COACHING ETHICS

(presented at the National Basketball
Coaches Meeting 1956).

‘May I quote from an outstanding superintendent of schools in
Pennsylvania on the requirement of an athletic coach? " The coach of
a competitive team has a most important task - he means so much to

_.the school, the boys, the public. There are several fundamental que-

stions that should be asked cbout a man before he is entrusted with
the responsibility of coaching boys, What manner of man is this?
How does he speak and act? Is he sound and clean in mind so that his
influence is inspiring and uplifting? vould he set a fine cxample-
not by posing, but by being-- the type of man we want each of the
/boys. to.be? If, these questions cannot be answered favorably, stop
then and there, No other qualities can supplant the fundamental
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Surely the athletic coach of “today must measuer up to rigica
-- high standards: of ..both education. anc essential manhood. Any pro-
fession so exacting and so demanding is being built upon the bed
of: rock. of, education and must.continue to crow and elevate itself
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Ethics--that means, the code, the. rules and the orders of our
profession with something else added, our attitude, These’ ethics
or practices.can be no higher than the men that make up the baske t-
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i ye are: not. going into. great deteil in the. Ciscussion of what

constitutes.ethics, and the part that you gentlemen play in them,
Simply suffice it to say that. we want to discuss some of the things
that are coming up in our profession that might not be in line with
educational principles, | hak ee ee ke

1. Coaching from the sidclines, what is coaching from the
‘sidelines? Can. you answer that question? Do you coach from the side-
lines? Is conveying to yvur players the length of time remaining
..in a ball game coaching? If you yell: at one, of your players as he
goes by is that coaching? These are a11 questions that ‘men must
answer, Do you give a signal from the bench for a certain play, or
te change from a fast breaking attack to a slow attack? We do not
_ believe that we should try to move the boys about on a court as
‘though they were pawns in our hands, do you? Now there is a differ-
ence in-ccaches, ‘Ie have had an. opportunity in the past two years
“to check the coaches in the Big Ten, There are one or two who sit
quietly unperturbed on the. bench, Most of them move about, yell,
stand up, and react to the way the play is going on the court, Ve
think some of-our outstanding coaches in basketball have a re-_.
putation for. going. through vericus antics during the procedure of
a pame, Is this just a matter of temperament and should we concone
this type of practicco? (I do not believe that we can reprimand these
coaches for that. type of action, because they are not trying to coach
from the bench, .but their temperament will not allow them to sit +
still. We class. three. or four of the outstancing coaches of this
country in thet particuler group).

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