Time is of the Essence
“Management is vital to a player’s success.”
By: Ben-Owen Jones
Over the years, sport has evolved into a money-making machine. The essence of fun is replaced by winning. Children are forced to compete and perform by their parents and teachers. They are overloaded at a young age when they aren’t prepared physically and mentally to endure certain challenges.
Playing sports at a young age is good for development but management is vital. Children younger than five-years-old have little understanding of organised sport and are easily frustrated and can’t concentrate for long periods of time. Parents send their kids to private sport clinics at young ages and I can’t help but wonder why. The children are forced to participate in sports clinics to develop certain skills in a sport. At these young ages, children aren’t fully developed and yet parents send their children to these private clinics.
I was a coach at the Bellville Peninsula Cricket Academy in 2013 where I saw how parents were fooled into believing that their children were the best cricketers in the Western Cape because of the coaching they had received at the academy. When I started coaching, I had neither coaching skills nor the experience. Quite frankly, I just needed the money. I was paid R170 an hour for one-on-one private coaching. I had no idea if I was a good coach or a bad coach, I just did what I thought was appropriate. I was also the coach of an under-11 team and I saw how parents pushed their children and placed immense pressure on them. When I say ‘parents’, I’m mostly talking about the dads. I was having fun with the team because I wanted them to enjoy the game before taking it too seriously, but I was reprimanded for it because ‘winning was everything’. Parents cornered me, wanting to know what winning strategies I was implementing and some even stood behind the nets while their children were batting, giving them coaching advice. And not ‘friendly’ advice.
We attended the Freedom Cricket festival in September last year. We won three out of our five games, and it was definitely not because of my coaching abilities or the sublime talent in the team but because the kids had fun. One of my players, ‘Kyle’, struggled to get runs and was reprimanded by his dad, which led to his bursting out into tears. I felt so sorry for him because he under unnecessary pressure. As I was walking around the ground watching my team play, parents came to talk with me about their children’s position in the team. I was berated and belittled. After the tour, I resigned as a coach at the academy. I had no coaching abilities and yet people trusted me with the job.
This raises the question of credibility. Are these clinics truly viable or just money pits to lure vulnerable parents with big bucks? In my case, the parents were tricked into believing that I was the best coach in the Western Cape. The parents were fed lies and I heard these lies being told to them.
Participating in a sport is a fun way of relieving stress but when you build up stress instead, you have a problem. Coaches also play a role in influencing parents to push their children to the full extent of their abilities. In my case, I was pushed around by parents but I saw how serious some coaches are with young players. Healthychildren.org suggests that most children do not have the basic ‘motor skills’ for organised sport at a young age and only develop those skills at a later stage. By the ages 10 to 12, children are ready for more complex sports. They have the ability to play sports that require complex motor skills, teamwork and strategies. If children only develop at the age of 10, why do parents still send their children to private sport clinics and at such high prices?
Eugene Henning joined the South African Rugby Players Association (SARPA) in 2010. SARPA is an organisation owned by provisional rugby players. Henning is the Commercial Executive at SARPA and is in charge of commercial initiatives and programs related to the image rights of the players. He has worked with a lot of provincial rugby players and says how important management is for a player’s career. When Henning spoke to GAS, he emphasised the importance of management from a young age. He says that children should be pushed, but they should still be able to have fun… and that fun should never be taken out of the equation. He mentioned further how important private coaching can be for a player’s success: “Private clinics can be vital in the success of a player, but it all depends on the clinic. Some clinics are money pits, and some are truly remarkable. I’ve seen how players improved after receiving private coaching.”
Henning emphasised the importance of private coaching and especially the question of who supplies it. Dr Ross Tucker, an exercise physiologist and High Performance Sports Science consultant, gave a broader in-depth look at a player’s performance and management on www.sportsscientists.com.
The topic of sport management is a controversial one. There are always going to be different opinions but just be careful in terms of whom you trust. We would love to hear your thoughts so give us some feedback on the topic on our Facebook home page.
