All-Star Can A Coach Push To Hard?

[cheermominar]

:cheering:

 

[zonkadonk]

being both an all star coach and a HS teacher, I feel that you just have to know your athletes/kids. All kids are different, some can handle really hard coaching and lots of pushing, but others may shut down in the same situation. I find this a lot on junior level and under teams, when you still have a lot of younger athletes. I think the most important thing when coaching is knowing all your kids and understanding how to adapt your coaching for each one, so that each athlete can reach his/her potential.

 

[cheermominar]

being both an all star coach and a HS teacher, I feel that you just have to know your athletes/kids. All kids are different, some can handle really hard coaching and lots of pushing, but others may shut down in the same situation. I find this a lot on junior level and under teams, when you still have a lot of younger athletes. I think the most important thing when coaching is knowing all your kids and understanding how to adapt your coaching for each one, so that each athlete can reach his/her potential.

It's interesting your comparison to the school environment and the gym. Another parent (whom is a teacher) and I (Whom sub) brought this up with the same comparison. Our daughters are the same age/grade (different cheer skill levels), for her cp the drop till your dead practices, the coach this year has has made her daughter try harder. But for my cp this year, it's made her shut down.

 

[zonkadonk]

Yes, its all in the approach, I can get the same result from two very different athletes just in the way I ask them to do something. One athlete will respond better if I yell at her, the other I have to tell her something positive before I do any sort of correction or else she will take it as me picking on her. But, yes, the school environment is very much the same - and being a teacher has taught be how to approach these types of situations

 

[retiredl5cheer]

This is the reason I love coaching a team of 10. I'm able to figure out the best way to approach each kid. Some are eager to please and will do whatever I ask-- those are the kids I can ask nicely. Some are stubborn and lean towards lazy-- those are the ones I yell at. Some just are young and don't know what I'm talking about half the time-- those are the ones that I ask to repeat my instructions back to me. I have one girl who doesn't give me a lot to work with because she under estimates herself. When she says "I can't" I give her concrete examples of when she did. Otherwise she won't try.

 

[Underestimated]

Me as a coach.. in the beginning of the summers ill push them a little extra harder than usual to get their bodies up to "shape" once competition season is here I do push but not over their limit around this time they're more conditioned and everything isn't as difficult to do. And I don't believe in doing 50 fullouts

 

[EricaElite]

I remember the end of my junior year I was trying out at a new school. We had to run a mile outside, I told my coach beforehand I have asthma and would need an inhaler and she just kinda like "yea, whatever". So I did one lap (we had to do like 4) and told her I needed to get my inhaler. She said no and that I have to finish the mile without it and to "push myself". So instead of dying "pushing myself", I left and discovered the wonderful world of allstar
I think it's great to push them a little harder, it'll help. But you have to know their limits and how much to push them.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Whoops I thought we meant mentally.

 

[cheermominar]

Whoops I thought we meant mentally.

Well, I guess I meant either way???

I remember the end of my junior year I was trying out at a new school. We had to run a mile outside, I told my coach beforehand I have asthma and would need an inhaler and she just kinda like "yea, whatever". So I did one lap (we had to do like 4) and told her I needed to get my inhaler. She said no and that I have to finish the mile without it and to "push myself". So instead of dying "pushing myself", I left and discovered the wonderful world of allstar
I think it's great to push them a little harder, it'll help. But you have to know their limits and how much to push them.

Couldn't you have complained to the school?

 

[xtremeteal4life]

Whoops I thought we meant mentally.

Mentally and physically often go hand in hand in sports IMO. It's your mentality 9/10 that allows you to go the extra mile physically.

 

[canz]

Yes, I will be completely honest and say I made this mistake last year. Result = burnt out kids and sub par performances when we should have been peaking. Not by yelling at them of course but by having very physically demanding practises every single time with no let up which resulted in peaking mid season and then deteriorating from that point as they were just exhausted physically and mentally. Nothing like learning the hard way, this year I am taking a very different approach particularly as the majority of the kids I coach are going through their major growth phase.

 

[cheermominar]

Yes, I will be completely honest and say I made this mistake last year.

I give you kudos for admitting it your mistake

 

[EricaElite]

Couldn't you have complained to the school?

I could have, but it probably wouldn't have done any good. Cheerleading at that school is a big thing so everyone is biased towards them. Plus, I'm pretty glad it happened, since I started allstar instead

 

[MomMomMamaMom]

I think that a coach needs to push his/her athletes , and I appreciate it when our coaches push my own cps. However, I have noticed a couple of "do's and don'ts" from my limited years watching cheer and gymnastics teams. One is that you have to know your athletes. There are many who shut down when they are pushed too far, and many who won't succeed unless they are pushed beyond their limits. I don't envy coaches the task of figuring out how to negotiate the differences between the two. I have seen a lot of instances where both athletes and parents are up in arms about perceived inequalities about the differences in how coaches treat kids...and it has to be tricky to maneuver. I think that basically, everyone has to believe you are genuinely interested in each of your team members in order to succeed in this aspect.

I also think you have to know your sports physiology in order to be a strong, successful and well received coach. If you aren't able to negotiate injuries, endurance issues, strengthening repetitive motion issues and flexibility, you run the risk of being a clueless, and sometimes dangerous coach.

That being said, my own kids have both thrived under being pushed hard...so I like it when they are pushed. I have learned, as a parent, how to handle the frustration, etc. that they come to me with when they feel like it has been too hard.

 

[Goosepatrick]

I don't like the word push. a coach needs to help each cp realize their potential which might be more than they realized. but you don't help them realize it by screaming at them to just do it. Like others have said its a balance to figure out what motivates, what fears they have and put together individual plans to enable each one to achieve everything they can. One must respect their physical and emotional boundaries and help them learn how to change those boundaries. I do believe that CPs whose boundaries won't change in a period of time should find a different coach is they aren't motivating or provide helpful insight or they should find a less demanding sport