When I first started coaching in 2009, I was the roughest, toughest coach you could imagine. I took all the lessons that my very less than perfect cheer coach taught me about coaching and applied them to the kids I was now coaching. Then in my 2010-2011 season for one of my senior level teams, I had a parent have the audacity to say that my coaching style was "mentally abusive" towards her child. It crushed me. Not once had I ever gotten into an athletes face yelling at them to be better, not once had I used cuss words or slurs, not once did I put players up against each other to duke it out for a spot in the formation. What I did do was tell kids when they were not performing correctly, yell at them when they did not pay attention, and made sure to be very stern about safety hazards. The thing with cheerleading is, if one person is not paying attention in a stunt or tumbling pass and someone could be severely injured.
I definitely never looked like this guy!!
Well after this statement, I was left shattered and confused about what a coach was supposed to do. So for my 2011-2012 season I took a very laid back approach, not disciplining the girls, not training them the way I wanted to but instead the way the parents did and what I was left with was a team that had to drop a level mid season, a very less than perfect routine, and rankings way lower than the year before. Needless to say, that approach did not work either.
This summer I started coaching at an additional program as the assistant to a young man (we shall call him D), for a youth level team. Let me start out by saying, I think D is a fantastic coach and really pushes the girls to their full potential. I initially met D when he was training my high school team in tumbling and I have fully enjoyed working side by side with him the past couple of weeks. However, last night on my hour commute home from the gym, I started thinking about practice and D's coaching style. He is very upfront with the little ones. When they are wrong, he tells them to do it again. When they cry, he tells them to suck it up and keep fighting. When they condition, he works them till their muscles shake. But what does he have to show for it, two 7 year old girls working on very advanced tumbling skills, an entire youth team with tripple jumps and standing backhandsprings and a heck of a lot of respect from the kids.
They love me because I play the good cop and compliment their good efforts and listen to their 7 year old stories about this one time when their big brother picked on them but they love him because they are there to become athletes and win competitions. And sometimes at practice I just wish D would be a little bit nicer but I am sure he looks at me and thinks "step up and yell already". But I think that is what makes us work well together, a mix of the hard work and dedication that you need to force yourself to have if you want to be successful and a bit of the spirit that gives girls the confidence they need to be amazing.
I do think there is a fine line between my coaching style and D's and I think that line is actually a word- Education. I think we are all there to teach the kids lessons about not only cheerleading but also life and as long as we don't spend too much time screaming or not screaming we will succeed as coaches.
Me and Coach D at Dynamic Camp's 1st Annual Valley Blast Camp
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