Great Ways To Destroy Your Players

While no one wants to destroy or hinder their own players (counter productive to coaching), often times we do. What are some of the things you've witnessed, done, or have heard about that directly diminish a player's drive to succeed?


Sometimes the best things to learn are the things NOT to do.....
We mean well, but there may be times when we unknowingly sap production from our team via the words we say, the way we treat people, or how we 'coach'

A few off the top of my head are;

Talking about how much a player sucks: not challenging or pressuring a kid to get better, but just berating his abilities in off-hand comments, that his team mates buy into (the real issue). The player will find himself alienating himself from the staff and his team mates (see the third example) in a vicious-cycle of defeatest attitude.
Best player excuse :here directly avoiding challenging a player to develop past himself or accepting flaws simply because he's just better than everyone else (therefore, even with mistakes, the kid is better than whats behind him). This emotional coddling inhibits self-pressure and growth.
Deliver all emotion, and no substance : hyping up a drill or responsibility through emotional transference (yelling and screaming), but not providing a clear direction in which to do accomplish what you want. "Throw Harder" / "Block somebody" come to mind.....telling the kid to improve his performance but not explaining HOW he can go about doing it, causing him to further doubt himself and begin sharing your frustration with him (only causing more errors for the player).
Demanding immediate production with no investment: prodding a kid into loading up the bar with plates, but does not have the motor skills developed to perform a squat. Sure, its pussified to have anything less than 225lbs on the rack, but if we haven't taught how to breathe, stand, sit, and explode (contract)....we end up cultivating an unsurmountable fear and trepidation to a major building block of success. You have to crawl before you can walk, and many times we will put kids in positions to have to be masters of 4-5 different skill sets, without affording them the time to gain mastery in one.

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