Team Rules

Team rules are something that many coaches pride themselves on. A team that is governed and guided by a set of rules will be a disciplined group of individuals, so we think. Most coaches who have coached at the competitive level have likely had a set of team rules that the players, parents and all people involved with the team were expected to follow. Some coaches have a long list of rules - and I mean top-to-bottom of an 8x12 page type of long. Other coaches have very few rules - maybe one or two loosely implemented guidelines to follow. Other coaches have no rules and let their team do its thing. It's time to put the confusion to rest and bust a few myths. Here we go.

Team rules are necessary entities when it comes to sports. Coaches who coach at the youth competitive level 11+, and coaches who coach at the amateur competitive level 18+, should likely have some sort of guidelines and team morals that provide structure to the folks involved.

But is there such a thing as too many rules? If a coach puts out a documents worth of team rules that the players, parents, and people involved in the team must follow, after a while, a rule is bound to be broken. Think about it like this - If you, as a coach, can say, "The people in my team, who are functioning members of society, are also people who have common sense and know right from wrong", then do you really need a long list of rules? Simply put, the more rules that a team has, the more rules there are to break. Catch my drift?

Does that mean that a coach should implement no team rules whatsoever and let things be a free-for-all? - Absolutely not. But if you, as a coach, are going to provide such a list of rules that requires extraordinary amounts of attention, you will find yourself worrying more about who is obeying/breaking team rules rather than coaching your team in the sport itself. The leading myth that exists is, "The more rules you have, the better your team will perform/behave". This is absurd and illogical in every respect. You are actually muddling-up all people involved in your team when you provide an overabundance of rules. Keep it simple.

Here is a decent baseline to follow - For your players, have 1-3 concrete rules that are to-the-point and are clear cut. Here is a sample of team rules that are easy to follow and easy to implement:

1. Arrive at practices 15 minutes prior to start time/90 minutes prior to games
2. The use of cell phones or electronic devices are not permitted upon arrival to the practice/playing grounds

These are simple, effective, and fair rules for players to follow. Coaches don't need an essay about team rules. If you are confident in your coaching abilities, if you make "discipline" a key talking point, and if you have faith in your team, then just have a basic set of rules like I've noted above.

But wait, we can't forget about the parents/guardians or other people involved in the team, right?! Here is a basic and fundamental rule that you can have for the parents/guardians and other people involved in your team:

1. Do not approach a coach before or during a practice or a game

Again; simple, effective, and a fair rule for parents/guardians and other people in a team to follow. The people involved in your team are likely going to be competent and functioning members of society. You don't need a plethora of guidelines for them to follow.

After reading this, some people still might be thinking that what I have proposed in terms of team rules is not enough. Here is why I only suggest a minimum set of rules in a team:

• You're going to have different things that come up during the sports year that require you, as a coach, to install a "rule", if you will, for your team to follow. A prime example of this is curfew when in a tournament. If you put this out at the beginning of the year, you're going to have players and folks involved with your team getting wrapped up in this idea. Meanwhile, the first tournament that you have is 3 months away. Or how about team meetings with players? If you put in your pre-season document for parents/guardians that there is a rule for "When we have team meetings, players must arrive 5 minutes prior to start time". Stop, stop, stop. Just tell them this information when the time rolls around. Don't overcomplicate things. You have bigger things to worry about as a coach.
• Other examples that I have seen coaches implement when it comes to team rules are created on the premise of morals and ethics. I am not saying that's a bad thing by any means, but are the following really team rules? - Respect, kindness, helping others, cleaning up after practice, putting garbage in the garbage, bringing a water bottle to training/games, and making sure your jersey is tucked in. These sound more like how to be a decent person, common sense, and things that can be talked about/suggested as the season goes along. You don't need to be so scrupulous with your team rules that it becomes the focal point of your squad.
• Lastly, when you have a bunch of team rules, eventually, you're going to create confusion. As an example, if a team rule of yours is "Respect", which is undoubtedly a good value to have, you're going to have players confused, after a while, as to what "respect" is/means. Is constructive criticism still respect? Is getting frustrated with yourself still respect? Is having a strong message to motivate the team still respect? Is letting a bad word slip by mistake still respect? I think you can see what I'm saying here. Don't flood your team with rules that are ambiguous and vague.

This article should be of great help to all coaches who had preexisting confusion in regards to this matter. This is one less thing that you have to worry about when it comes to your pre-sports year preparations. You don't need a bucket full of team rules. Have a couple of solid rules that are fair, to the point, easy to understand, and effortless to follow. These rules should reflect what is important to you as a coach and what is important to the well-being of the team. If you can reasonably say that the folks in your team are good people with positive discernment, then you don't need to overwhelm them with rules. If you do, after a while, people will forget, break rules that aren't really that serious, and become annoyed with having to recall what it is that you want everybody to follow so carefully. Just remember - When common sense exists in a group of people, the less obscure rules there are, the fewer rules there are to break.