Just wanted to pose a question. I recruited my first "All-American sprinter" He is a true freshmen and although he is a great athlete he has failed to buy into the team atmosphere. He has walked out of lifting twice now, and mocked the throwers for not watching the 4x400. Any thoughts or advice?
Take him to a couple of meets where he will get his clock cleaned if you can. Nothing motivates talent like getting beat.
Unfortunately kids with bad attitudes are often very hard to reach unless they care. If they don't really care about running, you can't make them care. They are spoiled by their talent and think they don't need to work hard to succeed (hence the walking out from workouts). Kids like this are incredibly frustrating to coach. The only thing I have ever found to work is to let them get beat a few times. Once they see that hard work is also necessary to truly accomplish something, they'll either quit or buy in.
Actually my question is.....why was he allowed to walk out of practice....and why was he allowed to mock the throwers? Or....why did the throwers allow the mocking? You don't mess with the throwers too often without punishment....
Seems to me that YOU are allowing this behavior, and need to nip it in the bud. But then again......you can just wait until he gets some bad grades and sit on him then....
Need more info?
I could be described as someone like this so I am keen to here more and possibly offer a different perspective.
I am a sub 1.50 self coached 800m/1500m runner. I always end up falling out with coaches and training partners and nearly wind up getting into physical fights. I always have justification at the time but now I see a worrying pattern develop in my own behaviour. Granted, I may have issues but I very dedicated to my sport. I have yet to find a coach who is interested in taming the best.
Too much ridicule.
More info required - ins and outs of these disputes.
From a land far away...
I know an athlete like this, and actually I think the remedy is counter-intuitive. Rather than trying to teach this kid a lesson and punish him for his behavior, recognize that he probably needs a lot of one-on-one attention from you, his coach, and that is why he is acting rebelliously - for attention. I'd recommend you shower him with attention, compliments and encouragement, and see if it results in him wanting to spend more time with the team and you.
HappyBillmore wrote:
I know an athlete like this, and actually I think the remedy is counter-intuitive. Rather than trying to teach this kid a lesson and punish him for his behavior, recognize that he probably needs a lot of one-on-one attention from you, his coach, and that is why he is acting rebelliously - for attention. I'd recommend you shower him with attention, compliments and encouragement, and see if it results in him wanting to spend more time with the team and you.
It took me like three reads before I realized you weren't recommending dealing with the athlete's attention-seeking behavior by showering with him.
You seem like a young coach that will not stand up to this kid because you are afraid he will quit. If you are the head coach, you must decide if you want to run a program without these type of headaches, or be willing to put up with them if you think the trouble is worth the reward. In my experience, you should deal with it now, because most kids like this will eventually not be with you anyway. If you take care of the problem now, he will either adapt to you or be on his way. Either way, you wont have a year of headaches. If you are the assistant, it is not your problem.
HappyBillmore wrote:
I know an athlete like this, and actually I think the remedy is counter-intuitive. Rather than trying to teach this kid a lesson and punish him for his behavior, recognize that he probably needs a lot of one-on-one attention from you, his coach, and that is why he is acting rebelliously - for attention. I'd recommend you shower him with attention, compliments and encouragement, and see if it results in him wanting to spend more time with the team and you.
This is the typical happy crap answer. Your answer is counter productive to team management. So the answer to a personnel problem is to reward the bad behaviour? Nice. In addition, there are only so many hours in a working day for a coach. If you give in one area, you have to take away in another. So do the other athletes have to suffer when they don't get as much attention as a prize recruit. If you've ever read some of the athlete complaints on this board as well as the ones that they write on their end-of-year evaluations, you would know that this advice is cancerous to team function. If you coddle this young person with an attitude like this, you are not doing them a favor, you are causing their demise.
Runner THX1137 wrote:
HappyBillmore wrote:I know an athlete like this, and actually I think the remedy is counter-intuitive. Rather than trying to teach this kid a lesson and punish him for his behavior, recognize that he probably needs a lot of one-on-one attention from you, his coach, and that is why he is acting rebelliously - for attention. I'd recommend you shower him with attention, compliments and encouragement, and see if it results in him wanting to spend more time with the team and you.
This is the typical happy crap answer. Your answer is counter productive to team management. So the answer to a personnel problem is to reward the bad behaviour? Nice. In addition, there are only so many hours in a working day for a coach. If you give in one area, you have to take away in another. So do the other athletes have to suffer when they don't get as much attention as a prize recruit. If you've ever read some of the athlete complaints on this board as well as the ones that they write on their end-of-year evaluations, you would know that this advice is cancerous to team function. If you coddle this young person with an attitude like this, you are not doing them a favor, you are causing their demise.
This approach works, believe it or not. The kid starts getting used to being complimented and will start acting in a way to derive more compliments, and the only way he will achieve more compliments is if he starts doing the right things.
I'd suggest this:
Start showering him with compliments until he expects it.
Then stop giving him compliments, until it's apparent he noticed.
Then start only giving him compliments when he does the right thing.
Classical conditioning, in a sense. It works on everyone whether they realize it or not.
Lucky Coach wrote:
Just wanted to pose a question. I recruited my first "All-American sprinter" He is a true freshmen and although he is a great athlete he has failed to buy into the team atmosphere. He has walked out of lifting twice now, and mocked the throwers for not watching the 4x400. Any thoughts or advice?
I was the stand-out on my team. I was also an ass. The coach kicked me off the team. When I apologised sincerely he put it up to a team vote to let me back on the team. The team voted yes. It was a good attitude adjustment for me and my ass-ness was squelched.
If you're the coach, you call the shots. Kids don't leave practice and mock their teammates . . . unless you let them.
By the way, make sure that this kid always watches the throws and jumps at the beginning of the meet, rather than showing up two hours later with the rest of the running-eventers.
I'd imagine the throwers will be much more willing to watch the 4x400 if the 4x400 guys watch them first...
Kick him off the team. He'll be begging to come back in one.
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Great answer Reggae......