Written by Do you remember listening or watching coaches, teachers, or other adults when you were a young child? Do you remember when they would tell you to do something, you just assumed they had the authority, and you then followed their direction? Or maybe someone told you something and it was “factual” because they were your coach. The coach told you to run, so you ran fast.
The same goes for coaches’ behavior. The coach yells at a child, the child assumes that it is acceptable to yell. The coach breaks a young athlete down with hurtful remarks, isolation, encouraging bullying or hazing between athletes, or facilitating a toxic culture, the child assumes that behavior is acceptable as well. The child is a sponge, absorbing everything, and his or her lifelong morals, values, and ethics are being shaped at such a young age.
As a coach, what behavior, actions, and words you use are seen, heard, memorized, and repeated by youth athletes. Even when a coach thinks that nobody else is watching or listening, there always someone that is. And most of the time, that someone is a child.
So when you, as a coach, mentor, teacher, leader, and the person in charge are on the field, pitch, deck, court, gym, track, or somewhere else coaching, are you going to set the example and treat athletes with kindness, dignity, and respect? In other words, are you going to use your powers for good or evil? Every day, a coach has an active choice on how they are going to interact with their athletes. The coach sets that tone, not only for practice, game, or season, but for most young athletes, that coach sets the tone for the athletes for the rest of their lives.