The Courage of Coaching

​​Why do parents volunteer for kids hockey pros and cons

By Jack

Kids hockey has been one of the most, if not the most, popular sport in Canada. Who coaches all of this hockey? It is commonly coached by parent volunteers. How does a parent coach benefit from the time they put in?  Does it benefit the kids and the game? What are the down sides of of being a parent coach? To answer these questions a few experts have dialled in.

There must be a reason all these parents are volunteering so much time. Derek Mendham a parent hockey coach says “I volunteer because it’s very important to me to spend lots of time with my kids. Also I get to meet other great kids and it’s a lot of fun.” Mathew Braun a player on Derek’s team agrees, “parent coaches get to spend more time with their kids.” He makes a good point by saying “they get to learn more about the sport they coach and get to learn how to work as a community.”Derek’s wife Kathy is fine with her husband volunteering to coach because she then gets to spend one on one time with he other son. For a final opinion from The Hockey Life: the pros and cons of parent-coaches (http://www.stateofhockey.com/news_article/show/705889?referrer_id=1949540) also says that parent coaches get to spend more time with their kids. They also stated on “how the parents can get a inside look on how the team is built” and “how it’s nice for the kid to have a coach that always knows your name.

It can’t always be unicorns and rainbows there must be a down side. Derek Mendham said that it is hard to “find enough time in your schedule, to learn how to motivate each kid on the team and to deal with kid or parents that are difficult.” Mathew also added “getting there on time and being prepared could be a challenge” he also added “that it might be hard to not be biased toward your own kid.” From the Hockey Life article they indicated that sometimes parents favour their kid with more hockey time but the kid can also get less from the parent coach.

Now what do all of these opinions add up to? Well the benefits are quite extraordinary and could make some parents volunteer right away. However the challenge could out weigh the benefits for some other parent. So why do parents bother volunteer coaching for hockey? I guess they think the benefits out weigh the challenges. I know my Dad dose because he has coached in almost all of my sports!