A Bad Day At Practice

Everyone has a bad day from time to time. When you have five kids, teach and coach your bad day, or their bad day is bound to rub off on someone. One of the reasons I'm partial to running is that a bad day/practice doesn't effect anyone but me. Alas, I'm not the athlete anymore, I'm the coach! I choose to coach a team sport, where everyone is highly dependent on each other to get a white ball over a net in three attempts! This poses a great deal of problems for a person with a streak of independence and self reliance, oh wait, that would be me!

Today was one of the days that my team had a bad practice. Not the worse practice we've had, but not the quality practice they're capable of and it doesn't help that it's the day before a big game! Some of the girls were snotty with each other, some were not thrilled with new assignments and some were just under the weather.

Some of the girls just didn't take practice as seriously as their teammates, or I would of liked. It frustrates me and I know for the girls who are serious it frustrates them. Back when I was an athlete, coaches had a lot more freedom with punishment, playing time and practice time. Times are different, kids are different and parents are different now. I know many coaches that don't bench athletes because they don't want to deal with the backlash and parent meetings that have to take place to justify a benching,or dismissal from a team. My coaches didn't fear that and the parents respected their decisions, or the athlete didn't play (or they made a really big donation to the program).

A bad day of practice highlights the ups and downs of life as a coach and life in general. The people you put faith in let you down (as evidenced by the chicken winging and trying to hit from your face shots I witnessed today). People you think should know better, don't (how many times have I told you chicken winging and face shots don't work and shouldn't you have picked that up after the first three times you shanked the ball into the net). Someone always surprises you in a positive way (demonstrating you understand rotational defense by not staying stationary or the timidest person on the team mastering a wicked kill shot and over hand serve). Most importantly there's always love and hope that tomorrow's going to be a better day (my athletes love their sport, their team and continue to hold onto the hope that they will be the team that takes down the undefeated team). I can't say that I enjoy a bad day at practice, but I'm hoping I get to enjoy a good day tomorrow!