Coaches Weird occurence today

[Linsul]

I had a girl who is normally very good almost 'lose it' for lack of a better description. She was following the other kids around, making mean comments to correct them. I distracted her a few times, but I was over it after having her repeat the behavior. So I call her over, get on my knees in front of her, and say 'I want you to be able to take your turn and have fun too, don't worry about the other kids, have fun!' I'm all sweetness and light, thinking she's just having a bad day maybe? 'It's nice that you want to help, but take your turn too!' kinda thing. What followed really creeped me out bad.

She took this really long ragged breath, it was dramatic. As she's doing this, she raises her arms and goes from fingers spread, to a fist at face level. Which happens to be where I'm at on my knees about 2 feet away. All this would have been odd, but fine, except her eyes! She opened them wide and glared at the same time, I don't know how else to describe it, it was a little bit scary. I know for a fact that she was deciding on if she was going to hit me or not, absolutely know it. In my head I'm thinking 'omg, she's going to hit me, should I move? No, no way.' So I said 'Are you okay? Are you angry with me, do you want to talk about this?' Thinking it might break the tension or something. She turned her back on me and said she didn't want to talk to me. At this point I'm really over it, and it's clearly bigger than me so I said 'Maybe you'd rather talk to your mom.' Still nice, but yeah she needed to talk to someone and get it off her chest before being expected to listen for class. We went to her mom.

Everything turned out okay, but it was VERY VERY weird, and unsettling. This girl is not normally like this at all. Her mom seemed shocked, as was I. Very weird, I hope it doesn't repeat next week. I've dealt with kids who are scared, shy, nervous, confused, hurt and upset at various times for various reasons; but never once thought I was about to get a fist to the face. I kept the odd parts out of the explanation, just stuck to the facts of what got her to that place. I wonder if I should have said something just based off of a feeling.

 

[KAQuinlan]

Wow. I don't know that I would have kept my cool as well as you did in that situation!!! It sounds to me like you did the right thing. It doesn't sound like it was just a feeling with fists right in your face -- that's pretty clear evidence. Hopefully mom will find out more tonight and can tell you more at the next practice!

 

[Linsul]

Wow. I don't know that I would have kept my cool as well as you did in that situation!!! It sounds to me like you did the right thing.

Thanks but being honest here If I did the right thing I pretty much accidented my way into it! I didn't intend to hurt her feelings and I always get on my knees when asking for a changed behavior. I read somewhere that it's less intimidating than bending over a kid. I was absolutely not expecting what happened, not at all! It was like going from coach to spectator and then suddenly realizing hey I better say something before I get rocked upside the head!

It doesn't sound like it was just a feeling with fists right in your face -- that's pretty clear evidence. Hopefully mom will find out more tonight and can tell you more at the next practice!

I was watching her fists go up, but combined with the breath and the whole exaggerated way she was doing it I thought it was just her putting on a show until I saw her eyes. When I began to realize she could be for real and spoke to distract her, her fists never moved closer to me than her. I think she actually had to decide to not carry it out though. Since she didn't and she has never ever ever behaved that way before I kept it out. There's more to the story though it did end up well but it would get too specific. She surprised her mom with some of the phrases she was saying is as vague as I can be. I'll keep an eye on her, I don't know what to think but daaaang.

 

[BlairBob]

Rec or Team kid. With rec, I go through the:

-go to the end of the line.

-lose a turn, get skipped.

-sat out near the class for about 3m.

-go to bleachers, kicked out of class or go home early.

With team, I currently use Burpees ( from a stand, squat down, kick feet out, do a pushup, back to squat and jump ). 1st infraction is 10. 2nd is 20. 3rd is 40, 4th is 80. I've yet to give over the 4th. They either do them or go to the lockers. For the first or second time, no biggie. It really starts to suck by the 3rd or 4th time and by that time, I'm so done with them they need to sit out and go home. Maybe I'll talk to them if I can get free if they sit near the group to find out what is going on. Maybe it's time for them to just call it a day and go sit by the lockers/bleachers or call parent to come pick them up.

I used to use stuff like go do wall sits or hold a pushup position for 1-3m. This was mainly for kids being chatty kathy's (girls). Nobody should like burpees. I don't mind making them as a negative punishment for misbehavior. I rarely use them in my general conditioning anyways and I'd prefer to not the set the precedent of rope climbs or pushups or squat jumps as negative punishment and possibly have to deal with that.

With one problem child lately, he tried to kick me in the privates and "corn-hole" (other side) me. Very bad idea, bub though I never had a kid try this before. I know if someone were to do this in school, when I was a kid; there would have ensued a beatdown of epic proportions and know my gunny was more than willing to take any smart mouth HS'er and put the scare of death in him ( I doubt he would beat them but I know we all thought he would be more than willing. Don't mess with Marines ). This was not just boys wrestling around kind of scenario ( though some are deathly afraid know to accidently kick me in my privates- I did not hurt the child ).