Why do some cheerleading coaches yell?
This question was asked of me by a young, newly minted coach who was wondering how best to coach her team. She had experienced coaches who yelled (and sometimes screamed) at cheerleaders and she hadn’t liked it. According to her, the yelling resulted in the athletes obeying out of fear and the quality of “life” on the team was not good.
So why do some coaches yell and scream? Well, let’s look at this.
No one said the job of a cheerleading coach is an easy one. The pay (if any) is usually laughable. The task of managing a group of cheerleaders of varying ages and levels of skill can be daunting. Keeping parents happy can be a challenge. Feeling the pressure to produce winning squads can be intense.
Still, every year many people choose to coach cheerleading squads and they do so with passion, dedication, and love. Remarkable, isn’t it?
Ok – back to the question at hand.
Some coaches yell because their coaches (or parents) yelled and they don’t know any other way to coach.
Some believe athletes will only listen to and respect a coach who is “tough.”
Other coaches yell because they do not have other skills to help them manage and/or discipline a team.
Some coaches yell because they have no patience.
And some coaches yell because they over-identify with their athletes and believe if their team performs badly, it reflects poorly on them. In other words, they have too much of their own ego invested in the squad’s success. It’s all about the coach and not about the athletes.
A coach who yells and screams might succeed in getting compliance from his or her athletes but there is a cost to that compliance. Punishment of this type (and it is punishing) invokes fear, not pride. I will write more about this soon.
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Tags: cheerleader, cheerleaders, Cheerleading, Coaching