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Same as it ever was
Posted at 12:47 PM
Kids have always looked for ways to run the asylum. Coaches, more than ever, should not back down when it comes to discipline. For kids' sake. By Paul Honda I don't know how parents tolerate it. As a coach back in 1982, which I was thrown into the fire, so to speak, to coach a team of 11- and 12-year-olds at Boys Club (now known as Boys and Girls Club), there was no backtalk. There was no whining. There was no begging. There was no bickering between kids. I admit, even then, I was pleasantly surprised to see kids so obedient, so eager to learn, so hungry to play. Somehow, we won our league title and I felt like the luckiest 16-year-old coach on planet Earth. I've done my share of coaching, reffing and organizing of leagues and touranments in the 25 years since. And as I help coach my nephew's PAL team, I am struck by something that doesn't shock me, but truly bothers me. Pre-teen kids today don't know, often times, when to shut up. Yeah, that's right. They come from homes that tolerate the backtalk, the whining, the bickering. No, I'm not talking about all kids who play basketball today, but the pattern of children who believe they are smarter than their coaches has been gotten worse over the last quarter-century. I've seen a lot of young student-athletes in my years as a sportswriter, and though trends are saddening — divorce is at an all-time high — the best of the best kids are still awesome. Graceful. Thoughtful. Academians. Unselfish. They're great. So when I see kids on the practice court being kids, it makes me laugh. But when I see them being straight-up disrespectful to their coaches, to each other, I'm more than willing to use my authority as a coach to teach them the importance of practice time. Discipline. Obedience. Harmony. Hustle. I only wish our public schoolteachers had the same authority coaches do. There's something about 10 pushups for complaining about a drill or lesson that gets to the core of a kid. It's quick, it's direct and it's not punitive. The kids learn quickly that talking out of line, dilly-dallying during a drill, anything that takes the focus and attention off of improving the player and the team will probably be another opportunity for discipline. Then we can have fun within the context and structure of such a wonderful sport. There are patterns that I see in a simple practice on an overcast afternoon. It feels like I'm passing on something that was taught to me, a blessing, really, years and years ago from great coaches of my youth. Augie Pacheco. Dwight Kaai. Dwight Sato. Miles Ogawa. Ken Kaaihue. Tom Costain. None of these coaches tolerated the kind of prickly behavior that I see in many kids today. The strangest, most wonderful thing is, life is so much simpler with basic rules. When it's getting dark and the kids are smiling after making a nice play, after learning a concept and executing it on the court for the first time, they forget the pushups. They lose the attitude, or most of it, anyway. They get better, and they know it. That's all I can hope for. Previous Article: Review: Children of Men Comments © Copyright 2003 HondaReport.com/Leahi.Net
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