10/8/2009- My Wrestling Punctuality Attack Dog...

[kdsmith27 14]

My Wrestling Punctuality Attack Dog...

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Hi Keith,

My biggest pet peeve in all of coaching is when wrestlers

are LATE because of their parents.

It's a tricky situation.

You're upset that the kid isn't on time to a meet or practice,

but getting angry at the kid is fruitless if they depend

on their parents for a ride.

Over the past few weeks, I noticed a downward spiral

in punctuality.

It had to be addressed.

Luckily, I had my Sportata website for getting the word out that

I was "drawing a line in the sand".  If you're not clued in on

Sportata yet, you got to check it out (just watch the quick

video on the page below and you'll see what I'm talking about):

http://www.sportata.com/

Anyway... I built my team's website a few months back,

and parents have really been responding well to it.

I post our schedule, team news, pictures, etc.

Usually I keep the tone of our website pretty upbeat.

But last week, I used the website as my "attack dog" on

the punctuality issue. 

I made a short post on the homepage of the website that

it was no longer acceptable to drop wrestlers off late for meets

or practices. 

Then I  used Sportata's "team e-mail" feature to e-mail all the

parents regarding the issue.  Again, I asked for their

assistance in getting their kids to the gym on time.  I didn't

call out anyone by name, and made it clear this was a

"team problem" that we had to work on together to solve.

Low and behold...BIG improvements this week.  I know it's still

early, but so far, not ONE wrestler has been dropped off late

all this week.

I've had 4 parents individually approach me and apologize for

dropping their kids off late in the past and express their

commitment to being more punctual.

Best part, I didn't have to have any awkward conversations

in front of the kids.  Sportata allowed me to deal with the

matter in a very professional manner. 

No one felt singled out; I was publicly asking everyone to

help out on the website.

That public accountability was pure magic. 

If you haven't set up your Sportata site yet, I strongly recommend

doing so, here's the link where you can get going:

http://www.sportata.com/

It takes about 15 minutes to set up (super fast), and updating

it takes less than 5 minutes.

Lots of people use their websites just for "good news", but

I encourage you to once and awhile use it as your attack dog.

Later,

Gary

PS- You can still build your website for just a buck,

not sure how long they'll keep that deal going, but worth

checking out:

http://www.sportata.com/

2506 North Clark St.#284, Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA

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