Damn... That's tough sleddin' raising 3 of them. Just give them opportunity. I think we talked about this before.
Great post! However, I fucking hate when I'm dominating some fool in the post and the refs give him warnings about his hands and elbows instead of calling a foul. I've seriously been in games where the refs give the guy about 30 warnings and never actually calls a foul. It's so annoying.
My personal experiences around aau and the coaches have not been positive (I know that it doesn’t mean they are all dirty, or bad). I do think especially at higher levels of AAU it can get pretty bad. If my kids want to play I’ll support them, help them, do what I can to lead them through life. It occurs to me after reading your above post not enough is made about the job of peacemaker that a ref needs to play, sometimes a fight will happen and there might not be anything that could’ve been done. A lot of the time though the ref needs to keep things from escalating long before a fight does happen. I was in a game in middle school, where a parent got pissed off about a call and was pretty determined he wanted to fight and I don’t think the ref could’ve done much to de-escalate it, but a lot of the time a good ref is stern with the calls and boundaries but also let’s players know early what is and isn’t allowed.
I think we have too, I tend to talk about my kids probably more than I should, but whatever they’re basically my life.
Here's what you have to understand though, if it's marginal contact by rule is not a foul AND I'm telling them this stuff before it's becomes a foul. And if he elbowed you without me saying anything before, you might turn around and HULK SMASH.
All I'm saying is that it's okay to warn someone a couple times, but if you warn the guy every single time I touch the ball in the post for the whole game then something is wrong.
That's just a bad ref. I don't talk people out of shit in the 2nd half. I've already told you, now it's time to put what I've said into practice or the whistle will teach.
Like I said above, you have to endear yourself to the players but also coaches and fans. It's not hard. Run hard. Hustle. Be in position. Take care of the explosions and the little things alike. Police attitudes as well as contact and most of that stuff works itself out.
If she was adamant about playing with an AAU team, I would have to consider it. If she did though, I'd be very involved and watch very carefully what is happening and wouldn't hesitate to pull her out in the middle of a game if I thought it was necessary. I doubt a lot of parents understand how adversely a young athlete can be affected by playing in a bad environment and how it can change the kids attitude about the sport for a long time.
Like a good parent should. My son plays AAU and he's 11 and needs plenty of work. The difference is, I'm my son's coach, assistant coach, mentor, sounding board, and the one who provides the opportunity and holds him accountable for the goals he sets. It's a fun journey and we're both learning along the way. I'm going to coaches camps and all that. I want to become a better coach so he becomes a better player. I'm willing to sacrifice my free time to do this for him. It's fun AF but I don't know if I'd be coaching if it weren't for him.