Lines, laps, and lectures...

No lines, no laps, no lectures…really?

I don’t think that many American coaches of preteen kids trust everything they learn and read. Any intelligent coach who has been through state license training or even through the most basic AYSO training has heard this popular phrase. The problem is, it is a cute phrase and easy to throw about, but very few coaches live by it.

They talk a good game, but when you go out to the training pitch you see it all around.

Lines
Laps
Lectures

I think that coaches don’t consider 2 or three kids standing for several minutes to get their turn in a drill a line. It must mean a line is only a line when the whole team is in it.

Same with laps, I assume. A coach may not send their kids for laps around the field (although many still do), but they will certainly line them up and run them for 10, 20, or even 30 minutes of a practice….without ever touching a ball.

Maybe stopping the kids constantly during a drill or a small sided game to talk to them for minutes at a time doesn’t constitute a lecture to these coaches, but I would certainly put it in the lecture column.

We learn it at every step of our coaching education, yet many if not most of us throw it out the window at our first opportunity. Is it an American thing born of coaches raised playing baseball, football, and basketball? Is it a human thing? Do we as adults need the order that lines, laps, and lectures provide? Is it the players' parents? If we don't line them up, run them, and lecture them it doesn't look like we are really training and coaching them, now does it? So maybe we do it to impress those parents who are paying the big bucks for us to turn their kid into the next college prospect.?

I am certain it is at least a combination of these. Most 'professional' coaches and trainers need to have a reputation and make people believe in them to make a living. Many do a great job with kids, don't get me wrong (even the ones who run kids and line them up), but they need to make a practice look like, well, a practice.

Kids playing small sided games doesn't look as orderly as kids on four corners of a grid lined up waiting to get into the mix. Having all of the kids compartmentalized into their little lines while you are not instructing them is much easier to manage as a coach, especially if you have a large group of kids.

The fact is, doing it the right way takes a lot of effort, training, and practice. Hmmmm, those are all of the things we ask of our players, and yet so often we sell those very players short. We cut corners because we either don't make the effort to create better training or we don't trust ourselves enough to do what we know is right.

Coaches, I challenge you. At your next practice do an honest assessment of whether you have the kids engaged, touching the ball, and having a good time while they learn the skills they need or are you falling into the comfort zone of Lines, Laps, and Lectures...Awareness is huge. Be aware and be the best coach and trainer you can. You can give them a love for the game. Don't just say it. Do it. Live it.