ethical coaching behavior

[Hawks Coach]

Originally posted by rainmaker
[QUOTEIf you can't get any satisfaction any other way, just pull out completely and start your own league. When other parents have a choice, they may very well prefer your way of doing things.

If you can produce teams with about the same win-loss record as "the other guy", and let the girls enjoy that, you'll definitely win the war in the long run.

Starting your own league is definitely an option, but the problem of finding quality coaches will remain. It is hard to put together a quality product from the get go, and teams are unlikely to leave the other travel league for yours. So it becomes a supply and demand question - so this may or may not be a viable option depending on where you are and what's available. And you have to develop standards of conduct, or your league of independent operators can still have its bad apples. that would need to be stated explicitly up front when registering teams.

We entered a great travel league two years ago and returned last winter, just because it was organized by a couple of AAU coaches who simply wanted some quality competition over the winter. No standings, no awards - just the chance to run the court and play some ball against the best.

As for won-loss records, those are for parents and some of the players. The bottom line is whether or not you are getting good competition and good experience. If you coach right, the W-L usually takes care of itself over time, but not always at the outset. W-L is NOT the object at this age, player develpment is the only real goal.