There are very few thing the coach do that I ever criticize. There are many thing coach do that I do not agree with, but it is my policy to not try to coach the coach. But when the coach call the player out in the public, there is simply no excuse for this.
Recently I read several report of coach who calling player out in the press. Some name name, some do not name the name. Some simply wait for the reporter to name the name for him. This is the action of the unseasoned, or unprofessional coach.
It is destructive behavior, and have no place in junior hockey.
It is one thing to say “we need to work on our defense coverage”, or “we need to start getting some breaks to get more points”, or “we need to evaluate what we are doing as a team to keep from giving up so many goals”. These are things you hear from veteran, or professional coaches when the team is struggling. All reasonable things to say, yes?
But when you hear a coach say thing like “our defense is letting us down”, or “___________isn’t doing his job and scoring goals”, or “our goaltenders aren’t playing well enough for us to win games”, you are dealing with a coach who is not going to be able to build the confidence in young junior hockey player.
Player have the bad game. Some player have the bad season. Some team have the bad season, or have no chemistry. This is simply the nature of the game. Sometime team just do not have success. It is part of growing as a player to experience these thing, and it is part of growing as a coach.
See, junior hockey is design to not only develop the player for the next level, but to develop the coach for the next level. Coach need to mature and grow as player do.
So when you hear, or read about the coach who call player out in public, you know you dealing with the coach who not ready for the next level.
If you find youself playing for this type of coach, do not be afraid to tell him that these type of public comment do not help build confidence for the entire team. It not only hurt the player that is called out, but hurt the team because then they begin to wonder who is next to be called out.
If you find youself playing for the coach who do this all the time, you simply not playing for good coach. If you find this coach recruiting you next year, you probably want to stay away.
Player is not perfect, and neither is coach. The problem arrive when coach forget this fact.
Coach
