Sacrotes, could you talk at my son's athletic banquet. I love the words of wisdom. Makes so much sense. I can tell you've been around and look forward to hearing your comments. @DB, so true about treating the court like a classroom. I gotta remember that. I wouldn't yell at my students in class or call them names cause they can't get a problem right. I hope more folks on this website read this post. Thanks!!
truedat
Here's a link to an interesting discussion on how to balance and emphasis on winning and teaching life lessons:
Nice article on the balance. I like the focus on effort and not winning. I like what the coach tells his players--do the best you can do, give the most you can give, and be the best you can be-and if you do that, you are a winner already. I got it. We can be demanding of our players in terms of "effort" and we can do it in a way that is positive--winning or losing will take care of itself. Make sense.
trudat.
truedat, I'm pleased you took the time to look through the article. Unfortunately, I think we're preaching to the choir. The type of people that read this type of thing are usually the people who understand the true essence of sports-- that is all about building character and striving to be the best we can be.
The screamers and the win-at-all-cost coaches know everything any way, why would they need to improve their own coaching tactics?
..hey 2db.. just got through watching the Lebron James story with coach Dru Joyce, his son and the rest of Lebron's childhood b-ball buddies.. what a story.. i highly recommend every coach watching that video.. it summarizes the purpose of coaching and everything postive coaching has to offer in 90 minutes.. truely remarkable movie for the basketball coach, player, and fan..
..just some thoughts..
All you guys have wonderful points, this has been the best positive inputs i've seen in a long time.
Positive coaching will prevail in making our young atheletes into adults that will contribute in society.
Another good one i would like to add is the movie - Hurricane Season.
Also, i really enjoyed the McDonalds soccer commercial, where in the end, the two teams walk off the field, and the winning team is jumping for joy, and holds up the trophy to taunt the other team. Then the losing teams parents come out with Happy Meals, and they end up holding up the Happy Meal like a trophy to taunt the other team, who reacts by just dropping the trophy. PRICELESS
Positive coaching does work!!
Thanks for the re-assurance guys, thought i was the only one in the boat
nowdays everything is so competitive so the emphasis is on WINNING only...win...win...win..at all cause and the pressure of being a coach in the ILH or OIA..is a lot...because if you dont win you loose your job..or if you dont play a kid ...the parents will hate you....theres a lot of good coaches out there...its just that in a such a tight race in a small island or community...the emphasis is on winning. other wise your program is not successful...so that where recruiting is so important...schools are after the cream of the crop and schools with money gets the quality athletes without looking at them academically or as person...the rich gets richer...is not about coaching...its about winning....
@ Imua90,
Yes, LahainaLuna Grad bro. "Oldest School west of the Rocky Mountains"...and by the way, the "only" school with a Hawaiian Alma-mater.
Proud of those Luna~girls (2010 girls basketball State Champions)
Maybe the reason is that it's not the coaches! I mean the players do play a part too right.
I think you have to look a little further,like the homes of these kids.I don't think the parents are teaching their kids about life.To many parents blame the coaches all the time.I mean the coaches get the kids two hours a day,it's not like they raised the kids.I've seen most coaches in the biif and most of them are positive.Please remember that each coach is different and they teach and get their point across in many ways.My coach used to scream at me in high school in front of a full gym.It never bothered me because I knew he got on me because he saw my potential.I love the guy like my father.
@ saynotodrugs
Amen to that brother! Hats off to you and the coaches for putting in their time of the day of practice and games to improve the program!
brah, who cares? positive coaching? these f-in kids today dont care. the attitude they throw on the court when they dont get a call, when getting subbed out, then talk shyt about the coach under their breath. i dont care how positive or negative a coach is some of these kids just dont give a damn. yell and you're a negative coach, dont give praise you're not a social coach, always give praise's and high 5's and ur too soft! im mean COMON MAN! what do you want? and what's the problem with wanting to win? isnt that why we play the game? if you didnt want to win keep playing AYSO soccer. ahh screw it! to all coaches out there keep doing what and how you're doing it until your AD or higher ups tell you not to do it that way. period.
Wow there is another "DP" user in the midst of us boiz! LOL
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