Canceling Practices
Is it ever appropriate to cancel practices?
In regards to canceling practices, coaches will ascribe to one of the following:
- No
- Never
- It depends
- Yes
- Definitely
Is there a right and proper answer in this regard? - Certainly. Here it is.
The coaches who would say "Yes" (#4) are the coaches who got this one right and here's why.
Firstly, if you coach an outdoor sport, you're going to run into bad WEATHER at some point in time. May it be thunder/lightning, poor playing conditions or poor playing surfaces - If you can't say, with 100% confidence, that your players are in an environment of the best possible safety, then you need to cancel practice. As coaches, we have to uphold our curriculums and coaching guidelines - With that said, we must uphold our Duty and Standard of Care document. This needs to be held in the highest regard and taken with the utmost seriousness.
Secondly, there are going to be times where there are LOW PLAYER NUMBERS - In some cases, extremely low. Depending on the session type that you have designed, canceling practice may be a viable option here. If you are running a skills-based session, then don't cancel - Even just one player could benefit from this. However, if you are running a session that involves heavy content in terms of tactics, playing systems, set-pieces or plays - If you have low numbers, it's almost pointless/senseless to have a practice if you have less than a starting line up. Assess what you have, look at your attendance, and make the final decision.
Third and finally, if you are the type of coach that does last minute planning, then you'll need to look at FREQUENCY & VOLUME - What I mean here is that if you have had your players playing/training for days on end and they haven't been given a break, you could be running the risk of overtraining. Take a look back at your calendars and see how much rest you have incorporated for your players. If proper breaks in the schedule have not been assigned, you'll have to cancel some of your sessions before your players cancel out on you.
It's really not all that complicated. When it comes to canceling practices, if any one of these 3 reasons applies to the situation, notify your team and cancel. Please be aware that unless one of these extreme circumstances presents itself, then you should not be canceling practices - Just use common sense and logic.