Setting Expectations for youth sports athletes and parents http://www.mentaltoughnesstrainer.com/craig-sigl/
Coaches learn from media expert for athletes, Michael Langlois, how to set expectations for your youth sport parents and athletes that will lead to better communications and a better chance for success of your team.
Transcript:
Setting Expectations For Youth Sports Athletes and Parents
Today I have with me Michael Langlois, an expert in communications and he has done a lot of work with athletes. We have a lot of coaches on our list , what are some of the things you would tell coaches about communication and how to get the most out of their athletes?
There are some core principles or values or whatever we want to call it. If you're a coach and you establish what I would call joint expectations. You sit down with the player and when appropriate with the parents, and say here's the way I run my program. W
Describe your philosophy your approach and say this is what I'm expecting of your son or daughter. And then the parents get to say that does or doesn't fit with our life values. This is or isn't maybe the right program for us. Then you set those expectations of both parties.
Are you expecting my son to play a lot or a little? No guarantees or is there a guarantee? Or whatever the situation is. What are my discipline expectations? Is my discipline for everybody? Do the starters get treated differently. You see what I mean? All those little things.
So if you do that, you don't avoid, but you minimize the chances of them misunderstanding you halfway through the season when the parents are upset saying, Well little Johnny is not playing.
The coach gets to say, Remember when we talked back in April? Remember we talked about that it was going to be based on getting to practice or working hard at practice or attitude or respect or how you act or how you treat your teammates or whatever. Then what are the parents going to say - right? If you agreed those were core values and this was the way it was going to work.
Meeting privately with the player I think is very important. I know it's harder sometimes, but if you've got a twenty man roster. Depending on the sport, it might be a lot more than that. But I think the coach has to make time to really talk to the young people and put their arm around them.
Sometimes has to be the yeller or the screamer and you explain even things like that. You say if the player is Craig, you say, Craig, look I might be yelling and screaming at you today, but just keep in mind that it's not personal. When I'm yelling at you, that's not about you Craig that's about you the athlete that I am trying to make better and I am trying to get something across to you. That's my way of doing it. Okay?
So if the athletes know that, they're not going to walk away and just say this guy hates me. You need to build the trust. You need to put yourself in their shoes. You've got to treat young people the way you would want your own children to be treated by a third party by a coach.
I think these are simple things. How you say what you say is very important, but I think that the private relationship that you build makes the rest of it work.
If you're a coach, you're a teacher. I think at the NFL level, you're still a teacher. You're a leader. You're a motivator. You should be inspiring people to want to give their best performance.
One of the biggest mistakes is that coaches are so committed to their program and what they are going to get across and what they need to teach that they don't listen. You are going to learn stuff from your players. You are going to learn from parents too. If you're listening.
I often say to the coaches, look do you know what motivates this particular kid? Sit down for five minutes with a young person and you find out what motivates you and what you love about this sport. That should make you a better coach and make you help them be a better player.
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Play Fair Character Education Lesson by Dr. Tby drdoyalt575 views
This is a great video clip for both parents and coaches to view. Communicating expectations can help parents and coaches team up to better support their athletes and understand if they can work together or not - from the get go.
VirtualHarvestVA 3 months ago