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Why So Many Coaches Have Anger Issues

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Why do so many youth sports coaches have anger issues?

This is real simple to answer: because their not as good of teachers as they think they are. But it takes more than a sentence to explain. For starters, most coaches carry so much anger because they are frustrated. Their frustrated because they can’t get the results they want out of their athletes when they need it most: in competition. If you ever coached competitive sports you know what it’s like. But who is to blame for their athletes' weaknesses. If you guessed the coach, you're right. If  a coach can’t teach in a way that their athletes understand, or if the coach doesn’t give proper instruction to their athletes, the coach is never going to get the results that they are wanting out of their athletes and the results are an angry coach. Coach, soccer ref and upset child

The most unfortunate part of this scenario is that most coaches never see that they are to blame, and, as a result, all of their frustration is misdirected on to their athletes, and from there it's a downward spiral.  The effort put out by their athletes suffer, their attitudes decline, morale drops, and the coach becomes more and more angry. Everyone is to blame but them. This usually results in verbally abusive behavior that some coaches will later come back and make apologies for after they have cooled down.

Like I have already said, these coaches never see it as them being the problem. It's no different than an alcoholic having to much to drink, and then doing or saying something  that they shouldn’t have and then having to make apologies for later. It's a cycle that just repeats, and there seems to be no cure.

The sad part is that usually apologies won’t even come, because that would be an admission to a problem that could result in termination. It's such a pleasure to encounter good-minded coaches when I do. And on those rare occasions when I do, even when it's an opposing teams coach for a team that my son just played against, I will always go out of my way and shake their hand and let them know that their good behavior didn’t go unnoticed. I think we all should.