I read a youth football-related article recently about a parent attacking a coach for the way he was disciplining his players, who the coach felt had bad attitudes. All the headlines focused on the altercation.

While every altercation between a coach and a parent is bad, this one seemed to be minor in comparison to others.

What caught my attention was how the coach handled his players’ bad attitudes. He didn’t make them run extra wind sprints or do extra drills. He reduced their playing time, every single one of them. And he reduced every player’s playing time to nothing.

After a game, the coach asked each player to turn in his equipment as he was ending the season early. Yes, midseason. He said this was too much and we will no longer play with attitudes like this.

One of the ultimate forms of discipline that my high school coaches used was to kick a player out of practice. I was kicked out of practice two times. Once, I was kicked out by myself for being late. I had a legitimate reason, but I think my lackadaisical attitude about it all was what resulted in my practice “expulsion.”

The other time, our entire team got kicked out, kind of. Our high school basketball team was pretty good that year, and we knew it. It was tournament time, and we weren’t putting in the effort in practice as a whole. Our coach had enough and sent us all home. That is until he came in the locker room to find smiling faces, at which point we all were sent back to the court for a “fun” practice of sprinting.

This all brings up the question of what should a coach do about youth football players with bad attitudes? I think there are several ways to address this, but each one isn’t the best for each player. I’ve listed three below, and they are not much different than parenting.

• Remove them from the situation. Our goal as coaches is to teach them the game. Sometimes, a player’s attitude or actions get in the way of this. Removing the athlete from the situation by taking him out and having him witness practice or the game from the sideline can help. The key is to teach the “why” at a point the player is clear-headed enough to receive it.
• Take the game away from them. With my kids, the harshest punishment and the one that yields the most results is taking what they love from them. I think that’s what the coach in the article I read had in mind. I don’t know if a permanent end to the season was best, but I don’t know how bad the situation he was dealing with was. This may not work with all kids as this may be their only opportunity to do something worthwhile and productive, and things could get worse if they no longer have it at all. But it can be effective.
• Create painful consequences for them. I’m not talking about physically hurting them, but extra conditioning or even repetitive drills done over and again can be consequences that will get the lessons and the change you are hoping to get them. In the end, you hope they are better in shape and have put in the repetition to improve a skill, but mainly you hope they want to refocus and have an attitude that serves them better.

A coach, much like a parent, has to take the time to get to know his players. One player may only need you to tell then what they’ve done and what you expect. Others may need different measures.

The main thing for coaches to keep in mind is their overall purpose as coach, and just like a parent don’t let anger or emotional feelings dictate the way they coach and teach their players.

What is your take on coaching players with bad attitudes?

Jackie Bledsoe Jr. is a writer, blogger, speaker, husband and sports parent of three. He’s played sports for more than 30 years, including the collegiate level, while coaching youth sports for the past nine years. You can read more from Jackie on his blog, JackieBledsoe.com, and connect with him on Twitter (@jbledsoejr).