Players, Coaches, Angry Fans…Lend Me Your Ears
Everyday exchanges in the football world carry a tremendous amount of variety in both message and motive. From the idealistic and hopeful messages in pregame speeches to the nonsensical mantras of disenfranchised fans, a quiet moment seemingly never surfaces. Most communication stems from the concurrent goals of molding student-athletes’ into character driven young men while also achieving victory in competitive endeavors. Although the pursuit toward such objectives start with righteous intentions, the outcomes during any particular practice, game or season can alter the actions and attitudes of a team’s players, coaches and spectators.
Throughout the course of my coaching career I have felt both delight and disgust in response to the conversations I have encountered. Athletics, especially football, bring out the best and the worst in people. Sadly, I must confess I have communicated in each extreme. I have both cussed at and cried with my players. I have both fought with and fostered friendships with my fellow coaches. And, I have both avoided and shown appreciation to our programs’ fans and parents.
Below are examples from personal experiences of “The Good” (communication that I have found inspires a program); “The Bad” (communication I have found distracting but ultimately harmless to a program); and “The Ugly” (communication I have found damaging to a program).
Coach Speak: The importance of positive communication in relationship and program building necessitates the need for a coaching staff to generate an inspirational inventory filled with motivational messages of aspiration, perseverance and resiliency. Without this tool kit holding the proper equipment, a staff opens the doors of its program to potential miscommunication and negative influence.
A. The Good – The most effective coaches I have worked with have sculpted the many emotions and efforts within their programs with open and honest dialogue. Success in building trust with players, fans and parents has been grounded in a well-articulated vision. This recipe calls for both listening and speaking as key ingredients. I learned this early in my career when one of our hardest working players had a distracted practice. I tried to motivate the player unsuccessfully with voice and volume. Luckily, another coach grabbed me on the way out of the office and explained that the player’s father was a sniper in the army and had recently deployed to Afghanistan. It was an “Oh-Crap” moment for me. I told my colleague that I had no clue. He then relayed a valuable lesson. He explained “you can’t motivate if you don’t care enough to know what’s going on in players’ lives.” He emphasized “It is your job to know!”
B. The Bad –The coaching vernacular is littered with clichés. Clichés remind me of bees. Just as bees positively influence the human ecosystem, clichés have the ability to constructively contribute to the football environment. Still, bees sting! While their sting doesn’t typically kill, it definitely distracts. Many clichés carry similarly harmless irritation. The term “Give 110%” demonstrates this notion. On the surface this phrase tells players to go above and beyond. However, the expression’s core sets an unrealistic expectation for players to achieve impossible outputs. Imagine if your athletic director asked you to win 110% of your games. As coaches we should use words to encourage our athletes to strive for continual growth, helping them accomplish personal bests regularly, a realistic and worthwhile feat.
C. The Ugly – The greatest detriment in coaching communication comes from deliberately deceiving any member of the football community, especially the players. Far too many coaches, out of convenience or malice, distribute falsities ranging from half-truths to flat out lies. These fabrications can range in severity, but all of them end up hurting the football program. Whether a coach has failed to prepare for practice properly and tries to cover it up, oversells a player on his probable playing time or doesn’t fully disclose the extent of a potential injury, dishonesty betrays the healthy relationships needed to progress as a program.
Spectator Speak – Fans and parents are often referred to as a necessary evil among coaching circles. If these entities withdrew their resources, a football program would fail to exist. I have always believed that fans, more so parent-fans, have the right to voice their opinions because they invest the most valuable asset to any program by allowing their children to participate. In most situations I have coached in I have found that, while a minority of fans and parents will attempt to sour the experience, a majority of fans and parents want to support the program in order to enhance their child’s involvement.
A. The Good – Good spectators will offer their program’s coaches words of support and encouragement. Communicating with community members effectively enables the coaching staff to actively engage fans and parents in promoting the program’s vision. When communication is successful, the best fans and parents will even display their support and loyalty during trying times.
B. The Bad – Just as certain as death and taxes is the fact the quarterback’s dad thinks he can eternally call better plays than the team’s offensive coordinator. Usually these fan interventions are innocent interjections from crowd members trying to enjoy the game. The hurlers of these proposals typically understand that they have a limited expertise in coaching schematics and a far scarcer proficiency in self-control.
C. The Ugly – Unfortunately, many spectators feel they have a right, some an obligation, to improve a football program by promoting changes in a coaching staff through mischievousness measures. Social media has poured gasoline on the fires started by political-pitchfork wielding conspirators. I have both endured and witnessed professional and personal attacks by fans and parents discontented, not with the treatment of athletes, but rather the execution of an offense or defense. The worst part of these bombardments is that too often their collateral damage includes the coaches’ career stability, community relationships, and family well-being.
Player Speak – I have noticed the actions and words of players depict the most authentic voice in a program, mixing the players’ intentions with the influences of coaches and spectators. This representative voice ultimately shows how effective a program’s vision is communicated.
A. The Good – A player’s voice resonates far more effectively with their teammates than most other influences. Strong team leaders can ignite the most inspiring team messages. I experienced this during a Friday night pregame meeting in college. Our 27-year-old team captain told us why he decided to play Division III college football at his age. He fought through his emotions to explain that his brother had been ailed with a life-threatening condition. Throughout treatment his brother frequently expressed his love for the game and his desire to lace up his cleats again. Our leader knew returning to football, even at this level, would allow him to honor his brother by doing something they both loved. As the room fought back tears our captain said “you have to find a way to create opportunities in life.” His message powered our team energy for the remainder of a special season.
B. The Bad – At times players may not clearly see the big picture. When players don’t get the opportunity to play the position they want, the amount of playing time they feel they deserve or in general become dissatisfied, they tend to complain about the situation. These grievances usually stem from a desire to succeed. Consequently, when coaches openly discuss a player’s status with him, in most cases frustration subsides and the player becomes willing to do what it takes make individual and team improvements.
C. The Ugly – When I was a player, bullying and hazing were considered tradition and a right-of-passage. While I never endured nor dished out extreme levels of mischief, I definitely experienced and contributed to actions that have the ability to create obstacles in communication. These types of barriers can undoubtedly delay or stall the building of relationships vital to successful programs.
The construction of a football program hinges on a multitude of personal interactions. Strong relationships can only be solidified when the lines of communication are positively opened to all involved parties.
My advice to each coach, win or lose is this – build the bridge to the members in your football community (especially the ones you don’t like) with open, honest and positive communication.
See you next time,
Coach Fields