Sports Case - Article Review

I read an article titled, Youth Coaches: Remember That Kids Are Kids. In this article it talks about how coaches should approach coaching youths. The author, Paul Mannerburg, reminds youth coaches that kids are kids and make mistakes, and not on purpose. In this article Mannerburg points out that some kids don't even want to be the star of a team. Some kids just want to go to practice and participate in a sport to just be part of some thing special. In this it states that all the kids on the team should be treated no matter the skill level of the individual. If a coach doesn't treat them the same Mannerburg believes that it can hurt a child's confidence in life if they are repeatedly treated like they aren't as talented as the superstar on the team.

In this article it also talks about how kids mature at different times and just because a kid is super talented at age 15 doesn't mean that he will be just as talented at age 15. So, we as coaches need not to hurt a child's confidence at a young age because it can turn him away from the sport. If that happens that 10 year old who wasn't very good can never see if he can develop into a talented athlete. This is why Mannerburg talks about treating every kid the same and not spend all their time coaching the talented kids.

I enjoyed reading this article and agree with the a lot of what the author was going over about the ways to coach kids. I personally know what it feels like to not be given the chance to play because the coach believed that he had a superstar already. When I played my first year of Pop Warner I was tossed into playing the TE position when I was the best QB at my school. In the end that kid who was the QB didn't make the freshmen team and I threw 26 touchdowns my freshman year.