Sean

Sean Ford

As we’ve all noticed, the weather has taken a turn for the warmer lately. This type of quick turn around from the cold, drizzly days of just a couple of week ago to the more recent sunny, 85degF type of days has our young athletes trying desperately to cope during practices and games.

Too often I’ve witnessed players taking a break during practice or a game without hydrating. The usual response to, “Please have a drink while you’re resting”, has been, “I’m not thirsty.” The idea here isn’t to wait until the player is thirsty, but to actually hydrate prior to a game or practice and then continue to hydrate throughout the game or practice. If a player waits to hydrate once s/he becomes thirsty, then it’s already too late; the player is now dehydrated.

Here’s the deal, don’t just allow the player to bring a sports drink or water bottle with him or her to the sports event, have them begin to hydrate at least an hour prior to the performing. This is especially important during these hot, sunny days when a player’s body can start off feeling fine, but quickly sweat off or burn off any internal hydration. Of course, Gatorade type drinks are great for hydration during a physically stressful event, but also worth consideration are the less sugary types of drinks like Propel, though do not generally replace electrolytes to the same extent as Gatorade. Water is also great, but it does not replace the electrolytes lost during heavy exercise. Unfortunately for coaches and players in Walpole, our new sythetic field at Turco (High School), does not allow Gatorade-type drinks due to the chemical reaction between the beverage and the new playing surface (I’m researching this now to try and determine if it’s an urban legend), so we must bring plenty of water with us.

In the end, there’s not much more we can do other than to keep hydrated. The players bodies will acclimate to the weather conditions, but this transitional period is difficult. Coaches must be aware of the changing conditions and force the hydration issue because our young athletes will wait too long, it’s a fact so let’s help them through this tough period.

Sean Ford

Every child who enters a youth sport has dreams of scoring a goal, hitting a homerun, scoring a touchdown, or sinking a basket and winning the game. Every child athlete has these dreams and every child athlete should be given equal opportunity to realize those dreams.

Have you ever witnessed this at a game? Starting players step onto the field, or the court, and they play a long shift or series of plays only to be substituted out when they’re winded and replaced with “second string” players? How long do the “second string” players stay on the field? 1 minute? 3 minutes? 4 minutes if they’re lucky? It happens. It absolutely happens. It’s difficult to let all the players play equally, especially in sports like football or basketball where you actually have a starting squad with dedicated positions; it’s hard to do, and it takes some real effort to pull it off. Can it be done? Of course it can, but it takes a dedicated and compassionate coaching staff to pull it off.

We’re lucky in youth lacrosse, where I am a coach, because we don’t have “starting” players and we don’t have dedicated positions; I suspect the same is true of soccer, but maybe less so with baseball where you need to have a pitcher who can actually throw the ball well or someone gets hurt.

It’s my opinion that youth sports in Walpole should strive to ensure that every player leaves a game feeling as though they were part of the outcome, for better or worse. No child athlete deserves to feel left out or worse, unwanted, because the coach decided to play the more skilled players, more often, in the quest to win. That is not to say that the coach should not strategically place the more skilled players in a position to score or affect the outcome of the game, but it should not be at the expense of the other players.

Ok, let’s put this out there, some players are more skilled than others, some players give their all while others cruise, and then others are just naturally gifted with athletic ability.  I will never discount natural ability, drive, or desire, and I will always reward effort, but the idea of equal playing time and offering the players the opportunity to live their dream is so much more important than “the win” or “the great play”. Let the players win as a team, and also let the players lose as a team, either way it’s a character building opportunity that we can’t afford to keep from the young athletes of Walpole. In the end, we want the children of Walpole to leave a sports program as a better person with a strong feeling of self worth and with a head full of positive memories that s/he will take with them for the rest of their lives.

Today’s youth players are tomorrow’s parents, tomorrow’s coaches, and tomorrow’s referees. Today’s coaches in Walpole have a responsibility to set a positive example for our players to ensure that they will carry forward what they’ve learned and what they’ve seen. The idea here is to lead from the front and our players will follow.

Sean Ford

This past February I attended a Positive Coaching Alliance seminar hosted by the Mass Bay Youth Lacrosse League and it was time well spent.

The PCA seminar was held at Gillette stadium and lasted approximately 2 hours. The PCA presenters covered subjects such as positive reinforcement, recognizing and rewarding effort, redefining the concept of “winning”, and equal playing time for our youth players. In addition to the presentations, there were “breakout” discussions covering the topics of “how to handle game time conflicts” and “what to say to a team prior to a tough game”.

I feel that the lacrosse program in Walpole is a leader in this area of coaching training and I think every program in town would benefit from this type of training. When it comes down to it, the coaches are the face of every youth sport, and we all want to make the best impression when we can. Positive coaching training not only benefits the youth sports programs, it benefits the very youth that we claim to want to guide towards victory in our various endeavors.

So often we see coaches and parents become so engrossed in a youth game that they will sometimes lose touch with what is really important about youth sports and the adults will actually lose their temper over a perceived slight or injustice on the field. Let’s face it, coaches will sometimes yell at players, parents will occasionally yell at referees, and when it gets really ugly we find parents yelling at other parents. What are we teaching our youth athletes with this type of behavior? What sort of example are we setting?

Youth sports are a wonderful way for children to learn how to cope with the disappointment of a loss, and also how to be gracious after a win; it’s character building. This is where positive coaching can really shine; lead the players by example, show some class, and never lose your temper or enter an argument when the players are present because it’s a losing proposition every time.

It’s been said that the only thing wrong with youth sports today is adults. Walpole should be different and Walpole should lead the effort to show that adults don’t have to ruin youth sports. Adults should set the example, show the players how to win, lose, or draw with class and with dignity. I see this sort of example leadership every day, and thankfully, the bad examples are few and far between. Walpole is extremely lucky to have dedicated adults who volunteer their time and effort for youth sports, now let’s take that next step and become the town with the best coaches possible. Let’s move beyond a simple CORI check and let’s actually get some coaches training.