‪#‎uracoach‬ if you teach the parents.....#3

‪#‎uracoach‬ if you teach the parents of your team what their role really is-and help them understand and accept the role their child earned on your team.

Coaching IS recruiting.  Regardless of the level you coach, coaching is absolutely about recruiting the people in your charge to believe in the vision you have for your team and program.  A mistake some coaches make, however, is only taking the time to recruit the players on the roster to believe in and fight for that vision.

If that is you, let this be a nudge to get you to focus on the other influences in your team members' lives.  Every time your players walk out of your practice or away from a contest they are inundated with the opinions and thoughts of their classmates, program fans, other coaches/teachers in the department/school, and the BIGGEST influencer, their parents.  

If you are not taking the time to make sure your players' parents are buying into the vision you have for your team, you are playing a high stakes game of roulette.  Sooner or later you will lose.  You might not get fired, but you'll lose in the way that your team will underperform.  This is especially true in the case of the role player who is working to accept their place on the team, who goes home to the former star athlete mom or dad who just can't understand what you could possibly be thinking.  Or the player whose folks are confident that he or she would be the perfect captain, not because they are the greatest servant to their teammates, but for status....usually their own.  Little Susie or Tommy can have the best intentions in the world, but to overrule the authority of their parents as they compare to you, the coach who spends less than 20 hours a week at most, with them - it's not going to happen.

Sure, there was a time when parents innately understood that even if you didn't agree with a coach, you simply would never let your child know. As a parent they would NEVER, and I mean NEVER, work to undermine the authority of a coach if, for no other reason, they understood that they couldn't possibly have all the required information to give their input - since they are not at practice, in the locker room and privy to the inner workings of the team.  That sadly is not the norm in today's climate.  

Take the time to recruit your athletes to see your vision and believe in it thoroughly.  Teach them that their parents largest window into your program is through their eyes.  Make sure in all cases you help your players advocate for your vision by having preventative conversations with parents about roles, about handling disagreements, and about the sacredness of the team.  In some cases, the player might have to carry the burden of countering parents quick to complain about a coach by not allowing themselves to use their parents as people they vent to.  Unfortunate as it is, some parents just can't handle not acting on the partial information that comes up in conversations like that. 

If you take the time to recruit the groups of people that surround your team, you'll find the sails of your boat always full of wind pushing your program through the roughest of waters.

Happy Coaching!