April non fiction post

           I read an article on the New York Times website called “Is Coach Rice’s Behavior Typical” by Charles M. Blow. Coach Rice was a Rutgers basketball coach who kicked, pushed, hit his players as well as through basketballs at their heads and yelled horrible things at them. The author states that Rice’s actions are an extreme of some coaches who, “turn a blind eye and even give a grudging nod of approval.” The author noticed that male athletes in general are verbally abusive and sexist. He also states that many coaches have mood swings and can be harsh on their players. He says that it is believed coaches do this to toughen up their players and get a better performance out of them, but it can be at the cost of the players. A study showed that “Male high school athletes in particular report higher levels of alcohol consumption, drunk driving, sexist and homophobic social attitudes, gender related violent activity, and same sex violence (fighting).” The main idea that the author wants to get across is that coaches can coach in a less violent manner. They can teach kids to respect others and teach them how to be men not violent teenagers. He says, “The good coach must not only be the model, but must teach our child athletes that there is a line between demanding and demeaning that no one who truly cares for others would cross.”

The craft the author uses to get his point across is to include his personal experience. He states, “My experience and that of most male athletes I know appear to have common threads: coaches can be incredibly positive influences on athletes’ lives, and most are, but too many can also be temperamental and explosive, verbally abusive and misogynistic.” He also states his opinion about how people should treat coaches who miss treat their players. He states, “ Reading it as simple passion is a perversion of the word. Excusing it as an accepted method of whipping athletes into psychological shape, of conditioning them to the ebbs and flows of anxiety, or to numbing them to normality, neglects the negative lessons imparted.” He talks about how coaches should treat players and includes a study that shows that after a program called Coaching Boys Into Men the boys’ behavior improved greatly.

I agree with the author that if a coach is abusing his players he is just teaching them to abuse people around them. I think that the coach’s actions not only affect the player mentally and physically it also affects the people around that player who might get bullied or abused by them.