Coaches: Screaming or Silent at Meets?

The problem with HS coaching is that you have to be more than a coach. You have to inspire, motivate and whatnot. You have helicopter parents to deal with. All sorts of things that coaching adults doesn''t bring into the game.

I could easily see a coach losing its job because some parent complained 'he doesn't shout like the other coaches', or, even worse, 'he doesn't motivate our kids enough. you never see him screaming at our girls'.

My2c.

As a young coach I yelled at meets a lot more than I do now.

A couple things to note. Your athletes will be able to hear your voice - they have the ability to filter noises pretty well. Keep what you say pretty. There should be a short phrase you can use to connect them with positive previous experiences or with something you have recently, and successfully, worked on in practices.

To some extent what you say isn't that important. You want to encourage them by showing your confidence in them and recognizing their efforts in a positive way.

Letting your frustrations out during a race doesn't do your relationship with the athletes or their parents any favors. The simple phrase "praise in public, criticize in private" is good to remember in this context. Yelling in a way that is critical of an athlete during the race, does nothing to help and only makes you look like a jerk.

Spend time in practice really preparing for the race. Help them focus on what they can control and how to handle the mental hurdles that come up during a race by helping them to direct their thoughts during rest intervals, etc. Develop a race plan with each athlete for important races before the week even begins. Reference that plan during the entire week. Have them visualize the race dozens of times. The day of the race, relax and have confidence they will execute the plan to the best of their abilities, knowing they are real people and will have moments of brilliance and of disappointment.

Nearly all of the yelling I do in meets now is me enjoying the moment as an enthusiastic fan, rather than as a coach. I'll wait until the athlete and I can talk one on one to critique a race.

The exceptions would be for newbies that don't have the internal motivation to excel and rely on external motivators. Even with them, my goal as a coach is to develop that internal motivation so that my role is minimized during a race.

keep what you say POSITIVE (not "pretty")

as previously stated they will be able to hear their coach's voice.

learn which athletes need your encouragement while they are racing and which would rather not hear you

In general the best thing is to ask yourself what you would want to know if you were the athlete and then provide that information. Tell them what is going on behind them. At indoor meets, tell them what is going on halfway around the turn. Especially in a longer race, it is very useful for an athlete to know what is going on where he or she cannot see. This is compounded indoors because sometimes you can have a chance to catch someone and not even know it. It is also useful for them to know if they are gradually closing on someone or someone is closing on them. Knowing how many seconds ahead or behind they are from where they need to be can be useful.

I am very quiet during practices. However, my experience has been that most of my runners want me giving a cue, a target, or an acknowledgement of effort.

As other posters have said, keep things short and positive.

Coach 101 wrote:

I'm a new assistant coach with a fairly large suburban high school team with talent ranging from the 4:30s in the 1600 at our varsity level to 3:00+ 800s at our JV level.

....

So, literally, what do you say to your runners??

As a coach your job is to prepare the athlete for success. The athlete will either perform or not perform.

The most important thing a coach can do during the performance is to allow the athlete to perform on their own.

If they perform at or above expectation, then they will come back with a desire to seek making improvements and get better.

If they perform below expectation, then they will be ready for more coaching (because the coach let them perform on their own).

Do your job during training. Let the athlete do their job at the performance. Repeat.

I have lucky enough to have great coaches and they never yelled during races. I've also been lucky enough to know some of the best coaches in the world, and none of them yelled during races either. Take it for what its worth.

Junior high cheerleaders yell during races. Coaches don't.

Coaching is about preparation.. Execution is the purview of the athlete.

There is some good advice here particularly from sloinnorcal, malmo, and similar posts.

I never yell. I speak in a normal calm voice. The athletes I coach claim they can hear my voice clear as a bell no matter how much shouting is going on around me. Speaking calmly is the only thing not blending into white noise like the shouting. I try to get away from all other coaches and fans to accentuate this. I give athletes one thing in which to specifically focus. Things like "lower your chin and relax your upper body," "feel the dorsi-flexion bounce from your ankle," "test yourself and see if you handle a little faster pace - find your limit."

The kids on our team laugh about the things they hear from coaches such as "RELAX!!!!!!" from a frantic, non-relaxing voice. "Get up there." Our joke is "Yea, get up there. Why didn't I think of that."

OP - I have a electronic handout that I give parents that explains to them how to cheer and support their kids. The dual purpose is also for kids to understand what they are going through as well. Both kids, parents, and assistant coaches really like it. It applies to coaches also. Provide your email address and I would be happy to share.

^this. I often explain to people who ask how I coach cross country, that I am the biggest cheerleader out there.

Before the meets we talk about strategy and focus and running with confidence. Mostly I yell mental cues to the kids or just encouragement. Kids love praise. I may have a kid that is in way over her head halfway into a 5k. It won't do any any good to yell anything g about pace that deep into a race. I I yell something like,"you look great", that is usually good to keep the kid motivated for another couple of minutes. Whereas she might have otherwise started thinking about her first mile being too fast, I can sometimes distract those negative thoughts from creeping in.

Great advice from another option.

My experience as a competitor I did not like being yelled at. Most of the " advice" was dig down or run faster. Rarely anything I could really use like you gained five seconds , the guy in front of you is starting to strain etc.

In my first year I did yell out instructions and soon found it took several days to get my voice back so to speak. What i learned if I spoke in a normal tone the kids could hear me loud and clear especially in crowded fields (many spectators and coaches yelling all at once).The feedback I got telling them things like relax your forehead or hands as an example was more useful to them as opposed to the coach next to me yelling at their kids "you gotta bleed, run harder etc.

Keeping a calm demeanor and staying positive helped them stay calm and able to respond strategically during competition.

My practices are built around learning to race so situations aren't foreign to when they encounter them in races.

Stand at the least crowded spot on the track, away from the start finish area, maybe at the 200 start of an outdoor track, or somewhere near the pole vault or jumps if indoors. Don't just be another voice in the crowd, stand out where there are less people around so the runners can make eye contact with you, even if you have nothing to say, a wave or eye contact can do a lot to support the runner.

Some really great responses here. I just can't believe how much negative feedback there is at meets. Case in point was a meet today where a coach kept yelling YOU'RE IN LAST PLACE! to every runner in last place. Sheesh.

just the facts: my email is

stlastoe@gmail.com

You may not notice it when your coach cheers for you, but you DEFINITELY notice it when he doesn't.

Always let the parent scream.

The coach should be poised and composed at all times, lest the parent rip the coach's head off.