As a coach in any sport, how do u punish athletes for not trying?

Question

i know lots of what they need is encouragment but when they are just being bratty and not trying? teenage girls.

Answer 1

how old are these girls? I coach an under 10 girls basketball team and its difficult when they are a young age. Theres 3 of them in the team that are willing to learn, and theres 2 that arent fussed, and then one who miss behaves every training session and every game and constantly drives me up the wall. Ive tried everything from making her sit out, to telling her off, and what makes it worse is that the mother is there and doesnt do anything - and its difficult.

I think the thing to do is ask them why they arent putting in 100% to the game/training. THere might be something wrong or soemthing bothering them that is preventing them from trying.

You cant be harsh with young kids, as it can turn them off sport completely, i think we should be encouraging kids to play sport because of the increase in childhood obesity. I constantly think of this when i coach my u10's. I dont want to turn them off the sport, i want them to come out, learn new skills, make friends and have fun.

I think when they are being bratty you can try a bit of manipulation tactics with them. For example saying if you guys keep messing around you'll have to run laps (depending on your sport of course) or make them start on the bench (if you have enough in the team). Otherwise keep them occupied and moving at the same time. Keep the drills short and sweet, dont spend too much time if they are getting it wrong, it just takes lots of small practices each week. Each drill/activity should only take 10 minutes.

You can try playing games and changing them to fit your sport. For example, the group i have love playing all over red rover, and when we play this i make them dribble the ball, and the people in the middle have to tap the ball out of the way. THis is teaching them ball skills and also defending skills. You can pretty much turn any drill into a game at an early age.

Hope this helps..

Answer 2

bench them! if that does not work, then give them an ultimatum, behave and try or you will no longer be on the team. (Or if not a team sport, tell them you will no longer be coaching them and then stick to it!)

Answer 3

Here's what you should do. You should make them run until they get tired of running. Then you should tell them if they wanna quit then go ahead but they would be considered as quitters and their gonna quit everything for the rest of their lives. My coach always told me no matter qhat dont quit and I have never quit anything not even a hard class in school. Just let them know that you care but if they quit on you then you can quit on them just as easy. Hope this helps

Answer 4

My experience is limited to raising my own daughter to just turned 11.  And we home school so I have to motivate her there as well as normal things like brushing her teeth or eating her veggies.

I have found that for most things I get the best response when I figure out how to make her think it was her idea.  That takes a lot of work and I fail miserably but when it works it works unbelievably well.

Additionally, I have to make everything fun for her.  You would think that at 10 or 11 she would be over that by now but she isn't.  Like in school we have to an easy subject to get her going and then do a hard subject and then an easy and so on until we are done.  But even so I have to be happy, perky, and fun and she works so much harder.

Good luck!

Answer 5

As a coach myself... I get stuck with that problem all the time because I'm only 18 myself.

I make my girls do hockey lines endlessly or edges. If they still continue to be bratty we get off the ice and run run run until they understand that I'm being paid to make them better athletes.

Physical consequences usually do the trick... if not, I talk to the parents and will go about a week or so without giving them a lesson. They catch on pretty quick once you start neglecting them