Ultimate Sports Parent Radio interviews Christopher Hickey, executive director of the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education, about how parents can deal with difficult or bully coaches. Mental game expert Dr. Patrick Cohn provides commentary.
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My daughter is 13 years old and will be going into 8th grade in the fall of 2012. She just finished club volleyball this year and tonight had a preliminary practice for the CYO team of next year. The coach this year is known to us but this will be the first year she is coaching volleyball at our parish. My daughter came home tonight after the first practice saying that the coach must not “like” her. I asked why and she said that they were learning an exercise drill and my daughter followed the pattern. The coach then asked her if she had an attention problem. The coach had her run a lap and as my daughter turned to run the lap, she heard the coach ask her friends if my daughter did well in school, implying that she was not intelligent. I find this apprehensible and very much a bullying behavior, certainly not something I would expect from a CYO coach. My daughter wants me to ignore the situation but I am feel justified in my anger and want to report the coach. I don’t think she is building character, she’s attempting to break it!
My son has a school coach who is a bully. Put downs in sports do not help kids, no matter how old they are. What can parents do? Help me help my son!