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This is a dangerous area for anyone to tread because like people have observed clubs need coaches and parents usually only want to coach their own children. Some parents who coach do favour their own children, while others go the other way and do everything possible to avoid favouritism, often to the detriment of their child. And in some families, parents have difficulty knowing when to turn off netball coach mode.
I don't like the idea of parents coaching their own children. I'm Coaching Director of my club and I would love to say no to parents coaching their own children but when I ask for coaches most parents are only willing to work with their child. I don't care about favouritism because plenty of coaches favour players that they aren't related to (we've all seen horror rep teams where we know good players have been left out for coach favourites).
My club relies on our teenage
players taking on coaching roles and most of them thrive in these roles - if I can put them with an appropriate group. The problem is when a parent only wants to coach their own child I have had to move a young coach from a group they've just started to have success with because one of their player's mums wants to coach. I've had 14 year olds coach 12 year olds because all our 11/U and 9/U had parents coaching.
In my club the younger coaches understand that they will get a maximum 4 seasons (2 years) with a team before I move then to another team. I think it is important for players to be exposed to lots of different coaches and personalities during their netball careers. Some player thrive under a new coach. With most of the teams I coach I also follow this 4 seasons, or less, policy. BUT with parents coaching their daughter's team I can't enforce this policy.
At the
end of each season, when my teenage coaches beg me to let them continue with their current team I ask them these questions
1. Can you get any more out of your current team?
2. Do have more to teach that team?
3. Are you the best person to continue coaching that team?
Most of my coaches reluctantly realise when they've taken a team as far as they can take them. Because a lot of my coaches are just doing their accreditations they want new teams so that they can implement the things they've learned with a new team rather than trying to change things with their current teams.
When I explained the 4 season policy to one of the mums who coaches her response was "when her daughter has had enough of her coaching her she will stop", which is fine for her daughter but what about the other 8 girls in the team who have already out-grown what this coach has to offer in both skill development
and match-play. I'm worried about this team missing out because a lot of them have already gone beyond what their coach can offer.
That's the main problem I have with parents coaching - it isn't just your daughter that you are coaching. If there is an option of an unrelated coach working with a team shouldn't the needs of all players in the team come before the needs of a parent?
So Janine, perhaps instead of your club saying no to parents coaching, they need to put some sort of policy into place that recognises that parents are a vital resource for clubs, but that also ensures that players are exposed to different coaches throughout their netball years, and that whenever it is possible teams are coached by people who can extend the team regardless of them being related to a player or not.
Janine McDonell <janinemc@...> wrote:
Hi allJust thought I’d throw this one out to you all for comment. My Club’s new President wants to bring in a rule that no parent can coach their child. She says this is because one parent in the Club is showing favouratism towards their child. She also believes that some kids work better under a coach other than their parent. I have been coaching my daughter for 4 years (I have been involved in netball for 36 years, played A grade all my life, Rep and State league at Nationals and are currently studying for my Level 2 coach accreditation). My daughter is 12yo and is playing 3rd division – she enjoys me as her coach and I love to coach her and her friends – it is a family thing. I am quite upset about this ruling and feel that why should we be discriminated against when one person isn’t doing the right thing. The Club is a social club and we have approx 6 mothers coaching their daughters. I was wondering if anyone had any views on this situation. Janine
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