CaCO3Girl posted:There is a HUGE difference in a kid who wants to put in extra work and a kid who is paying his current coach to get that work in. It's slippery slope, and a conflict of interest in my opinion, and no one in the world could be impartial. It's not the amount of money, it is that Kid X is paying the coach to see him more. The coach tweaks things the way HE wants to see them, which isn't always what the paid professionals are teaching, it's unique to this coach. Kid X then has an advantage over Kid Y who didn't pay the coach. Kid X gets the nod to go in, or Kid X gets an extra chance because the coach has seen more of what Kid X is capable of rather than Kid Y. Then again, maybe Kid Y doesn't have the money for extra lessons with the coach, guess he misses his chance to improve, and Lord help us if the HS coach doesn't actually know squat. This is what I am saying, slippery slope.
Throwing hundreds and or thousands of dollars at the coach over the course of the season in "private" lessons is what is done in 9u-12u. This is what I meant by it being a Little League BS punk move. I've seen in a LOT of times, and I always thought it was wrong and never paid. It isn't the stud that gets time taken away, it's the other fringe kid who didn't pay.
Holding a kid back after practice to work on some tips is great, especially if you are asking him to do something in a specific way. Asking a kid to pay for these extra tid bits of info is ethically wrong in my book. Should kids be seeking out catching instructors, pitching instructors, hitting instructors....etc and working outside of practice YES! But those are supposedly paid professionals, the high school teacher coach spends WAY more time on the field that he gets paid for but he is paid by the school, he should not get kick backs from individual kids.
We're talking HS, not 9-12u. I have never charged a player in our program for extra lessons/work outside of team practice time and I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours doing so. I believe most of my colleagues at other schools do the same.
I take very seriously the responsibility of making sure our program instruction is in line with the latest mainstream teachings of the game. I follow closely what the "paid professionals" are teaching. They, too, want to tweak things the way they want. We put our players in the best position to succeed, not only within our HS program but at the next level if that is what they choose to work toward. Not having money is a complete non-issue with getting extra help from myself or our other coaches. This is not the case with those paid professionals you refer to. What IS an issue is if a player is behind other players and chooses not to work hard to catch up or surpass. Those are often the ones who also cry about unfair treatment. We make it very clear that extra help is available... all they have to do is ask and then put in the work.
Also, I realize that some HS coaches will align themselves with travel programs or training facilities and get paid outside of HS season. While i am aware that this can create a potential conflict of interest or perception of, even then, I can sympathize with guys who dedicate pretty much every spare minute they have outside of their real jobs for 8-9 months of the year for little or no pay. If they then have to charge a buck or two to try to recover some of their lost earnings from what amounts to a full time volunteer effort, I am not going to be overly critical. And, in some instances, I am more than happy to fork over a few bucks to have that kind of guy or gal help my son or daughter get better.