Rewarding Effort over Ability in Youth Athletics

I remember as a 12 year old baseball player walking off the practice field in tears. A coach had disciplined me for being too slow. Not because I was not trying hard enough, or not good enough, but because my weight slowed me down, my endurance sucked and at the time I felt I wasn’t good enough. For the first time in my life, I walked off that field saying “I quit”. What happened next, changed my philosophy as a player, as a coach and in life. My Dad followed me off that field, turned around and told that Coach he quit too. I remember my dad asking me if I try my hardest and of course I told him Yes. And he said, that’s all we ask. The coach apologized and I went back the next day and played baseball for another 4 years.

Recently, I heard a local football league is starting a Developmental league for lesser ability players. Not special needs players but players who a coach deems to be less able to play the game than others. There is an old philosophy, “If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best”. How can you ever beat the best, if
you never get a chance on that field. Moreover, how can you improve yourself if you never have a chance to play against the “better” players.

While I certainly can see the benefit of having an ‘A’ team and a ‘B’ team in high school ball, having the same in the lower grade levels is demeaning, self-defeating and a recipe for disaster. In today’s world of youth athletics, finding a place for everyone to play is a coaches job. If you have 25 players and you have kids playing both ways, Shame on you! That is not the right philosophy.

Every Coach has their favorite stat, from PF / PA ratio to IP. Mine is, 70% of youth athletes QUIT by the time they reach high school. 70%, 7 out of 10 kids. Why is that my favorite, because as a coach, my goal is to make sure the experience we provide, is good enough to keep our kids playing. How many TDs we score, how many first downs we make, doesn’t help me if kids don’t have a good experience. And how can you have a good experience if you know you are playing on the ‘B’ team as a 4th grader.

One of the greatest examples of a youth sports coach is one of my best friends, Piero Setta. You see, Piero truly rewards effort over ability, all day long. In a recent conversation regarding his soccer team, he was expressing how proud he was of how far his athletes have come. He reminded me, he always works to make his players uncomfortable, or play in positions he knows they will succeed in but sometimes they don’t believe in themselves. It reminds me of the scene in the movie where the coach goes up to Little Johnny who is put in to
hit for an injured player. The coach says “Johnny, I know you can do it. You have done it 100 times in practice. But….. You need to believe you can do it” You see, believing in our athletes is what makes them better. From Pro athletes to Youth Athletes, if you don’t believe in your athletes as a coach, getting them to perform for you will always be a challenge.

I am going to end with one last story. This past season, I had an athlete. By football standards, he was small. By Varsity standards, he was TINY. In the last game of our season, the ball carrier is coming right at him. This athlete was timid and feared contact. Before the game, I remember talking to him and saying there is nothing more than I would like to see that him make a tackle. To come out of his shell. I told him I believed in him. So here we are, the ball carrier comes around the corner and the only thing separating him from the end zone is this kid. All of a sudden, I see this young man start charging, lowers his should and BAM!!!!. Tackled the runner at the 5 yard line. I remember running out on the field and picking him up with shear pride. The highlight of the game and of his football career. That is the power of positive encouragement, the power of
belief. That is what we are called to do, work with every athlete to make them the best player they want to be. We must reward effort and the ability will come.