When Coach Loses Control Some Youth Sports Coaches Put Winning Ahead Of All Else, Forgetting That The Games Are Supposed To Be Fun

There once was a volunteer football coach in Spokane who was a screamer. He’d pace the sidelines and scream, scream, scream.

The kids knew it. The parents knew it. Everybody but the coach knew it. When the football committee of the Spokane Youth Sports Association pointed this out, the coach said, “I’m not doing that!”

Finally, the committee videotaped the coach in action - at full lung-power. The coach was dumbfounded.

He truly never realized he screamed. The videotape spurred him to change.

“Now he is a model coach,” says Von Graf, executive director of the association. “Absolutely a model coach. We try to get there before it’s too late.”

In December, Graf’s group will sponsor a Coach Effectiveness Training workshop in Spokane, designed to improve good coaches and help catch negative habits before they cause serious damage.

For an estimated 25 million kids in the United States, after-school sports provide a healthy alternative to risky behavior. When a coach gets out of control, the biggest risk is that players will quit the team - where valuable lessons on competition, character and self-discipline can be learned - and fill those hours with aimless, or even dangerous, alternatives.

Sometimes the results can be more disastrous for the coach. One outstanding Olympia swimming coach had a very bad day last winter. The kids weren’t swimming up to his standards at practice. He hauled his swimmers out of the pool, and ordered them to run laps around the outdoor track in their wet swimsuits in 35-degree weather.

“It was a huge brouhaha,” says Charles Shelan, executive director of Community Youth Services in Olympia. “The coach made a stupid mistake. The pressure was so great that the school terminated his contract.”

Shelan is also the program chair for the Washington Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse. A $12,000 grant from the council will bring Coach Effectiveness Training workshops to 10 cities in Washington this school year.

The workshops will be led by Frank Smoll, a University of Washington sports psychologist and co-author of “Way To Go, Coach!” He and colleague Ronald Smith have spent 20 years researching how coaches’ behavior affects players and basing this training program on the results.

An estimated 3 million volunteer coaches train kids in after-school sports in the United States. These coaches can be long on heart but short on psychological wisdom, Smoll says.

Coaches may base their techniques on the role models they watch on television or memories of their own days as a high school player.

Both can lead coaches astray.

Professional and college coaches such as Phil Jackson, Dean Smith and John Wooden are the wise, revered generals of the coaching world. But when a coach’s role model is gymnastics’ Bela Karolyi or Indiana’s Bobby Knight, the team’s budget had better cover flak jackets.

“Bobby Knight is a disaster at any level of coaching in the behavior that he displays,” says Smoll. “Yet people see his successes and decide to copy him.”

Referees get a full-court view of the best and the worst of coaching behavior.

Mark Reilly, president of the referees’ group that officiates for girls’ and women’s basketball in the Spokane area, has discovered that coaches who berate him often treat their players the same way. Those coaches often earn technical fouls - “Ts” for short.

Says Reilly: “I’ve T-ed a coach and had the kids say, ‘Ah, thank you. We’re getting tired of listening to him, too.”’ Adults’ collective memories of their high school coaches can also be minefields.

“I can recall instances of really feeling humiliated in front of my teammates,” Smoll says. “That’s one of the most devastating experiences a child can have - being put down in front of their peers.”

One day as a high school baseball player, Smoll failed to back up a base even though he knew better. He received such a public tongue-lashing from his coach that it remained a vivid memory for years.

Says Smoll: “It took me a long time to shake that.”

Smoll, who played college basketball under an excellent coach, later helped coach his sons’ soccer teams.

As a sports psychologist, Smoll conducted a research project with Smith on the behavior of 70 volunteer coaches and the reactions of nearly 1,000 children.

Their research revealed that kids’ satisfaction with their experience wasn’t connected with the team’s won-lost records. Instead, kids were happiest with coaches who praised them for both performance and effort, who tackled mistakes with a combination of encouragement and technical advice, and who emphasized fun and personal improvement over winning.

“The No. 1 sports product they should be worried about is the quality of the experience for the child,” says Smoll. “The child comes first and then the game.”

Kids with positive coaches not only wound up liking the coach, but also their teammates, better.

The researchers found that hostile, punishing and critical behaviors happened only 1.5 percent of the time, but these behaviors were correlated more strongly with children’s negative attitudes than any other factor.

Smoll and Smith, in a recent journal article, wrote, “We found that coaches were, for the most part, blissfully unaware of how they behaved.”

They designed Coaches Effectiveness Training to help.

Their research has shown that on teams where coaches have received this training, only 5 percent of the players dropped out after the season ended. In a control group of untrained coaches, the drop-out rate was 26 percent. There was no difference in the average won-lost records of the two groups.

Research has also shown that kids on these teams have more fun, higher levels of self-esteem and less fear of failure than others.

“When coaches see this empirical evidence, there’s a buy-in,” Smoll says.

The first lesson for youth coaches is that kids are not professional ball players. They aren’t driven varsity athletes. They’re kids.

Sheer fun is the top reason kids play sports, according to several studies.

“If it’s not fun, they’re out of there,” Smoll says.

He teaches coaches to help their teams adopt simple but powerful rules. He recommends three: Be prepared and focused. Give maximum effort at all times. Treat others as you want to be treated.

He advises coaches to avoid punishment, whether it’s yelling at the kids or ordering them to run laps. It’s more effective to penalize kids for breaking the rules by giving time-outs during practice or restricting playing time.

Abusive behavior can be physical, verbal or non-verbal. It includes grabbing players and shaking them, delivering an in-your-face public berating, kicking equipment, giving a player a cold stare or angrily yanking one from the game.

Smoll gives coaches a self-evaluation form to examine their own behavior.

“It’s not a matter of attempting to change the coaches’ personality, but rather to give them some insight into some behaviors that are more productive for them,” Smoll says.

Smoll estimates that, 90 percent of the time, volunteer coaches are already on track.

“They’re good people,” he says.

A week ago, life lessons echoed across the basketball court at East Valley Middle School in the shouts and firm advice of one seventh-grade girls’ AAU basketball coach.

This team’s coach, Pat Saad, appeared steady and focused. He called out reminders: “Stay with her, stay with her, don’t let her get the ball.” And encouragement, “Good job, defense!”

As the horn blasted, Saad remained a solid presence. His team was down 20-12 at the half.

“OK,” he said calmly to his flushed and thirsty players. “Go get some water and I’ll talk to you about it.”

The team came back to lose by only three points. Saad, proud of their performance, later talked about his coaching style.

He weaves together a philosophy of empathy, respectful instruction and fun.

“I try to convey at any point in the game we are putting our best foot forward,” he says. “I’d feel bad about my performance if I were to lose it to the point of losing self-control.”

Good coaches are as busy learning important lessons as any of their players.

Jim Redmon, who has coached AAU basketball for a decade and now coaches the Lewis and Clark girls varsity basketball team, has found it’s important not to pull kids out of the game after making a mistake.

“If a kid is in her comfort zone and she is playing well, she needs to be allowed to make mistakes without having to constantly look over to the bench,” Redmon says.

Chuck Hafner, a retired Central Valley school administrator and former principal, has been coaching his grandson’s AAU basketball team since the boy was in the fifth grade. His players are now in the eighth grade.

“We treat each other with respect,” Hafner says firmly. “There’s absolutely no swearing allowed with my kids. They play their game and I’m the one who coaches.”

Hafner’s secret? “It’s motivation, not intimidation.”

He’s watched coaches who yell and scream all the time.

“The kids turn a deaf ear, just absolutely a deaf ear to it,” he says.

Hafner talks over problems with his team and helps them figure out ways to solve them.

“I’ve walked away at the half and said, ‘You need to talk and figure out what you’re going to do.’ You have to respect the kids and what they think, too,” he says.

The younger the kids, the more respectful the coach has to be.

“You’ve got to come down to their level,” says Deanna Dullanty, a Spokane Youth Sports softball coach. “You can’t go out and expect them to play a World Series game.”

She’s coached 6-year-olds who can’t remember where first base is, who are so surprised when they actually get a hit that they forget to run, who know life’s truly important question is not “Did we win?” but “What’s the snack?”

Her teams have gobbled up granola bars and brownies, Squeezit juices and cupcakes shaped like baseballs.

They’ve also learned a lesson or two about softball. One of Dullanty’s goals has been to teach them to field the ball by catching it between their feet, not off to the side.

When they mess up, Dullanty never yells, “I’ve told you a million times: Catch it between your feet!” Instead, she says, patiently, “That was a nice try. Next time try it between your feet. It really works!”

Few kids can resist fun, encouragement and great snacks.

For 10-year-old soccer player Robby Parker, they’re a winning combination. He particularly admires his coaches, Brad and Mary Harnetiaux.

“They let you do a lot of fun things,” Robby says.

Robby’s coaches teach him and his teammates new “tricks” during practice. An example might be a soccer move called a foundation in which the player kicks the ball to one side of an opponent and then runs around the other side to retrieve it. When a player successfully masters one of these “tricks” during the game, Robby’s coaches hand out rewards during the next practice: Tootsie Rolls or Kit Kat bars.

Robby’s coaches never yell. But he’s watched those who do.

“They’re taking too much time yelling at you and not teaching you how to play the game,” he assesses. “It’s a waste of your money.”

Robby already knows what he’d do if he got one of those “yelling coaches.”

Says this thoughtful blond boy: “I probably wouldn’t play on the team.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Bridget Sawicki

MEMO: Two sidebars appeared with the story: 1. Resources For more information on positive coaching skills, try these resources: “Way To Go, Coach!” by Ronald E. Smith and Frank L. Smoll (Warde Publishers, $15.95) may be ordered by calling (800) 699-2733. The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports publishes a quarterly newsletter called Spotlight on Youth Sports. It may be ordered for $5 by writing Spotlight on Youth Sports, Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, 213 I.M. Sports Circle Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1049, or calling (517) 353-6689. For articles from past issues, check the institute’s internet address: www.educ.msu.edu/ units/dept/PEES/ysi/ysihome.html. The National Youth Sports Coaches Association offers training, certification and other support to youth coaches. For more information, call the Spokane Youth Sports Association at 536-1800 or the national office at (800) 729-2057.

2. Tips for youth coaches Want to be a better coach? Sports psychologist Frank Smoll will led a Coach Effectiveness Training workshop at 7 p.m. Dec. 4 at the Spokane Youth Sports Association Bingo Hall, 2230 E. Sprague. The cost is $3. For a registration form, call 536-1800. Good Plays DO provide reinforcement immediately. Make as many positive comments about effort as you do results. DON’T take their efforts for granted. Mistakes DO give encouragement immediately after mistakes. That’s when the child needs your support most. If you are sure the player knows how to correct the mistake, then encouragement is enough. If not, add corrective instruction. DON’T punish when things go wrong. Don’t yell, use a harsh tone of voice or kick the equipment. You’re more likely to cause frustration and resentment for your athletes than to improve their performance. Misbehavior DO maintain order by setting clear expectations. Tell your team that every player, including those on the bench, are part of the game. Use positive reinforcement to prevent misbehavior. DON’T be a drill sergeant. Don’t rely on nagging or threatening athletes. When athletes refuse to cooperate, deprive them of something they value (such as time to practice or play the sport.) Don’t require kids to run laps as punishment. Skill-building DO act as a competent and caring teacher. Always teach in a positive manner, with clear instructions and, whenever possible, demonstrations of how to do skills correctly. Make a “sandwich” of your corrections. Start with a compliment. Tuck future-oriented instruction in the middle (“If you follow the ball all the way into your hands, you’ll catch the ball just like a pro does.” End with another positive statement. DON’T irritate your players by using a sarcastic or demeaning tone of voice. From “Way To Go, Coach!” by Ronald E. Smith and Frank L. Smoll (Warde Publishers)