Uncontrollable Superstars
Devotion.
Reading
Add Comment
My first year coaching I had an athlete who started out great. Shortly after working with him he was throwing almost 60ft at practice and was in the top 10 in the state. Suddenly, everyone is in his ear telling him how great he is and it got to his head.
After a lackluster finish to indoor, I expected a 60ft shot and 170 discus outdoor season. Then report cards came out…He failed some classes so he couldn't practice. After about a month he got his grades back up, but didn’t care about anything. He was skipping practice all the time. He was however able to show up just enough to make everyone else feel bad about their own throws, because of how easy it was for him to do so well without trying.
Sectionals come around and I expected 40 points from my throwers…We got 4. The problem athlete decided "what's the point of going to sectionals" and just skipped it. This sent waves through my throwers. One of my throwers fouled out of discus when he should have won. Furthermore he only threw 36 in shot, 9ft under his PR. Of the 4 people who should have taken top 3, only 1 scored points. His apathy demoralized the entire team.
They might be by far the best athlete you have, but you keep them with the risk of ruining the whole team. The guy who fouled out of discus at sectionals later told me, “It sucks, I worked so hard to get to where I was and he never practiced but was throwing farther.”
Devotion.
My Shortcomings
0 comments:
Post a Comment