Coaches Discipline Protocol; Elly Shearman Tennis Coaching 2022/2023

These are steps that our coaches will follow if they find themselves with individuals or groups that do not listen as well as we would like, do not respect everyone in the group or the coach, or if they ever feel they do not have control of the groups behaviour.

1. Speak to the child at the end of the lesson, not in front of the whole group. The coach will identify what behaviour has not been acceptable in that session and explain that if they see that behaviour again they will be asked to take 5 minutes out of the session (the child would be given a seat to sit on, on court).Coaches will ask them if anything caused them to behave as they have, andexplain that it’s ok to let them know as their coach if they’ve had a bad day so that they can understand why they may not be completely engaged.
2. If the child behaves inappropriately for a second week (this does not need to be in a row) they will talk to the child on the side of the courts whilst the other children are engaged in a drill and explain that this is now the second time. They will explain what the behaviour was that they weren’t happy with and ask them to sit on the chair for 5 minutes before re-joining the group. The coaches will explain that if this happens a third time they will be speaking to Elly about it and their parents.
3. If the child behaves inappropriately for a third time (again this doesn’t need to be 3 weeks in a row) then the coach will take them out of the drill again, speak to them about the behaviour that they weren’t happy about, and ask them to sit for 5 minutes and think about their behaviour. Then the coach will let the child know that following that session they will be speaking to Elly regarding what has been going on as well as the parents. Coaches will also e-mail Elly and put it in writing first before the parents are contacted.
4. After speaking to the parents we would expect there to be no further action needed. Conversations with the parents may identify why there is inappropriate/disrespectful behaviour going on and it can hopefully be resolved.

**Essentially 2 yellow cards before a red card when Elly will get involved as will the parents.