A player arrived late for our morning practice. She is the youngest player on the professional team, living in her own apartment across the street from the gym. She has none of the typical excuses: Nobody drove her, she had no siblings to take to school, she did not have car problems, her bike did not have a flat tire, she did not miss her bus, no traffic, etc. She was just late.
She rushed into the gym, apologizing. She asked if I wanted her to run or do pushups; she expected a punishment because coaches typically punish players for showing up late.
I did not ask for an explanation, but she's young and talkative, and offered one any way; her phone died during the night and her alarm did not go off.
Irresponsible youth, many might say. Most would punish the player to make a point. They need her, and her teammates, to know this behavior is unacceptable. They want the threat of punishment to cause players to double check their phone batteries and alarms.
I did not punish her. When she texted after practice to apologize again, I told her not to worry about it.
The purpose of punishment is to change behaviors or discourage behaviors. If she had a history of being late or cutting it close, the punishment would attempt to change this behavior and cause her to arrive earlier or be more diligent in checking her phone battery.
She is usually the first in the gym and the last to leave. She made a mistake. She felt bad about the mistake. Whether or not I punished her, I do not expect it to happen again because she wants to be at practice. Her tardiness is not a sign of behavior problems. Things happen.
[If I had punished her to make a show of things, I would not have allowed her on the court, as, for her, sitting and watching is a bigger punishment than pushups or running. Also, she's injured and a day off would not have been bad for her, making the punishment easy to hand out, as it would have served two purposes: Keeping her off her injured foot and demonstrating that being late is unacceptable.]
The concern when coaches do not punish the first infraction is teammates seeing a green light to come late because there is no repercussion. They punish the player who does not need to change her behavior to discourage others who might stretch the boundaries.
I rarely find this to be the case. Players should want to be at practice. As a junior college coach, I usually did not punish players for being late, and I rarely asked. I believed they wanted to be at practice, and their tardiness meant something important must have happened. Usually, it was staying after class to talk to a teacher, making up a test, or a long line at the athletic trainer. When we lifted weights in the morning, someone slept through her alarm or had car problems. When players want to be there, do they need to be punished for being late?
The problem is when players do not want to be at practice. Of course, the problem, then, is that players do not want to be at practice, not that they were late to a practice. Why don't they want to be there? What are the issues? Rather than punishment to force players to be there and be on time, coaches need to figure out and address the reasons causing these behaviors.
The other reason coaches quickly resort to punishment is ego. They feel insulted when a player arrives late. They feel players are wasting their time. The punishment is more about the coach's feelings than the player's behaviors, which is an immature approach to coaching and leadership.
Our society believes in punishment to shape behaviors. We, especially coaches, value discipline. Is making a simple mistake a lack of discipline? Does a simple mistake off the court lead to mistakes on the court? I do not believe her tardiness means she will commit more turnovers next game because she lacks discipline, but many coaches draw straight lines from being late to practice to a lack of discipline to too many turnovers or committing fouls.
Personally, I prefer to remember we are coaching people first. Mistakes are made, things happen. When I know players want to be there, there is no need to punish players for simple mistakes. There are no behaviors to change, as this is a one-time action or mistake, not a consistent way in which one conducts herself.
