Pay Now or Pay Later...

 This is a video answer from Apple founder Steve Jobs.

The best taxi driver can get you to your destination in 15 minutes, the worst one maybe a half an hour. A minimal difference from a profession that likely will not fester with you but for more than a few minutes.  But for Jobs, a software designer is so important that the difference for him is more like 100-1.

Think about your coaches.

In a paper titled "The Artistic Accomplishment of Coaches in Youth Sport," authors Dia and Xu write, "The influence of coaches on athletes is huge. Nowadays, many coaches do not understand the meaning of the phrase "catching the heart of an athlete." As coaches, in addition to helping athletes to formulate training plans, improving their performance and helping them to achieve their maximum potential on the sports field, achieving excellent sports performance will not only focus on their performance in the competition, but also pay more attention to the development of the athletes' lives. Helping exercise to deal with 'heart' issues, such as feelings, confidence, motivation and team cohesion, and even the meaning of life, these are the necessary artistic qualities for a good coach!"

This paper was written about coaches in CHINA! Not the United States.

As the new club season dawned upon us in early November, one Club Director proudly shared the growth of his club, over 40 teams now. When asked the question, "You have 40 great coaches and 40 willing assistants?" the pivot in the conversation was palpable.

While other countries require Coaches to get a degree, go through months or years of schooling and often times an apprenticeship before they can put the lead whistle around their necks, the U.S. continues to falter in Coach education and development. 

With youth sports being a cash cow for so many, little to nothing is spent on teaching coaches to be better.

And yet BAD coaches can drive kids away from sport, into depression and the desperate roads that accompany poor self esteem and confidence. Players are scarred deeply, those which they can carry far into adulthood. 

Parents call and complain to a club director, even to a Region officer but the bottom line is, in it's current condition, if a coach doesn't want to get better, they don't have to. They can drive your son or daughter out of a sport. They can affect their lives negatively going forward.

The question becomes when does the fulcrum of bad coaches begin to affect bottom lines? That may be the only push back that will matter.

For a club director that has dozens of teams, losing an athlete here or there is a small loss on a business that shows a huge return on investment. Spending money to send their coaches to an accredited coaching clinic seems frivolous and a loss of practice time.

One admirable Club Director could grow her business, but she is limited by gym space, (not wanting two teams practicing on a court at the same time) and qualified coaches. Every season, one of her first duties is to host an accredited coaching clinic for her staff. She has made a dedicated effort for quality over quantity, for her athlete's well being and training over her bottom line.

Sadly, her Parents may not even notice.

Gym costs, travel costs, Club costs continue to rise with literally no end in sight. To pay so much for a coach to ruin your daughter's athletic career is a short runway to what some parents will see as the eventual payback, litigation.

If you think that is an empty threat, think again, it's already begun.

We hope and want to work with the notion that USA Volleyball will raise the coaching standards along with every other youth sport organization. We will look to their leadership to weed out the bad coaches and reward the good ones. Maybe at a more base level, just define the characteristics of good coaches and bad.

Imagine in 5-10 years, your club having a legal department, having to field 11 lawsuits from parents and athletes that were coached so badly they carry medical records as evidence. The lawyer fees alone are in the tens of thousands and losing a case could be in the millions. 

Or maybe we can accept that putting an "A team," as Steve Jobs called them, out on the courts coaching your club kids, would be a better answer. An "A team" that is up to date in training concepts and ideas, that knows how to treat and get the best out of athletes in the age group they are coaching, that understands basics of player mental health, diet, training and recovery. 

This seems a simple answer but one that turns bottom lines red.

The old adage, "pay now or pay later" may be making a comeback.