Coach Bass -
I have been coaching youth football for five years. Our football association has moved coaches up with "their" kids as they progress through levels of play.
My concern with this method of promotion is the children will learn the strengths of that coach, but they will also learn their weaknesses as well. For example, if the coach doesn't like to throw the ball, a player may go through five or six years of football with a lesser knowledge of the passing game.
I also see a lot of "Little League" type coaching dads whose ideas of a good practice is stretching a bit then scrimmaging for an hour and a half.
I would like to be set in an age group and move the players I get up after a year or two.
Is one method better? Are there better arguments I can make to try and change what our association does?
Thanks for your insights.
- Chris, a youth football coach
Hi Chris -
This situation is one that has concerned me for the past five years and yet it is easy to see both sides.
Many programs are really struggling to find coaches and if they did not allow a father to move up with his son or daughter, they might lose the coach. That is something that none of us want, especially at the youth level. This would be a positive point for the practice. Moving along with your child also gives the parent an opportunity to really share the football experience with their child.
On the negative side, many times parents in this situation have a natural tendency to favor their child over other players on the team even though they may not realize that they are doing it at the time.
I am not sure that this practice prepares the player for later in his career. In high school, in most cases, he will have other adults coaching him. He may feel he has lost his support system as a player, if he has only been exposed to having a parent coach him.
There is the chance that if the player has his parent as a coach all through his youth experience, he will usually be exposed to one style of play. He would never get to learn the positive points of another scheme.
Coaches who stretch and then scrimmage for the entire practice, is much bigger problem than fathers who move up as their child moves up from team to team.
Good coaching involves understanding how to play the game, learning the safe and proper techniques for each position, knowing how to teach each skill to their players and conducting an organized practice in a positive manner so that the players have the opportunity to master each skill through repetition.
Next the players must be taught their individual assignments, and then come together to perform as one unit.
Actual full content scrimmage time should be a very small percentage of the total practice time with a majority of this type of experience being gained during the playing of the games.
I had the experience of coaching my younger brother during his first year in college and I can tell you it is not an easy situation. I found that I had to be constantly on guard to make sure that I treated him exactly the same as my other players and, if anything, I was probably harder on and demanded more from him than the other players on the team. I am also fairly certain, that at the end of the year, that he was happy and relieved when I moved to another coaching position.
Since this area of our website is one for an exchange of ideas among coaches, I would really appreciate any comments from other coaches concerning this situation either pro or con. I'm especially interested if this something that you have personally experienced with your child. Please email me your comments at CoachBass@aol.com.
Best of luck this season!
- Coach Bass