<p>A coach who regularly singles out only certain athletes for excessive criticism is abusive. Yes, at times it might be true that only Johnny is screwing up and has to be told. That’s fine. And sure, kids have different ability levels and it’s natural for the coach to therefore have different expectations about peformance. But to me it’s abusive if the coach singles one kid out for criticism when other athletes committed the same error or similarly did not perform well given their own level of ability. At a recent track meet, D medalled in two events and was the only one to score any points for the team. Other kids came into the meet as first, second and third seeds and failed to even place. Yet D was the only one screamed at and called out by name as not having done well, while the rest of the team who also didn’t perform up to expectations did not get the same treatment. The expectations were higher for D, so it ticked the coach off more when she didn’t win.</p>
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<p>Ouch. I hate to see generalizations like this. My husband has coached for 25 years at a Catholic high school and never once used the F word. And he is not considered an anomaly—his coaching peers (for the most part—there are always exceptions) also treat their athletes with respect and try to be good role models.</p>