The rule that ends parking-lot arguments
Every coach has had this one. The game ends, you're packing up gear, and a parent walks up with a question about playing time. Everybody's still hot. Nothing good comes out of it.
One sentence at your first meeting
No discussion of playing time or any concern before, during, or immediately after a game. Wait 24 hours. Then we'll talk, and we'll schedule it.
That's it. Say it out loud at your kickoff meeting, put it in writing afterward, and hold it.
Two things make it actually work
You honor it too. If you're frustrated with an athlete or a parent, you wait the same 24 hours. A rule the coach breaks isn't a rule.
The athlete is in the room. When a family wants to talk about playing time or their athlete's role, the athlete attends. Nothing gets said about a player that can't be said to the player. That one line prevents most of these meetings from ever being requested, and the ones that do happen get a lot more honest.
The 24-hour rule doesn't stop families from having concerns. It stops the concern from being handled at the worst possible moment, by people running on adrenaline, in front of everybody's kids.
The rest of the kickoff playbook, free.
The Coach-Parent Partnership covers the kickoff meeting agenda, the expectations worth putting in writing, a communication plan, and the weekly email that ends most parent complaints.
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