In response to Mark Days post. Mark the
key is, are they learning from their mistakes? You will never improve
tactically and technically as an athlete if you don’t make mistakes. The good athlete
learns from mistakes and taking risks, then they internalize what needs to
be done to correct those mistakes. Pep Guardiola, the manager of Barcelona
winner of yesterday Champions League final over favorite Manchester United said
after the match: “There’s nothing more dangerous than not taking risks.” As a
coach I view mistakes as a teachable moment. The perfect game has never been
played, nor has the perfect race been run. That does mean to imply that we do
not strive for perfection, but sometimes imperfection will move you on the
path toward perfection.
One of my pet peeves is to see coaches praise poor effort
or mistakes made because of lack of effort or concentration. I have been around coaches who say 'well done" no matter the effort or result. That helps no one. In those cases the
correction must be made immediately and firmly in a manner the individual athlete relates to.
Mark Day
Dealing with average efforts and correcting repeated mistakes can be the most difficult part of coaching, especially athletes high school and younger. Preaching win every drill, win every workout and ICE helps but kids are fragile it seems and take a bad day at school or home to the field with them. Living in rural country where teams are often composed of recreational type athletes and more competitive athletes adds to the difficulty. And as you said Vern, too much false praise from others does not help those that speak a bit more of the truth.