The author of “Sports’ Bully Culture” John Amaechi, throughout his essay focuses on the bully that very few consider, the coach. He presents an example that most, parents in particular, have heard about; Mike Rice, the former coach at Rutgers University’s. Amaechi recognizes that he can agree with the end result but he also recognizes the need for a different approach and continues to share his view. Amaechi then shares his own personal experience with this kind of bully when he was in university. Even though what he says appeals to many, some coaches, disagree with Amaechi view. He continues to show that these coaches are not just a select few, and the result of these coaches is severe. The essays purpose is to change the audience’s perspective …show more content…
Being a volunteer can be a big commitment and just being “well-meaning” (Page 2) is not enough, there also needs to be support and genuine caring. When thinking about coaches we may only think of them as a coach and nothing else, thus letting many people overlook the possible stressors in their lives like family, workload, financial problems, and general stress. Students are at a point in time where endless knowledge is at their finger-tips as a result of the internet, and therefor the teacher or coach is not the “Gatekeeper and judicious disseminator of knowledge” (Chapter 12) as Carol Wilson said in “Performance Coaching: a complete guide to best practice coaching and training” this change creates a power dynamic shift where the coach may just be facilitating learning. Since the coach and their team are both able to access the same level of knowledge the coach could feel power hungry and their frustrations may be reflected in their methods of coaching. Carol Wilsons focused on the topic of being “Emotionally intelligent” and how it can “empower students, relieve tension, and reduce conflict” which can then Bring the focus back to what is most important, education. The one thing that the internet fails to show us is how to be naturally, emotionally intelligent and is better done by someone like a coach who can tailor their explanation to help their team fully understand. Stress can result in changes in our behaviour and can “range from aggression to social withdrawal” (Chapter 2) explained Doug Strcharczyck and Peter Clough the authors of “Developing Mental toughness: Coaching strategies to improve performance, resilience, and well-being,” which supports the idea that the stressors in a coaches life can result in aggressive coaching techniques. Amaechi
High school coaches been sworn at called names and physically threatened by parents before,during, and after the games. Playing time is often at the root of the problem though sometimes a parent is outraged that their son or daughter isn’t being played at what the parent thinks is their child’s best position (Nolan). In addition, equal playing time is important because it developed every player skills.(Nicole). Take, for instance, the case of a young player who has never played for a club before. He’s 11 and charges around the place without being able to control the ball or kick. Many of his teammates didn’t think he should play for their team but the coach has been working with him and one day he wanted to let him play and believe it or not he did very well for his first game that he even made a goal for the team (David). The best thing to do whenever you’re in a sport is that the coaches
Coaching is an integral part of helping achieve one’s maximum abilities. Dr. Gawande (2013) explains that, “Coaches are not teachers, but they teach. They’re not your boss—in professional tennis, golf, and skating, the athlete hires and fires the coach—but they can be bossy” (p. 3). It is difficult to say what is the exact function of a coach, however, they help bring forth another point of view different from our own and they also help bring about the right mindset in order to subdue a weakness.
The town of Messina revolved their life around the football team, so they knew everything about anything that happened with the boys. Coach Eddie Rake was a thick headed individual who continuously pushed his players past their breaking point every day. Practices included the many players puking and the death of one after their daily bleacher run that the boys dreaded. Games included one breaking his hand, Rake becoming unconscious, and the team “just doing the impossible” of winning a State Championship with no coaches after being down 31-0 at halftime (Grisham 144). Like every person in Messina, Rake has two sides to him; the shrewd side and the compassionate side. Rake’s many personalities made each and every person in Messina have a different opinion of him. “The question is, ‘do I love Eddie Rake, or do I hate him (Grisham 223)?’” Coach Rake loved every one of his players, but he had a reputation to maintain which made people think differently about him.
In a growing trend that reaches to all corners of the athletic world, coaches are being forced to cope with the added stress of disgruntled parents. More and more they are required to defend personal coaching styles and philosophies, uphold team decisions and go head to head with angry, and sometimes violent parents. The pressure has gotten to the point where coaches all over the country are quitting or being forced out of their jobs by groups of parents. High school athletics should be about learning and having fun, and when parents cross the line between cheerleader and ringleader everyone suffers.
In 2011, a Penn State scandal was released to the public and baffled sports fans. In Frank Deford’s “Joe Paterno’s Legacy: Protect Players At All costs,”Deford questions Joe Paterno’s legacy because JoePa did not report Jerry Sandusky’s pedophilia to authorities. In Katha Pollitt’s “Penn State’s Patriarchal Pastimes,” she writes about the unfairness in athlete’s education and how far coaches will go to keep their players playing on the football field.
March 8th, 2004 was supposed to be nothing more than a competitive and action packed regular season hockey game between feuding rivals, the Colorado Avalanche and the Vancouver Canucks. The game slipped away from the Canucks, with the Avalanche up 6-2 heading into the third period. The heated contested already had its fair share of fighting majors, but an incident that happened late in the third period shocked the more than 18,000 fans in attendance at Rogers Arena, the hockey community, and North America. After failing to instigate a fight with Avalanche forward Steve Moore, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks grabbed the back of Moore’s jersey, landed a vicious punch to the back of Moore’s head, before slamming him face first on the ice and falling on top of him. Moore had to be helped off the ice on a stretcher, and has never returned to the NHL. Bertuzzi, on the other hand, was suspended for 20 games by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and is still playing in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings. This is one of many examples of deviance in sports, and how a win-at-all costs mentality can drive athletes to act in extreme manners. As a result of the growing commercialization of sports, athletes are socialized at young ages to believe that winning is everything, and that stopping at nothing will help you succeed. Athletes will do almost anything to gain the upper hand in their respective sports, whether it is through engaging in excessive on-field violence or through the use of performance enhancing drugs, excessively committing themselves to their sport, or by violating league rules and policies. In sports, deviance is viewed in a different light than in the outside world. As professional athletes strive towards conforming to spor...
Defending Titles Diversely: A Persuasive Essay about the Lack of Diversity in Sports Many Americans have seen or at least heard of the movie “Remember the Titans.” The classic film focuses on a school that blends black and whites and takes on an African American head coach. The coach knows the importance of winning, but also knows the team must work together to get those wins and have respect for every single person in the locker room. Although coach Boone was still put in a tough situation with the school board and the community, he was able to lead his team, with the help of a white assistant coach, to an undefeated season. The team coming together is exactly what America does with sports.
The first personal traits that Coach Dale was forced to exhibit were his toughness and his assertiveness. On his first night in Hickory he met the men of town in the barbershop who were all willing to provide their experience and insight on the team and how to coach. Coach Dale had enough self confidence to know that none of these “insights” were going to help the Hickory team win basketball games and let them know they weren’t welcome by turning his back and walking out. Additionally, he was forced to demonstrate his toughness twice more on the first day of practice by telling the temporary coach, “Secondly, your days of coaching are over,” and then by standing up to the group of men after he dismissed Buddy from the team. These actions made no friends of the men; however, th...
In “Organized Sports Can Benefit Children,” David Brooks argues that sports are healthy for children, helping them build character and showing them leadership skills. David points out that sports can teach a kid responsibility in a variety of ways. For example, it’s easy to slack off in a classroom full of kids who don’t have much care for their own grades. Some students find disrespecting teachers and talking back to their parents cool and amusing. Teachers don’t take action into this bad behavior and assume its okay because of their young age. “You rarely see a teacher tell a kid to tuck in his shirt or have pride in his appearance, but coaches do it all the time” (Brooks). Coaches expect different from their players. They expect their players to keep a passing grade point average. If their grade point average doesn’t meet the requirements, they are not allowed to play. They want the players to show nothing but respect towards them. Any form of talking back or disrespect can lead to some kind of punishment, like running laps or push-ups. This teaches the players discipline and to treat others with respect.
“A coach is someone who is equipped to aid individuals or groups and organisations to maximise their performance in pursuit of their desired goals.” (Dexter et al, (2011) p.4)
Coaches bullying has recently become a hot topic since incidents involving Rutgers basketball, Rutgers football, and Miami Dolphins football. These happenings illuminated the ugly truth of the commonality of bullying. As people realized
I wanted to start telling the story of our experience by sharing the feelings I brought into this exercise. A few years ago I underwent an experience of coaching through several sessions that left me this taste in the mouth that the coaching as a tool to develop others is not very effective. I have not taken the time to deeply analyze what went wrong but in general if I had to choose to do it again I think I would choose another methodology to foster change. Its objective in general is to assist in building behavioral skills, but in my opinion to really look for a long lasting change you need to give a deeper understanding to the lack of a certain skills, strongly reflect on the variables linked to it as could be the emotions, values and motivations that conduce you towards a behavior different that that one desired. Personally, I enjoy seeking information that allows me to jump beyond the facts, and staying on the behavioral side of the reality limits my passion for inspiration and insight.
Coaching, however challenging, is a great way to influence the lives of others while also building their character. For as long as there have been sports, there have been people teaching the sport to the players and making them better at it. Coaches must have certain qualities in order to obtain success. One must also look at a coach’s motivation for his job, his passion for what he does, his methods for coaching, and how he became a coach in order to fully understand him. There are many questions someone may want to ask a coach about his profession if they are interested in coaching.
Manley, A. (2009). Expectancies and Their Consequences within the Coach-Athlete Relationship: An Athlete-Centred Investigatio. [online] Available at: http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/816/1/507136.pdf.
In today’s society being a coach can be extremely complicated especially compared to earlier years. Coaching requires not only many technical and personal skills but also has to include positive psychology that will affect all athletes regardless of gender, age, and race. After reading various articles this leads me to the question, what is a coach? How do coaches differ from one another? In addition are we forgetting the importance of not only coaching but the sports psychology aspect of coaching overall? Regardless of what you may have read or heard I believe not only do all coaches have their own coaching style but every coaching technique and style is different. Coaching styles and positive psychology are two techniques that can provide