Consequences for missed practice

[ndirishlax]

Hey everyone,

I'm wondering what your team policies are for missing mandatory practices in the spring. I started having a problem with that last year for the first time and I want to make sure we avoid it this year. I've always had a policy where if you missed the practice before a game, you couldn't play, but that didn't solve it for other days. I coach HS girls and it seems like they are coming up with new excuses all the time. And of course its always because they are doing something for a grade (riiiiiight). I must be showing my age as I can't recall what my coaches used to do back in high school so that's why I'm looking for input. I really feel like, even if they hate coming to practice sometimes, the alternative must be worse. They need to hate missing practice more than coming to practice.

So what do you all do on your teams if someone misses a practice? Thanks for your thoughts.

[MaKiMaKi13]

well besides benching them for games our coaches would make us run all practice that's about 2-3 hours in addition to sprints and carrying the goals

[bigdale9]

if you skipped you got benched and yelled at, this was middle school though so varsity/college i have no idea

[MaKiMaKi13]

I actually just remembered another good one but it involves punishing the whole team. But it was the reverse indian run instead of having the people in the back of the lines run to the front, you have the person in the front run all the way around the track to catch up with the rest of the team and it continues until you feel like stopping it

[Enjoi LAX]

I play mens varsity lacrosse so our coach treats us like men. In the beginning of the year he makes it clear that if you miss practice it can only be for family or school. If one person is late he makes the whole team runs suicide/hills/etc and if they don't show up we do suicides/hills/ect the next day with the individual who is late. Properly punishing the whole team is good because players won't want to miss practice in fear of their fellow teammates being mad at them. Whatever you choose I feel treating the team as a whole unit is the best discipline.

[dta06]

On our team if you're late or miss 1 practice you get a warning, If you miss 2 you get benched for a game, and if you miss 3 you get kicked off the team. If 1 person is 1 second late the whole team has to run hills, bear crawls, sprints, etc.

[THE_1protector]

the one and only one practice i ever missed. i didnt get to play or dress in the game two days later. and it was our first game against our rival. i had to tape the game from the stands. let me tell you i will never miss another practice, ever.
but running and sprints is the fastest way to convince people not to miss practices. an make the whole team do them, its a team and if one screws up, then all must pay. that also is a quick way to get kids to not skip. cause your buddies will hate you if they have to run.

[gripitandripit]

Full Metal Jacket. When somebody misses a practice, they don't run, the rest of the team runs. You'll either have perfect attendance or you won't have a team.

[LaxRef]

When I was in high school, our team sports counted as our PE class, so missing was the same as cutting English or chemistry. It was a big deal.

As for missing practice to do homework: budget your time better. If you want to be part of a team, you have to commit to the team and be able to do what it takes to do that. Maybe start that paper sooner than the day before it's due.

I think missing a game is a good punishment. I had a policy when I coached HS fencing, if you missed 3 practices you couldn't letter.

[WinnytheSully]

If you miss a practice on my team (I'm a player) you miss a half of the next game, unless you have a valid excuse.

[QBYattackmen15]

all our coach does is sit you for a game. doesnt make everyone run though. but that person sits for a game. If you miss all the spring break practices i think its like 2 games or so.

[lhslaxer22]

My high school program isn't very serious, so if we missed a practice, all we got was a "Where were you?", but if someone was late to practice we had to run extra laps.

[teamdynasty691]

my school lax team is like lhs laxer... but with varsity wrestling if we miss a practice for any reason included a family death or anything you could tihnk of worse we had to make it up with pta( pain, torture, and agony) 5 minutes of it was worse than a 2 hour practice. Coach would put us through whatever he wanted but he made sure if was absolutly terriable. the only way the team as a whole would be punished is if someone screws off during rpactice then its prints/ pushups for an hour. i dont think that someone else should be punished for anothers actions. You wouldnt convict someone of murder if they didnt do it.

[Enjoi LAX]

You wouldnt convict someone of murder if they didnt do it.

This can't be compared to murder. This is a team and if you want to be part of a team you need to suffer as a team and succeed as a team. Murder is a horrible example.

[teamdynasty691]

No way should anyone be punished for anyone elses actions. i dont think a whole team should be punished for one persons actions. No way would i run sprints becuase someone skipped practice. i think its unfair. You shouldnt suffer as a team unless its a team problem.

[Titanoh]

Team, thats the point of it.

[MaKiMaKi13]

No way should anyone be punished for anyone elses actions. i dont think a whole team should be punished for one persons actions. No way would i run sprints becuase someone skipped practice. i think its unfair. You shouldnt suffer as a team unless its a team problem.

might be cliché but there is no I in team

[Bretmac]

teamdynasty have you seen coach carter where the one guy gets in trouble and the rest of the team backs him up for no apparent reason you win as a team you lose as a team and you get punished as a team you my coach made us run if we skipped with out telling him

[sidewinder19]

might be cliché but there is no I in team


but there is in captain,assistant, middie, and goalie ...

In box if i missed a practice it was like "Where were you?", then "Whatever, Do you have any chew...?".Yeah my coach asked me for chew.

[teamdynasty691]

actually my school team isnt much of a team all we do at practice is argue and fight with one another we dont get anything done and our coach was never really a coach we coached ourselves and it didnt get us too far haha. thats why i played outside my team more then with them. But missing practice was not problem by our coach. and no noone on our team besides like a group of maybe 8 of us would back for each other. And maybe thats why i feel that a whole team shouldnt be punished for another. i wouldnt do extra sprints or hills or running for any of the kids on my team. i dont like them

[laxdevil666]

I think there might be bigger things to worry about if players don't want to go to practice, and/or skipping it chronically. I have never had a teammate of mine skip practice, there are times where guys are late, but 99/100 times its because of school or another unavoidable commitment.

However, to clarify, there is a difference when I say 'school' I am talking only about meeting with a teacher briefly after school for either: Extra help, to make up a test from a sick day, etc...

There is no reason you should have to miss practice for homework and/or studying. Even on the worst of days when i had 2-3 hours of homework, and SAT review courses, I still managed to attend practice for 2 1/2 hours a day 6 days a week without my grades taking a hit. I also balanced working about 10-12 hours a week at my local lacrosse store. Sure, it sucked, and I was tired beyond belief, but the larger message for these kids is that you either need to suck it up because you love the sport, or you are just playing to put it on your college application(which is not uncommon either, and this type of kid needed to be cut the first day of tryouts).

Just my 2 cents

[gripitandripit]

No way should anyone be punished for anyone elses actions. i dont think a whole team should be punished for one persons actions. No way would i run sprints becuase someone skipped practice. i think its unfair. You shouldnt suffer as a team unless its a team problem.

Then I take it you don't plan on playing in college.