Sometimes drills will crash.........and it happens MORE OFTEN in younger teams. When drills crash, it's always 50-50.a) the girls could have tried harder and the drill wouldn't have crashed;b) or the coach could have put together a better practice plan and the drill wouldn't have crashed.
My varsity girls do their share about 98% of the time. But your rookie JV's will probably do their share only about 80% of the time. wow. Yep, you have to expect THEM to be the reason a drill crashes 1 day a week. So that means, regardless of how well we prepare, some drills are BOUND to crash.
So we need a box in our bookbags labelled "In case of crash".In the box, there would be the following advice:a) smile moreb) encourage morec) DO NOT SAY things you'll regret.........don't get personal with insults/attacks.d) Remember, half the blame is yourse) Remember, they're kids and they really like the sport and they really like you.....if they didn't, they wouldn't be there at all. They're just not in it today.f) With the time you have left, change to a new drill. Maybe not to the drill THEY WANT, b/c that'll be teaching them that lack of effort, pouting, etc. will be rewarded. g) if you want to address the problem with the team, fine. Appeal to their intelligence, to their sense of teamness, to their loyalty............but don't get personal. h) Think of all the good that they have in them! They really are an OK bunch!! i) Gosh, don't keep them 15 minutes after practice was supposed to end just to prove that THEY WILL complete your drill. Come on!! If you'd done your job better (planning, goals, motivating, explaining, not conditioning prior to the drill, etc.), the drill may have been done in half the time!
THEN.............There are other times that your plans are going well, the kids are doing OK, but the drill(s) is lasting much longer than you budgeted. In other words, the drill you're doing is useful, and the kids are learning/trying/improving, but it's just taking too long! So, here's what you have to do:--> Is this drill worth it? Will it make you a better team faster than the other drills you had planned? If so, keep on! --> But if not, stop that drill (without rolling eyes or giving the kids the face!) and go on the next one.If you're running out of time, prioritize your drills and do the ones that are the most important to the improvement of your team.
