Bad coaches

[AT40dude]

Has anybody here ever had a bad coach? If so, what made them bad?

One coach I had really liked to bash and make fun of other players, current and past which angered many people (God knows what he said about me when I quit because of low team morale and his attitude).

Effective coaches at any sport may poke fun, but certainly not be downright rude to players. They should be strong-minded and understanding people who work you hard. That's just my opinion of course, but the most effective coaches that I've had fit under those things.

[laxgirl45]

Has anybody here ever had a bad coach? If so, what made them bad?

One coach I had really liked to bash and make fun of other players, current and past which angered many people (God knows what he said about me when I quit because of low team morale and his attitude).

Effective coaches at any sport may poke fun, but certainly not be downright rude to players. They should be strong-minded and understanding people who work you hard. That's just my opinion of course, but the most effective coaches that I've had fit under those things.

I once had a REALLY bad coach when i played basketball when i was a lot younger. he would say things like "YOU'RE STUPID! FLAT OUT STUPID!" to me because I made a bad pass.......he made the rudest and meanest comments ever, he actualy got so many complaints that he wasnt allowed to coach anymore. this may have been a long time ago, like 10 years ago, but i can still picture him saying those words "YOU'RE STUPID! FLAT OUT STUPID!". :nofear: damn, he made me mad!

[AXL]

my last years coach wasnt good because we had a great roster and we somehow sucked the whole season. was because of stupid plays, stupid zone d's, and he didnt push us enough. other then that he was ok.

[exile lacrosse]

my last years coach wasnt good because we had a great roster and we somehow sucked the whole season. was because of stupid plays, stupid zone d's, and he didnt push us enough. other then that he was ok.

kinda our problem too. our head coach said little, but the assistant coach had no problem coming up and yelling at everyone "wow we suck" and lines not so nice as that one. it wasnt the stupid plays or zone d that killed us tho i think it was the lack of motivation and fun. no one will play good if they arent having fun. individually we should have been stacked, but somehow we lost too many games, most of wich by one point. that and the fact that we had one good d line(no subs), one good attack line(one or two subs), and if we put our midis together 2 good midi lines(one or two subs). or it could be that we had way to many people with the same name. but we were just a freshman team so we could/had to take a lot of people.

[TheKOB]

I had a coach who whined instead of enforcing. The guys were just not motivated to play for him. Also, I guess I've pretty much had bad coaches all through my career, because I didn't even know how to have a pocket or where to put it in my stick until college. No one ever took me aside and taught me anything, so I guess that's what inspires me to be a good coach, especially with kids starting out, which there are alot of down here.

[Havernaf]

i once (recently) had a coach who was an amazing practice coach, I learned more from him in the short time that I played for him than I did in my previous 8 yrs of lacrosse. I have never seen a practice run better to this day, and have never played under a better instructional coach, however he always seemed to struggle in big games. Whenever a crucial situation came up he would never respond, i believe that he just did not see things happening during the game which would lead some better coaches to change strategy. It was almost a mindset of: if its not working do it again, rather than: if its not working fix it.

If anyone saw last years d2 championship game you should know exactly who i am talking about.

[LaxRef]

It's sad to hear some of these stories. I think, up to a certain point, the goal of coaching should be to teach people how to play the game and to teach them to have fun, and it's hard to have fun when someone is telling you how lousy you are.

I coached varsity high school fencing for 10 years. I would occasionally have to get on people about behavior, about dealing with teammates, and about slacking off during practice. However, I *never* gave anyone a hard time about how they did in a meet.

I'm sure there's a level at which motivating the players becomes a big deal because winning is a big deal. Certainly at the pro level, maybe college. But I think too many people think screaming at high school kids and younger is the right thing to do, and I simply don't agree.

[stegmakk]

In college...coach was wretched...reason I skipped playing for 4 years...HE'd show up late...NO discipline (ok yes drinking is part of college but not to the point you miss practices) and he wouldn't care if players missed because it was so and so's birthday last night...didn't pay attention in practice but practiced his golf swing...anyway...
I would rather have the yelling and a coach that gave a damn then a coach who didnt care less...

[CTLaxer]

Our freshman coach was an idiot. He didn't really know what he was doing. His strategy in games was to play the best lines almost the entire game, giving 2nd string a chance just to rest 1st string. While that's fine for a varsity, or even a jv team, but a freshman team is more about learning and growth and preparing kids for JV and V. He singlehandedly caused a bunch of guys to quit as well as stunted the growth of half the team because they never got any better cause they never played.

In college, the coach here is umm....not very good shall we say. He's a total jerk and runs the program like it's princeton, which is fine...if you're princeton, but not cool when you're a club team with REALLY bad players. I hear he's gotten better, and the new players don't have the problem of being super arrogant without the needed skills to back it up so who knows. I still refuse to play as long as he's the coach.

The previous coaches at the program where I coach at now...I have no words to describe the awefulness that took place before me and my buddy took over coaching. Quite frankly, I'm suprised these kids have any ability or desire to play after the BS they've put up with and the ignorance involved in running the show. WOW.

[zak]

Last year was my first year playing lacrosse and the first practice was basically the first time I picked up a stick. I guess we had a good coach, but he needed me on defense so thats all i was really taught. I still can't really dodge or clear too well. I'm pickin it up now but he basically told me that "you don't need to know dodges because you should't be the one taking the ball up the field."

[waxon]

My english teacher said this to me: "Chris, go to the office, get your tuition money back, and leave. You're so stupid."

[lilaxgurl23]

Ouch. My current coach, which I know I shouldn't be talking bad about but oh well, can be good but mostly bad. He doesn't understand lacrosse. We have some good players on our team with great ideas, but he doesn't listen to them. Last year we had a player go to a D1 school and he constatnly asked her for ideas, but he never used any of them. As for plays and such, he copies teams from around us- not cool. Also, he hates some players. When one of our players was injured, he told her to watch certain players to report how slow they ran or things like that. And on top of that, when in a game, he will constantly yell at the refs which I totally think makes all of them hate our team. He doesn't really know how to run a practice other than make us run a lot and do the same drills so enevitably, our passing and catching sucks because people who couldn't catch or pass still don't know how to pass or catch good. we relyon our good players to teach our team. Oh well, maybe he'll finally listen this year, maybe not.

[FPlaxer]

we had a coach that was the high school football coach. but he knew nothing about lacrosse and tried running it just like football with the defense just plowing over everybody no matter what even if a simple check would be better.

[Hawksgoalie39]

i had a hockey coach that didnt know the game of hockey and tried to get me kicked off the team because i didnt play a good game once. and that was when i was 7 playing Rec. just terrbile.

[The Hitman]

I'm only in my second year of coaching youth lax, but having played college hoops and having a bunch of family in the game, being able to put them together wasn't that hard....BUT with stories like these and years of experience coaching other sports, I hope everyone uses these as examples of what NOT to do!!! Knowing that makes you a better coach instantly!!

[njlaxpunk10]

I'm only in my second year of coaching youth lax, but having played college hoops and having a bunch of family in the game, being able to put them together wasn't that hard....BUT with stories like these and years of experience coaching other sports, I hope everyone uses these as examples of what NOT to do!!! Knowing that makes you a better coach instantly!!

I agree with you, and i would like to say how bad it is to have two coaches who aren't neccicarily bad but do not get along in a bad way.

our head coach is a football and basketball coach who had not known about the game of lacrosse until he took over the coaching job at my HS five years ago. he did not know much lax stragity and the kind of personnel to use to carry out his strageties. that was bad for his players, having to do it all and not truly developing strengths and specaliztion at a position. he also yells alot at refs and is a condishining nazi but is a players coach. he likes me at attack alot because of my size and decent stick skills, and because i am the best riding attackman on the team, even though im on JV.

My (former) assistant coach is the opposite of the HC. he played since he was 5 and played for a D2 college as an attackman or something. he knows alot about the game knows just what he wants to do with the people he has. he yells alot too but likes to work more on skills then condishining. he prefers me at middie because of my speed and aggression and that i have made a habit to run through stick checks.

with all that said, the fact that they never really saw eye-to-eye during practice and games, our tem suffered during the season, and had the worst year in school history. the players suffered too, like in my Position Placement thread. (not trying to hijack, just mentioning for some insight on how our poor team suffered individually.)

shows the importance of coaches, on a team and individual level, i think.

[Lax-fan22]

It seems all that I have read are bad experiences. As a youth coach for a few years and a person who never had the opportunity to play in high School this seems kinda sad. When i started with my first child i was living through him. Now I realize after he gave up football ( me pushing him ) old school was not working. Once I realized that junior might not be the next powell my attitude changed. I let them play what they want and it seems to work. Life has changed,everything being so organized and kids playing all year at a couple different sports,Kids are getting burned out.
My coaching style has changed to have fun push but don't shove and try my best to win. Because winning makes it fun.
Thursday night we had a play-off's after winning the regular indoor season ( 7-1).The
week prior we handly beat this team to the point we pulled the first string in the first half.To allow players who don't normally score have a chance. The game got aguly towards the end cheap shots to the point that after the final horn an eight step cross-check which almost turned into a brawl. We tell are player if they throw a punch they will not play for us period. So who do we get in the play -off's. That's right the same team except for the 6 Varsity players they brought with them. Needless to say they won and after the game the indoor center officals told them it was a forfeit. We decided to go home, i didn't want to look like sour grapes. What kind of coaching is that......

[skip0l]

my younger brother and i played on the same varsity basketball team when i was a senior n he was a freshman. my coach got up into his face and pushed him, needless to say i got suspended from SCHOOL for a week. i still had to go to basketball practice however, cuz not to be ****y, i was the mvp n htey needed me, but he was always a good coach till that one time

[Ephlaxplaya21]

my old coach got mad and beat the crap out of a ref.. he used to get so angry and make us run till we puked.. we couldnt wear long pants or anything when it was really cold out either. We'd do drills and everytime we dropped a pass it was a lap around the field.. it was really gay but hey atleast im in hella good shape :)

[aof09lax]

The key to a coach is respect. A coach should respect his players, understand that they are out there to play and that theyre trying. He/she should be friendly to them and understand that mistakes happen. A coach should also demand respect from his players. If a kid gives him a lip, then he should put him in his place. But as I said, its all about respect.

[Monzo]

I agree with aof09lax on respect being the key to a good coach. I think coaches should have a good relationship with their players as well. My coaches are really fun to be around which makes life a lot easier for the players. They also know when it's time to be serious and focused.

I think bad coaches are coaches that are either way too strict (there are exceptions) or coaches that just don't care at all. Your heart has to be in it if you expect to be a good coach.

[auslax_goalie]

the worst coach i had knew what he was on about had all the plays but was so QUITE i want someone to throw a chair in the change room pre game but thats just me

[laxgoalieking]

the worst coach i had knew what he was on about had all the plays but was so QUITE i want someone to throw a chair in the change room pre game but thats just me

yeah well wait till the after game speach when in a 300 minute rant the coach manages to the f-word a whooping 53 times and thats after a 13-1 win

[CTLaxer]

the worst coach i had knew what he was on about had all the plays but was so QUITE i want someone to throw a chair in the change room pre game but thats just me

This statement makes no sense to me except for the chair throwing part. I thought Australians spoke english?

[laxfolife24]

I have not really had a bad lax coach but for basketball I have had my share. Freshman year for 1st semester I had a coach who would just constantly verbally "abuse" the team calling them stupid, etc. Then we would go to tournaments and he would get drunk and give away money. I do not know how to xplain it all but to sum it up he was not a good guy and the whole thing was a sketchy situation

[Garor]

The worst coach I had, used to pull players out during warm-ups, verbally abuse them and mess with their heads, and then let them back into practice. There were no witnesses, so these players suffered and no on got to stand up for them. I know it doesn't sound bad, but he said some horrible things. And he used to run us into the ground.

[b-waterlax]

my old coach, who could even be my coach this year, knows as much about lacrosse strategies and skills as a rock. He has us do pointless drills and lets his son and another kid getr away with whatever they want. He also missed every practice except for 3.

[Captain Cool]

My current hockey coach is pretty bad. In practice id do a couple fancy moves, my other coach and trainer love it, and get a good laugh but this coach absolutely hates it, and tells me if i did those in a game id be on the bench for the rest of the game. After every game he tells us how our defence sucks, and how we cant shoot. After crushing a team 14-0 he started yelling about how we dont pass enough. This guys just absolutely ridiculous. Its cool if a coach pokes fun as a joke, but this guy actually means it.

[ekajsk8er]

My basketball coach when I was younger would only play his kids and his kids friends. When we entered the playoffs he actually asked the teammembers who didn't play at all if it was alright that we weren't playing so the team could win. He was an ***. I'm glad we lost more than we won.

[bigfootprep53]

my coach this year played way back in the 1970s for like one year. and he hasnt coach lacrosse ever and this is his first year coaching and he has the stupidest plays ever which dont work but he thinks they do. he has screwed up our whole team by letting r best defenseman play middie. and he makes comments about his son which plays baseball sayin how we doesnt play lacrosse and he can catch and throw better than everyone out here and alot of us think y not just let him be the team so we can go home. this guy can not coach lacrosse if his life depended on it

[SachemsGoalie40]

I had a coach when i was on u-14's that was a parent on one of the kids, and he would show up to practice and talk the entire time with the assistant coach and make us do the most pointless drills, like one day he had us do a clearing drill but all we were doing was throwing the ball as far as we could and i told him that there was no point to this because why would an attack man need to be able to throw the length of the field. Then later in the practice he hit a kid with his stick in the head because the kid wouldn't stop talking and i quit. I've been playing sports for over 10 years now and always playing 3 sports a year and have only quit 3 teams but this guy was a true jack@#%

[marflax33]

I had a baseball coach who hit his own son on the team... Yeah he wasnt to good.

[GriffsDad]

I have never had a lacrosse coach who ever played the game themselves. It becomes the biggest problem for technique. But, as long as the guy (or girl) has watched enough games and asked enough players about strategies, they can usually run decent practices.

But, my high school coach quit half-way through my senior season. Great example, huh? :nut: :loser:

[laxplaya199]

my lacrosse coach for two seasons of my high school life ran our program like we knew how to play like pro ballers. that we could not practice anything, with no plays, and basically learn to pass on our own and whatnot, go into a game, and win. he coached us like a middle school team where all the kids get to play and create offenses through the biggest fastest and best people. we've been embarassed by a majority of the teams we've played, and i detested my team so much that i almost decided to leave. however, as i saw the light through practices for the vail tournament last summer, our coach finally decided to resign near the end of the year, deciding that he "had no more to offer us". i say he never had anything to offer us.

now we have a new coach, football coach, never played lacrosse supposedly. we'll see how this turns out, but hell, we'll be in shape. time to whip the team of potsmokers and drinkers into workhorses to create the next western legacy.

worse case scenario, leave the team and play club. no school pride, but heck i'll get to be on a legit team that can put together goals.

[CTLaxer]

I don't mean to hijack the thread and go off topic, but with all the badmouthing going on...even by myself in a previous post to this thread, I wanted to say a few things.

Coaches are a very rare breed of people. A truly good coach is a diamond in the rough. Often times it is hard to find any kind of coach, good or bad, to head up a program, let alone a great one. Schools are often times required to offer coaching positions to teachers first before hiring outside coaches. This can create some bad situations. Sometimes a teacher just wants the extra money (god knows those of us in or going into the teaching profession could use a little extra scratch) and sometimes the teacher truly wants to succeed and help but doesn't have the experience. Other times, especially in the westward expanding areas of lacrosse, there are so few coaches that people just step up to the plate in order to have any kind of lacrosse available to kids. Does this justify some of the horrible accounts told in this thread? Not by a long shot.

Just think about your coaches in a new light and don't be so quick to judge. Every coach is constantly learning whether they played for 20 years or never played at all. And every coach is there on a field so you can play the sport you love.

/rant

[EphLax26]

My old coach wanted to talk to me during a game so i went over to him, and he grabed me by the face mask threw me on the ground and started to yell at me for wanting to talk to him, when he was the one who told me to go over to him.

[Canadian Lax]

My old coach wanted to talk to me during a game so i went over to him, and he grabed me by the face mask threw me on the ground and started to yell at me for wanting to talk to him, when he was the one who told me to go over to him.


i hope that you complained to the school about him if it was a school team, if not then went to the head convenor (sp?) if that leauge, or one of the parents did b/c that just isn't right. No matter how "into" the game he was you never grab a player by the face mask and throw them to the ground, and on top of that he yelled at you, he has MAJOR issues

[EphLax26]

your telling me! This coach was nuts.

[EphLax26]

i hope that you complained to the school about him if it was a school team, if not then went to the head convenor (sp?) if that leauge, or one of the parents did b/c that just isn't right. No matter how "into" the game he was you never grab a player by the face mask and throw them to the ground, and on top of that he yelled at you, he has MAJOR issues
By the way we did complain and the coach isnt allowed to coach this year even though he had already planned to.

[SoCalCoach]

I had a High School coach at a Fort Lauderdale prep school that will go unnamed. Both of his kids were on the team. The senior was our best player and ended up at JHU, so it was cool that he got all kinds of playtime... he deserved it. Unfortunately, his freshman son was also on the team and he made me (a senior and 2nd leading scorer behind son #1) rotate my time with his freshman son. No one else really rotated with him. He never took his eldest son out. Occasionally he rotated out the 3rd attackman (a junior).

It was no secret I never saw eye-to-eye with this guy. I used to get in so many verbal exchanges with this jerk. Mostly because of two reasons (besides the issues with "daddy-ball"). 1.) The guy was a minister at a local church, and it was an unspoken rule that if you wanted PT, you needed to go to his wednesday night youth ministry groups. This is a secular school and I am not a religious guy. And 2.) He always used to yell at the football players on the team because we were "too aggressive." I'd lay a big hit, or someone else would, and half the time he'd warn us to "keep it clean."

To this day I blame this guy for killing my desire to pursue lacrosse at a higher level than MDIA club ball. I was so sick of lacrosse by the end of my senior year, I wanted to put the stick away for a long time. I wasn't the only one either. Every year I was there we would start out 7-0 or 8-0 and then lose the final 4 or 5 games straight because by that point everyone was just so sick of his nonsense. The year after I graduated, like 3 starters ( and 2-3 non-starters) quit halfway through the year, just because of him.

He told the administration once that myself and a couple other kids were "uncoachable." I told the administration that was ridiculous, and to ask my football coach how "coachable" I was. They did, and were told I was "the most level-headed kid on the football team," and that he'd never had a problem with me. I still laugh at that. Jerk.

[AttackMan17]

At tryouts my "coach" made us run 3 miles...and i had a sprained ankle. And of course, he dosent care about ability, or stick skills. Just speed, and if he likes you or not. He put all the horrible football players on the team, because he knows them. Yet he didnt let me on the team. THis guy should not be a lacrosse coach.

ALso in tryouts whenever someone would get tripped, or fall he would yell. "get up you stupid *bleep*" He has no right to do that to anyone.
i am without a doubt better than him in all aspects of th egame of lacrosse.

[RichWutLax]

i no this is a bad coaches thread but .... how about the coaches that have been playing since they were like 4 years old and are still into the game ....the ones that are just as excited as your own parents are when they see your first goal or an awesome save even if your losing terribley .... those are the best coaches !

[mhscats09]

My worst coach was my 1st year coach and the head of our town league. He was the most incompetant dimwitted dumbass I hav e ever met or seen. He could barely take a shot or cradel yet he would yell at us to not shoot and try to win the game but to pass it around. Before we could take a shot every kid had to touch the ball... Regardless we still had a pretty good team but it was just stupid

[middieman1]

My coach right now is probably the worst coach I've ever had, which i hate because my coach last year was one of the best. For you to try to get a feel of how this guy knows nothing about lacrosse i'll tell you about how he runs practice
My old coach usually gets us started with a drill at the beginning of practice because he's a nice guy and is there because he has to drop of his son. EVERY TIME this happens, we do that drill the entire practice because the actual coach doesn't know any others, and to top it off...he's one of those guys that thinks their son is the greatest thing since internet porn so his son plays all game and is one of the worst kids on the team....ok i'm done

[laxgoalieking]

look im flaming again y didnt anyone pm me?!

[Pitibear]

This is a good thread...I want to contribute only a single point:

In the past, I have been the worst coach ever...whatever you guys have reported as a bad thing about a coach, that was me at one time or another...

-then-

I got lucky. I went through the state and national (5 levels of) coaching certification of the USSF..and I got to learn from coaches who have played on the US national and olympic teams...I really learned how to coach....

So now, I think I'm pretty good, but I am a perfect example of the guy that might have been the world's lousiest coach, but anybody can change, and become educated, even guys who have been at it a while...

[crazydrew86]

i had a coach who wasn't fair. the only thing kids hate more than a coach who doesn't know anything is a coach who is unfair. Oh and i hate coaches who have a kid on the team and try to give there kid an unfair advantage

[JedimasterKyle]

Thats like us last year. We only lost 4 guys from last year, so basically we had the same team we do know. Anyways, we hardly did game situation drills, and whenever we messed up, his solution was to run. We only won 2 games last year.

This year we have won 3 games already and are in the playoffs as of right now. We actually do relevent drills, and we run in the drills so we don't have to waste time conditioning.

[ekajsk8er]

you whine way too much
You flame Attackman way too much.

Also, when I was younger (9 or 10) I had a baseball coach who would throw baseballs as hard as he could from about 35 feet away towards me until I caught them. My dad almost killed the man.

[laxman 9990]

yeap currently my coach could not be worse, all year after wins he says we play like crap, hes never positive,and doesnt even have plays. He yells at us when we dont follow the game plan(cutting),and pulls us from the game.Before games when he should be getting us prepared he talks on his phone. tonight before we lost by about 15 in the semi-final game, he told us that we look like poop/****,and that he already knew we would loose. And every day at practice we do the same drill which is 6 on 6 or clearing. My parents stand by me when i say i not playing for him next year!!