A Fine Line for Coaches

In the news the past few days there has been this story of California Golden Bears Men's Basketball Coach Mike Montgomery shoving his star player Allen Crabbe. Montgomery initially called the tactic a motivational technique because Crabbe was not playing very hard and that he would do it all over again because, well, "it worked."

 

 It did not take Montgomery very long to back track his statements. Later, on the same night he expressed he did nothing wrong, he expressed a statement of apology and then expressed further on that. "There's no excuse," Montgomery uttered. "I've been doing this 31 years. There's no excuse. I know better. It's totally out of character for me. I think things have changed in terms of how you can deal with kids. There's a heightened sensitivity to these kind of things but that doesn't change it. But there's nothing that makes it right. I was wrong. You have to just acknowledge that and push forward."

Crabbe, the player involved, stated that he understood why his coach did it and that he has not thought to much about it since it happened. Well judging by his reaction, he clearly did not like. Personally I think he was saying what was expected in order to not make it a bigger media story than it already was.

Another incident that happened in the fall involved Senior football player Derek Graves and Head Coach Mike Kramer at Idaho State University. Graves, a wide reciever, preferred to do his one-on-one drills against veteran cornerbacks and not the freshman on the team. (For those who may not know one-on-one for a WR-CB is when the wide receiver runs a route and only one cornerback is defending him) During one practice a freshman line up to go against Graves in a one-on-one drill. When this occurred Graves waved him off and asked an older more experience player to come face him. Upset with this Kramer came running across the field screaming and eventually pushing Graves to the ground. Its reported that Kramer told Graves, "He's a varsity f------ player," before shoving him to the ground. Kramer was only suspended one game.

I understand that coaches need to be able to touch players because athletics are very movement based. However, there are two ways that a coach should never touch or engage in contact with a player. The first of these, for obvious reasons, is sexually. The second of these is with any aggression. Coach should never lay a hand on a player of theirs in an aggressive manor. Coaches should understand one thing, THERE ARE WAYS TO GET TO YOUR PLAYERS WITHOUT PHYSICAL CONTACT.

Playing three years of high school football and four years of college football at Ferrum College I never once had a coach touch me in an aggressive way. I have had many motivational experiences and stern what to dos without a coach touching, pushing, or laying a hand on me. And if a coach should not understand that, more should be done to punish them. If a player does not like something that a coach is doing and aggressively lays his or her hands on their coach, they would more than likely be suspended for a while or kicked off of the team. The actions should be treated as the same.

Coaches should also be aware of how they are treating a player verbally as well. The one thing a coach should learn is how each of their players reacts to verbal criticism and which ones can handle it and which ones cannot. Some might be able to handle name calling as it might motivate them and some might not be able to handle it taking the statements to heart and feeling as though they have been insulted. I was in the first of the two categories, but I do know individuals who I played with who are in the second.

Coaches these days need to understand that not are athletes are created out of the same mold and that they must approach and coach each differently. However, a coach should never put his hands on a player in an aggressive manor. Its unprofessional and it is not needed in coaching. There is a fine line in for coaches but the great ones are able to walk it well.

-JM