How Do You Deal with the "Problem Player"?

My first two to three years coaching I thought I knew all the answers when it came to dealing with problem players. Run them. I thought that no matter what the situation was a few extra lines after practice would do the trick. When that would not work I began to punish the entire team for the individuals problems. My hope was that peer pressure would take care of the problem. These techniques did work once in awhile when the problem was small, but as the problems got bigger this style failed.

After a few years of coaching, I began to understand that not every problem player could be handled the same way. Every player is different. Every player deals with situations different. Every player has different off the court issues that influence their attitude. Therefore every player and every situation must be dealt with different.

A few years back I had a player in my program that could not seem to find his way to the classroom. On the basketball court this player was amazing. Worked hard, was never late and always had a perfect attitude. However, getting him to show up for class and do his homework was nearly impossible. I tried everything. I had numerous meetings with him, his parents and his teachers. I began calling him in the morning to make sure he was up and on his way to school. I even followed him to and from every class for two days in a row. But as soon as I would give him a little space, he stopped showing up.

Finally I had enough. When he would skip a class I would not let him practice. As a result of not being at practice he would loose playing time in games. After one week and two games the problem was solved. This young man began showing up for class everyday, turned in his homework on time and his performance on the court rose to an even higher level.

The next season another player with what I thought was the exact same problem entered our program. Easy fix. After a week or two this player left the basketball team and quit school. I was completely confused. How did my sure fire solution not work? I was not going to let this happen. A few days later I was able to track him down and convince him to talk with me. After several hours of conversation I learned that this young man was having sever trouble understanding his schoolwork and he was scared and embarrassed to be in the classroom. He was an extremely intelligent basketball player, but the classroom was like a nightmare for him.

The next day I was able to get the young man to return to school and meet with the counselor. After a few meetings we learned that he had a learning disability that had never been diagnosed. We were able to get him help, got him back in school and back on the court. When that season came to an end, I set him down and congratulated him on his success and then apologized to him for what I had done. I told him that I was truly sorry for treating him the same as I had the previous player. I promised him that from that point on I would spend more time talking and working with my players on their off court issues instead of just handing out a standard discipline.

I feel that I have kept my promise. When I have a problem player, I set them down and talk with them. I try to figure out what is going on and help them through it in a productive way. This has worked out well for me in most cases. However, some players have problems that I can just not fix. I do my best to get the right people to help them and hope that in time they will come back ready to go.

I do not believe in giving up on any player. Even when it appears that all my efforts are futile, I keep trying. I encourage my coaching staff to have the same attitude and I do everything I can to help my other players understand what we are doing. "Problem Players" can and will take a lot of your time and energy, but every player deserves a chance, and sometimes several chances. I believe that it is our job as coaches to find the time and energy to help these players while we continue to improve the rest of our team.