You have a couple new coaches who are young, as in just graduated HS and use to be on a team at the gym they now work for. These new coaches are knowledgable but the kids are not being respectful/not listening to them and will only listen to the more senior coaches. What should the new coaches do to gain control/respect? How can the more senior coaches help?
I know exactly how that can be and it is very frusterating. The young coaches just have to show some back bone. The kids will soon realize there serious. It takes time and sometimes a good talk with the team is needed. Let them know that their behavior is not needed and there needs to be some changes or there will be consequences. Its up to you to figure out those consequences.
I've been on the other end of that situation where you have a coach who you cheered with a year or two ago and now expects to gain respect imediately.
By "you" I don't mean YOU, just to clarify...and I don't know any of this applies to you but they are something that I have noticed.
You have to realize that you don't just get respect for being a coach, you have to earn it. Often times young coaches try too hard to imitate the coaching styles of their senior coaches and that is a big mistake. Often times the reason those coaching tactics work for the senior coaches is because they have already gained the respect of the team.
Give the team reasons to respect you, show them that you want them to succeed by encouraging them and although discipline is important, often young coaches rely too much on it and sometimes even gain a power trip by it, thinking that every problem can be solved by yelling/discipline and then get upset when the team doesn't listen to them or doesn't respect them. I'm not saying that thats whats happening to you, but I've seen it happen. And when a new coach does too much disciplining without positive ENCOURAGING comments than the discipling will start to mean nothing. (this is true for all coaches, but I've seen several new coaches fall into that).
Also if there are members on the team that you once cheered with you pretty much have to accept the fact that they're always going to see you as a friend/peer, that's not going to change. But that doesn't mean that they won't gain your respect. Just be careful when you have expectations for them that you can't accomplish yourself, they will know that and may see you as a hypocrite while if an older experienced coach said the same thing they won't think about it in the same way.
Be firm but kind and try to gain their respect, not force the respect out of them. It takes time to establish yourself and your respect as a coach, they will need to learn to respect you but you should also be flexible and open to learning what makes a good coach because sometimes that is very hard to see on the outside.
What a wonderful topic. OC never allows a coach to coach cheerleaders or dancers that are within an age level that they would be on a team with. New coaches always begin in an assistant level and with the lower level teams. They earn their way up. Even our senior coaches that are new to our gym begin in an assistant level. Moving up is easy. But it's difficult to move someone down, so we just avoid that situation all together.
I have seen exactly what the last poster stated. Don't let the power get to your head. Once you lose respect, it's almost impossible to regain it. But as a student or parent, I would speak to that coach along with their director IMMEDIATELY. They may not realize what is happening being so new.
I have to agree with OC. I don't think a new hire should have the role of head coach for any team. AS well as work with the kids of their own age level. That's not even fair to the new coach to put them in that position.
I truly think that each new coach should assist in everything until they either earn respect or they have a minimum time limit of coaching experience. Cheering and coaching are totally two different things. Just cause you can do it doesn't mean you can teach it.
I think that new coaches should generally work with little kids at first. It will teach them how to hold their anger and put on a smile and say nice things to keep the kids going. Trust me when you can keep a bunch of 5 year olds working for two hours without goofing off you can handle the senior kids. Just remeber you will probally never have as much respect as the older coaches. The older coaches seem to be the people to look up to. When coaching senior age kids being a teenager yourself it is really hard to gain there respect. Teenagers tend not to like to listen to kids their own age telling them what to do. Someone pretty much said it all. Really good post. One last thing. Just remeber a compliment travels alot farther then yelling and conditioning and people tend to work harder when complimented. I would try a new skill if a coach said great job you almost hit it that time you are improving so much. If the coach said that sucked and it was hideous I wouldn't want to try it again.
I agree. I work at a high school and I see alot of the same situations as far as behavioral issues with students and lack of respect for teachers that are in their early 20's. I see it more with the Juniors and Seniors. Coaching is very difficult as it is. It becomes even more difficult when the uneeded extra factors come in to play. I know in our gym, especially with out Coed teams. You have coaches that were on these teams a year or so ago. They still hang out the team members outside of the gym. There is to much room for conflict. There can be preferential treatment of one teammate vs. the other. Jealousy issues, and I know I am going to be slammed for this one, romantic issues if thoses coaches were previously involved with current team members.
Lets just say how does it look when you are trying to get a point across to the team as a whole and you have people on a team that has some dirty laundry on one of your coaches.
Not only that with such big age gaps on these senior teams, you have little kids that might have been on the same team as these coaches and when those coaches were team members they were horrible to the younger kids on the teams. (And don't try and say it doesnt happen because it does). I would just love for you to have to be older to coach. Having Junior or assistant coaches are okay, but not being full on coaches. But then again what do I know, this is just the opinion of a teacher.
As a coach you have to set the tone. From day one, you are in control of the practice from start to finish. It's funny, my daughter was involved in lot of these scenarios. She had a two different coaches who she also cheered with two years earlier. There was no issue, they were the coaches and they got respect. After my daughter graduated, she became a coach herself. She started out as an assistant coach, and also became a head coach the next year. She did coach juniors, and obviously none of them had cheered for her, but she had complete control of the practices. I can't think of a coach at Pyramids that really ever had a problem with that.
