https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/17396604.watford-suspend-head-of-academy-darren-sarll/ Head of Academy Darren Sarll has been suspended following allegations of bullying.
Fair play to the men in charge if this is true. Unbelievable that this still happens in the youth system
Probably best from a moral point of view, as well. Just imagine if the guy is innocent... We don't know, yet. (& please spare me the 'no smoke without fire' stuff).
I can't comment on this particular case but having been around and involved with youth football for too many years now I've seen first hand, (and continue to see), how some coaches systematically bully the kids. I've seen a female coach run around to the other side of the pitch to literally scream at an under 10 player that if he makes the same mistake again he'll be substituted, (she was subsequently removed from the role). I've seen an adult male coach hit an under 12 female player as she came off the pitch for not trying hard enough, (one of my teams parents had to be physically restrained from attacking him whilst his set of parents seemed to think it normal behaviour). A decent coach doesn't need to instill fear of any kind into youth players to improve them and I'd remove my Son, (the only youth player I have left), from any team that this was happening at. It's disgraceful that not only is this still happening but parents let it happen because they want their kids to stay in the top teams.
Shouting encouragement at someone and shouting at someone are 2 separate things. Do you manage at Knebworth Youth?
I don't disagree. But management is a nuanced art. There are many ways to manage players - and shouting at players is just one of them. Each player will respond differently to different treatment. The trick to good management is to know which players respond better to being shouted at, and which respond better to being shouted encouragement too, which need constant ego massaging etc. To completely rule out shouting at players is ridiculous. I'm not just being argumentative, I say this as a player who played better after being shouted out. Soft words of encouragement did nothing for me at all.
Not sure how Poch would react to this? He’s a professional football player and I don’t think it’s fair for his dad to remove him from the team. Plus, there’s a contract involved, so not sure of the legality here. You could have at least asked him to refrain to scoring against us.....again. Disappointing, Diamond.
Can honestly say the only times I bother with U-23/Youth games is when they occasionally pop up at The Vic (incidentally, WHY wasn't the Youth Cup game there the other night, surely a game like that should have be played there rather than W&F ???) so can't claim to have seen much of his behaviour first hand. But what I do know is that whenever I heard him on 3CR after matches when he was Stevenage manager, he came across as a nasty piece of work.
The first one of your examples is surely a club disciplinary matter and must be against the FA's (if it football) code of conduct. The second one is assault and I would suggest the coaches career is finished necessitating 'plod' getting involved? I help coach mainly kids with LDs hockey. In drills I do shout encouragement/praise and in matches the same (reminding the kids about positions and not "bunching") at this level it is choosing a balance between fun and learning skills (we try to focus on the former). We (my colleagues and I) do pride ourselves that at the end of the session we're surround by hot, sweaty beaming faces. I'm normally given the 'development squad' (NT kids) for the club's end-of-season tournament. The kids (and parents) that during the match they will hear my booming voice 'reminding' the kids to keep their sticks down, tackle, give 'options'/'support' and 'talk to each other'. The kids are always praised at full volume.
