Practices: opened or closed?

HS Coaches, do you allow parents, etc to watch practice or do you prefer to keep it closed?

 

Closed

As a general rule they are closed. Several times during the season we tell the guys that a particular practice is open. Most of the time this is on a Saturday and then we have some pizza or watermelons etc after practice for everyone. Our players want them closed. Our summer and fall workouts are closed because the players do not want their parents present. Our practices are closed because we do not want to deal with any distractions and we do not want our players to have to deal with any distractions. Just the way we do it. If others are open thats fine if they dont have any problems that great.

 

South Mecklenburg's practices were always open. I guess kudo's should go out to the parents that attended. They never interfered in any way with the practices. Heck, at times, there were as many supporters at the practices as at the games.

 

Ditto...

I could give a rat's *** whether they were there are not as long as they stayed out of my way of course coaches know all too well most of the time they are not doing much other than bad mouthing the staff anyhow but then again i could care less..........:gaga:

 

Braves, your post does not fit with my experiences with parents attending practices. I do not believe that parents attend multiple afternoon practices because they "support" the team. I believe they are there to make sure little Johnny is getting treated "RIGHT" by the coaches and to subtly influence the coaches opinion of their kid. I know that sounds cynical, but that is what I have experienced in the last 5 or 6 years. In fact, I have come to admire more the parent that can stay away from practice and let the coaches do their jobs. Just my opinion, for what its worth.

 

I know that Coach Flow at Piedmont always has open practices. He told me the guys that were there that knew anything about the game were there just to watch. He also said it was good for the parents because if a kid didn't play they should know why by their observations, instead of only coming to the games and then complaining because junior wasn't playing. I like to go because I love the game and like being around it as much as possible. Almost every kid on the HS team has played for me at one time or another so it's fun for me to watch their progress as well.

 

Now O...you know the parents would never bad mouth the staff...LOL

Most coaches I know run open practices, most of them really don't care why the parents are there because they will run their program the way they want to run it.

I agree, a lot of parents are there to see how "little Johnny" is be treated...also I think many go to see how the team stacks up this year compared to last. I think this changes as the parents grow with the program...Freshman year you are really concerned about "little Johnny", Sophmore year not as bad, so forth and so on.

 

I hear ya BaseballMan, but all I can attest to is what I saw at the SM practices I attended for 5-6 years. There was never any contact between players or coaches. Heck, if that ever happened, Bags would have had a quick pow wow. But, he always had a parents meeting before the season and this topic would be covered and nobody ever tested it.

and in reflection, I can't ever remember anybody really discussing their son's practice habits. Most of the discussions were about the upcoming season and how some of the players had really improved their game.

Quite honestly, I got as much out of watching a kid in practice as I did watching a game...and in some cases...more.

 

we have never closed pratice (thought about it a few times..ha ha). i am with oriole as long as they stay on the hill it is okay. we usually have 3-4 parents (usually young guys who will need a ride after practice from parents)

it really doesn't matter to me.

 

Ditto... however I have asked parents that caused problems not to return. So if I need to close it off to particular parents, I dont hesitate. Only have done that once in 15 years.