webby wrote:
We always chatted from the minute we arrived at practice until we went home. Our coach never had a problem with it and we had a lot of very good teams. Our girls were the best in the country at one point.
Ah, but imagine how much better you guys could've been if you'd had a silent warm-up!
I'm thinking about our practices.
If they are doing the warm up properly I don't mind if they are chatting. I guess I try to keep things under control rather than come down on them.
You're right that it throws their attention off from what they are doing. The way I handle that is I tell them they did it wrong and they need to do it again. Sometimes I point out one person who was getting it right and ask them to mimick them. This usually works.
Don't forget your dealing with teenage boys with a lack of frontal lobe development. It's amazing they can even come to practice.
It can be frustrating because you see their potential and what they can be if they are giving their all. But as long as they are getting the warmup done enough to prevent injury and strengthen targeted areas then they have done their job.
I understand you can't let everything slide. Sometimes toward the end of the season I let up a bit and get a little bit looser at practice. I have to watch this though. I can remember one day going to practice and I have four different groups warming up in different locations. This just happened overnight. It's not like their was a progression. One group I could not even find during the warm up. When I found them I asked one of the kids where they were? The response was, "Where were we supposed to be?" I actually had to explain they needed to be in the same place they had been for the past three months every single day. This was confusing for them. Again, a lack of brain development can explain some of this.
Sometimes I wonder whether I was this dumb at their age? I'm pretty sure I was. I know my coach liked me and I gave my best but I'm sure In did some things that really annoyed him.
I think the bottom line is that you need to keep the practices light and fun but also make sure they are doing the work.
otter wrote:
One group I could not even find during the warm up. When I found them I asked one of the kids where they were? The response was, "Where were we supposed to be?" I actually had to explain they needed to be in the same place they had been for the past three months every single day. This was confusing for them. Again, a lack of brain development can explain some of this.
This is the part I constantly have to remind myself of. I am talking to humans who literally do not possess the brain structure to do all that I ask them to do.
"Don't forget your dealing with teenage boys with a lack of frontal lobe development."
I had a parent try to convince me of this one time. Of course, my problem wasn't that his son was flaky or that he couldn't plan ahead, it was that his son was incredibly focused on convincing everyone to do things his lazy way so he didn't look bad when he did even less of what we were there to do.
Dude, relax. You coach high school track. Them talking during warm up or "activations" (whatever you think thats doing) will have no impact on their workout.
Hell, in college we stood around and talked for 30 minutes before we started warming up, talked through most of the workout, and talked through weights. We got along great, gave each other a hard time, hit on girls, and had excellent team unity. Yet somehow, we were part of one of the best 800 programs in the country, just chill out.