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First XV Coach Cast Episode 14- Using Fitness As Punishment
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On this episode, I share my thoughts on how exercise as punishment, often seen as a coach's way of reacting to poor behavior or mistakes, can create a negative relationship with fitness for young athletes. Instead of using sprints or pushups to punish players, focus on fostering an environment of growth, development, and personal responsibility.
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Transcript
Introduction and Return to Podcast
00:00:00
Jarrod Dyke
Hello again, everyone. Welcome to another episode of of the First 15 Coachcast. as you As you probably know at this point, my name is Jared Dyke. I'm here. I've had some time off in the gym. I haven't been in the gym ah coaching recently, but today I wanted to get something out there, so and it's been a subject that I've had ah thoughts on and been on my mind plenty in the last few months.
00:00:25
Jarrod Dyke
This is stemming back again from as the last episode was stemming back from the rugby coaching season for for the high school. So without further ado, let's talk about it.
Exercise as Punishment in Sports
00:00:38
Jarrod Dyke
So one thing that is unfortunately still prevalent in high school sports in general is um
00:00:50
Jarrod Dyke
exercise and or fitness as punishment. So ah what I mean by that is obviously things like doing pushups because the coach is upset with something or running a lap or running sprints because coach is upset with something.
00:01:07
Jarrod Dyke
That is unhealthy at the minimum because it builds in this negative association, especially for young people with exercise and that I only should do this to punish myself, that I should not do this for my benefit. I'm only doing it because I've done something wrong, which is how our how the whole thing gets absolutely, pardon my French, fucked up.
00:01:34
Jarrod Dyke
And that is not a healthy thing that we can do. It's something that we're really trying to break. ah This day and age hasn't been able to get through to everyone, though.
00:01:45
Jarrod Dyke
And there's there's a lot of things that haven't been able to get through coaches that should have by now. Here we are, though. So...
Team Leadership and Focus
00:01:54
Jarrod Dyke
What I will say is here's the thing.
00:01:57
Jarrod Dyke
um Number one, for me, when I'm coaching, I am I'm expecting my players to be clued in and it's on. And as I've said before, it's kind of on my captains and my assistants as much as it is on me and and their and the leadership of the team is that's not captains.
00:02:19
Jarrod Dyke
It's as much on them to make sure that everyone is clued in, understands what's going on. And we are listening and they're listening when the coaches are speaking and we're trying to make a point about something and or explain a drill or whatever it is.
00:02:34
Jarrod Dyke
Those are things that you have to lay down early. And that helps always. ah Really, in and one other thing I like to do, I certainly did it a lot when I was an assistant, was kind of this proximity thing to the, you know, the troublemaker.
00:02:50
Jarrod Dyke
who Who are the troublemakers on your team? You know who they are. It's not a mystery. generally speaking, at least, unless you're not just not paying attention that well. ah But I knew who the troublemakers were. So I would put myself within proximity of some of them.
00:03:04
Jarrod Dyke
And especially if I could kind of hear them whispering and and, you know, talking about something that had nothing to do with the drill, usually, and that my presence usually got them to stiffen up and and pay attention. So that is one thing you could
Accountability and Film Reviews
00:03:19
Jarrod Dyke
do.
00:03:19
Jarrod Dyke
The other thing is, really, for me, what I tend to make a point of with, especially especially with the boys team is if they don't want to pay attention, they're going to have to understand that they're the ones that are going to look like idiots on the field when they totally mess something up, especially if it's one person that's messing it up for everyone, they're going to be singled out. And, you know, I'm not afraid to ah put people on the spot when we are doing film review.
00:03:51
Jarrod Dyke
And I know that's hard. um That sounds like a harsh thing, But if done right, you make the point and make them understand, hey, remember when you were doing so all this yammering during this drill or while we were explaining this the set play?
00:04:07
Jarrod Dyke
And now you've totally bottled bottled it and you've totally just put it in the in the and the trash here. This is why. because And this is what happens. This is the result of that.
Focus on Athlete Development
00:04:18
Jarrod Dyke
you know So well'll do it while trying to not be a total jerk about it, and I can really understand that, there still needs to be a an association where if you don't pay attention, you will mess up something else.
00:04:33
Jarrod Dyke
And that's what it comes down to. And it's a hard lesson to learn in the game itself and in, you know, in a contest in itself. and So I do understand the tendency to not want to do that again, though, we're in high school. We're not trying to wins. Can't be the the main objective. It's got to be development of the P the people and the players and the athlete. It,
00:04:54
Jarrod Dyke
It can't, wins can't be priority. Will wins come if you prioritize those things? those things Higher than likely. Yes. Still, we need to make sure that we understand that we're trying to develop the person and the player and the athlete and wins will just be secondary.
00:05:13
Jarrod Dyke
ah put I always tell my boys, put in a performance and the result will take care of itself. If it doesn't, then that's just two really good teams on the day. That's how it is. So back to it. um Yeah, make sure that they understand that if they're the ones not paying attention, they're the ones that one may not get picked for the team at all.
00:05:31
Jarrod Dyke
There's 23 shirts that yeah on a rugby let go in for a rugby field rugby team. And if I can help it and someone's just being a total knucklehead, I may make them the 24th guy, which means they're not playing.
00:05:43
Jarrod Dyke
and They'll play JV, B team, second team, whatever you wish to call it. They won't play in the the top team, the varsity team, the A team. And that's because of things like that.
Integrating Fitness into Practice
00:05:55
Jarrod Dyke
So that there's that. um Certainly you can relegate them from starting to a bench, I would imagine at the very least, and to make a point. So there's, there's that. Two, there are times when ah my, my practices usually involve some sort of fitness exercise stuff. And sometimes it's the lame stuff like doing sprints and, you know, running after stuff and and getting and doing traditional fitness type things.
00:06:24
Jarrod Dyke
When, I when I'm once I'm out of preseason or once I'm near the end of preseason, I personally like to find games to do that with instead. That said, there are certain standards I want in games.
00:06:37
Jarrod Dyke
So if there's things we're trying to emphasize and or problems that have just kept reoccurring and no one seems to care about it and or no one seems to be wanting to address those issues, that's when I might get a little bit annoyed and say, you know what?
00:06:53
Jarrod Dyke
this game is now going into the bin and we're going to go back to traditional stuff for the last, however many minutes, whether it's five, 10, whatever it is, it's usually somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes of fitness from, for, for my practices. So there's, there is that there's, while that's not outright, that sounds like punishment, it's just altering your plan. And that's at least, that's at least how I view it.
00:07:14
Jarrod Dyke
And to make them understand, to make the players understand, like, listen, we can play games. If you guys do the things that are right, you know, for me, it's, making sure that you're not being selfish, taking care of the ball.
00:07:27
Jarrod Dyke
And when theyre when myself or my assistant coaches are um being referees or standing in those referees, ah it's a thing. You can't get lippy in in rugby especially because referees will penalize you. they'll They'll start handing out cards. It's no good.
00:07:44
Jarrod Dyke
So yeah really, yeah, we as an assistant coach that doesn't necessarily referee – they're going to miss things. So, you know,
Handling Referee Mistakes
00:07:54
Jarrod Dyke
it's a chance for my players to learn how to just but button their beak and deal with the fact that a call has been missed or a call was wrong.
00:08:03
Jarrod Dyke
And if the captain needs to talk about it afterwards with an actual referee, then they'll do that. That's not, but the time to try and get those things out is not during practice. So it's a better lesson to learn to keep your lips buttoned and make sure that you're concentrating on your communication with your teammates, not with the officials.
Open Communication and Improvement
00:08:22
Jarrod Dyke
So those are kind of the two things that i I've noticed, developed and am used over the years for my teams. And instead of, yeah, I'm mad. So everyone gives me 20 pushups.
00:08:38
Jarrod Dyke
Pushups are usually a hard one anyway, because the form usually goes to hell after about five to 10, depending on the athlete. Yeah. yeah And just, and sprints until you fall over just because you're upset.
00:08:52
Jarrod Dyke
Now,
00:08:55
Jarrod Dyke
case in point, we had ah very bad performance last year, ah to say the least. And mind you, this is a team that ended up going to the state final. But we had a very bad performance early on in the year.
00:09:08
Jarrod Dyke
And there are coaches out there, unfortunately, that will take that opportunity to just hammer their team into the ground with running and physical contact and whatever it is until guys are dogged.
00:09:21
Jarrod Dyke
i want I want to put guys, push guys to the brink. I don't want to do it for that reason. And I want to make sure that there's an emphasis on that. That's not the reason I'm doing it. ah So with that, usually after a performance, a really poor performance from the team on the field, it's not a yelling contest. It's not a you know, who can make them feel the worst about themselves. It's a, it's a hard conversation that we need to have.
00:09:47
Jarrod Dyke
We may, we may skip the field altogether that day, and go sit down in a classroom and talk there. Or we may sit down on the field um and hoping hoping that the conversation won't take that long. It may. And if it does, oh well.
00:10:02
Jarrod Dyke
And then still leave ourselves to the room to go go to practice. But in any case, we will all sit down and have a real hard look at ourselves and a real hard talk. And for me, is so much more productive for these players to understand that okay, we didn't do well last game, we can still fix it.
00:10:23
Jarrod Dyke
And they want to fix it. not they Not that they have to fix it. that's what i think that's what the drive is for some coaches. They think it's you know getting punishing their athletes and their teams after bad games is sends the message that they have to fix it.
00:10:41
Jarrod Dyke
Well, they have to fix it if they don't want to go 0 for whatever during the year. yeah that Yeah, that's that's true. But i want I want them to want to fix it.
00:10:54
Jarrod Dyke
I want them to want to get better. I want the players to want to improve both the team and themselves. That's going to happen much more. there's It's going to be a much more positive effect for that purpose.
00:11:09
Jarrod Dyke
If it's just a heart-to-heart, a straight-up, just honest conversation with the group. And if... The end of it comes out that some people feel a little bit bad on themselves.
00:11:22
Jarrod Dyke
All right. It's something I can address individually as well. And we can talk about it with players one-on-one. It's, you those types of instances, it's more about the communication the and with both players as a group and players individually than it is about just trying to send a message because you're out of ideas other than just making them sprint until they puke.
Conclusion and Future Topics
00:11:44
Jarrod Dyke
So and that's what I have for today about this whole this whole thing. I hope everyone has been having a great, great summer. And i will try and be back sometime next week or the week after with a little bit more. I still have a couple more things going on upstairs. So that's the good news for everyone or the bad news, depending on who you are.
00:12:01
Jarrod Dyke
But thank you very much for everyone that listens and and likes to take my advice as much as they can. ah I'll talk to you all sometime soon. Thanks, everyone.