We’ve all seen this guy. He shows up at little league games, intramural soccer matches, and especially at football. He’s the dad who gets a little too into the game, taking neither victory nor defeat with grace. He is, we all know, the crazy sports dad.
My first introduction to this character was playing little league games back when I was 10. I was just a kid, but a parent screaming at his own child and their teammates is something that sticks with you. Seeing the recent documentary Trophy Kids on Netflix tells me that this phenomenon is only getting worse. Now that I’m thinking about how I can get into coaching kids and helping them reap all the benefits of sports, I have to do that without becoming a crazy coach. Here’s what I plan on doing.
Taking them to see the pros
Everybody needs a muse, and young athletes are no different. A lot of college and professional players will point to an old pro who got them started on the path to greatness, and today’s kids need that same inspiration, no matter how long they stick with athletics. These days kids can see a lot of great games on television or catch up on old classics with Youtube. ESPN is even producing some great in-depth documentaries about classic games that were won long before these kids were born.
Still, all of this can’t quite compare to seeing a pro game in person. At first I was worried about soaring ticket prices and how to justify that cost for the kids to see a live game. Monopolies like Ticketmaster’s allow sellers to drive prices as high as people like us can afford, and sometimes even higher. It used to be that locals could see their teams play on a whim, but now it seems like it takes a year’s worth of saving up just to get cheap seats for one game.
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Luckily my research suggests that things are getting better. Suppliers are cracking down on ticket scalpers, for one thing, and we should be seeing the end of Ticketmaster’s monopoly, so hopefully that’ll bring costs down.
Keeping them motivated
When I was a kid I expected sports to be all fun and no work. It can be tough to keep kids motivated to do practice drills, even though these drills build the foundations of technique that they’ll need to have the most fun in their games. I plan on honing my coaching strategies to motivate the kids with a lot of research plus looking at what the great coaches have to say. It’s probably not quite the same thing to motivate professional athletes and sports playing kids, but I still think there are a lot of lessons to be learned.
I know that I’ve got to be careful, though, not be one of those crazy coaches who turns kids off of sports.
Helping them balance sports and life
Kids these days have a ton of responsibilities with homework, after school programs, and keeping up a social life. It sounds obvious, but not every kid in there is gonna end up being the next Michael Jordan. Some of them want, and need, to just play sports for fun without caring whether or not their technique is perfect or if they’re as strong as they possibly can be. It’s not just me on this, by the way. Even places like the Arizona State University think that athletes should have a good work/life balance.
Keeping them safe
Like anybody, I have opinions on the so-called wimpification of America. There’s a lot to be said on playgrounds these days and how they seem bump-proof; a kid can’t go over the monkey bars these days without fifty rules and regulations to catch him if he falls. Regardless of your feelings about this, though, nobody disagrees that the first priority in sports should always be safety. There is such a thing as measured risks, but preventing injuries for young athletes always comes before teaching lessons.