Skip to main content

Sit Down Please

 




There are instances in life when someone achieves something in sports, where there are those who want to take credit for it. Or think that they could've done a better job at playing and or at coaching it. I am certain it happens quite often privately inside sport loving minds. Yet, I've witnessed it publicly.  And I'm not directing this to the aspect of social media.   I'm speaking of the pseudo-coaching-parents criticizing from the bleachers. If you ain't helping. Guess what? You ain't helping.

Helping is watching.  Helping is, if you know something that lacked in your child's body movement that he/she could be aware of.  And it is something that you could discuss at home prior to the event, then fine.  As well, knowing it could be congruent with a coaches’ thinking. Perhaps, it’s something simple like bending their knees to prevent an injury and getting a better result. Or perhaps to quash a child's frustration. If the coach is unavailable, that might be a feasible prospect that you as a parent may have experienced and understand.

Trust me, it's one thing to discuss something after the event, privately. Perhaps, later at the dinner table as the child may bring up why they hit the ball a certain way. Or why they are saying, even when their team won, that they themselves think they didn't play well. Even if no one on the team says anything of the sort to them, after the event. If the child brings it up, then it is open for discussion.  It’s quite another thing for a parent to criticize a player or a coach while seated in the bleachers. Even if the coaches, the players, nor the referees are in earshot, the spectators do hear it. I’ve seen parents barrage the coach after a meet or game with ‘woulda’, ‘shoulda’, ‘couldas’ to the coach. I find it not only uncool. Yet unethical, as the parent seems to be lacking in self-discipline, aligned with their own self-importance and a flair of arrogance, to boot.

Losing a game, a match, an event, etc... is part of the lessons from the school system that demonstrates once again an important aspect of life and living.  Playing sports, is just that. Its playing. Learning to take instruction from someone other than a parent, outside of academia. The coach may not appear perfect, but they have that coaching position most times for a good reason.

By the way, plenty of times high school coaches coach out passion for the sport first. The other two areas that might be reasons for them becoming a high school coach, are making a few more dollars, and school politics. As this does actually show the administration that the teacher who takes on a coaching job, that he/she truly wants to go the extra mile, showing teamwork and loyalty to the school system. If that is their agenda, so be it. It can be and most times is a noble agenda to have. ---Jody-Lynn Reicher

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Reicher's Official Holiday Letter

  “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” ---Ralph Waldo Emerson There are many ways to shed light on seemingly impossible situations or what we would consider obstacles to our daily living. It is not always in our daily intake and output that is the measurement of a human being. It is the grind. Some people struggle with miniscule grinds; while others have bus loads to grind through. Some don’t make it. Few do. Making it, is not, not dying. It’s progressing through even when there appears no light at the end of the tunnel. That there may not even be a twinkle of a star in the nights ahead. And the human that faces that, knowing full well that they can’t change the ending to their earthly story. Yet, they consciously go through the process, has made it. They’ve lived. No matter their age, I believe that, to be one of Life’s truths. As this year has progressed, the pandemic actually blessed us. Yep. Many would not agree with that. But then, they weren’t us. They weren’t our
2 comments
Read more

This Day Marks...

  When it’s a tough road to hoe… Today. Tonight , in fact marks the evening of the end of a portion of our family as we knew it. I had a wicked day of work that day/evening. I had just finished rolling fairly hard in jujitsu class. Leftovers were to be warmed for the night’s meals. This day last year landed on a Friday before the beginning of a new year, a leap year at that. I stood in the ladies’ bathroom/dressing room after my Jujitsu class at Silver Fox BJJ in Butler.   Jess was at the front desk at the time. Enrique was in. Sean was in and he and I had discussed about when he was going into Marine Corps bootcamp. I realized I’d rolled some extra time with the second evening class and couldn’t wait to get home. I held my five-year old phone in my hand trying to see if my husband had messaged me. As I was about to message him, the phone went flying out of my hand landing facedown on the hard tile of the floor. It shattered the screen of the phone.   And for the first time in my
Post a Comment
Read more

To Laconia and Canada Too

 He began, "So, I got this deal..."  Me, "Yeah?" Norman,  "I went up on 23, and saw her. " Me, "Where did you go?" Norman, "Sport Spot on 23 South.  And there she was." Me, "Uh oh."😊 Norman,  "I'm graduating to a BMW.  She was sitting there. 1986, an R80RT. A touring sportster... " Me, "What about the Yamaha, Norm?" Norman, "I'll get a buyer before I have to pick up the R80RT." It was 1987, we'd just had a semi long motorcycle ride up North together for a week. New England that'd be.  Norman was all enthralled about the open road. Married just over three years at the time, and he rediscovered a new love.  Me wary, yet curious.  'Maybe she'll ride easier.  Less bumpy on certain roadways of upstate New York'. Norman even had me considering getting a motorcycle license.  I'd driven nearly every style, engine from small military jeep to tractor trailers...
Post a Comment
Read more