Missing practice policy for college/club teams?

[kman58]

Hey guys, thanks to everyone who responded to my last post about team flakes, especially coming into the bhangra season for many teams, especially collegiate, it was a major help, I'm sure not just for me.


Going off of it, I wanted to know about teams, especially collegiate ones, and their policies for missing practices. Anybody currently on/has been on a college team before: what is the policy for allowing members to skip a practice? Do you allow 1-3/semester per memeber? Case-by-case basis? Do you allow members to leave practice early if they have an exam the next day?


Obviously everybody is human, and nobody can expect perfect attendance not even from captains. Commitment and passion play a big role too. But beyond those factors, what has worked for you guys, and what are some tips to keep people on the team and not afraid of the "big commitment" (besides of course, kicking them off)?

 

[siddyp]

day b4 exams. or if they are not in town for various reasons. being sick.

beyond that, people who skip to do other things don't really stick around. if they really want to be there, they'll be at practice. if you're dealing with someone who wants to skip randomly for a party or something, then deal with it IF you need them, and the moment you can fill their spot with someone else, fill it.

 

[Prabhzy]

We had this situation last year. Occasionaly for practices but sometimes even for gigs we had planned cos ppl just couldnt be asked.


Obv unless it a test/uni related stuff or family problems or health problems there is nothing you can do but anything other than that is unacceptable. As it is a long term commitment youve got to make it clear to the people at practices about what they are getting into.


Another idea you could implement is that take a deposit from every member including yourself. (something like $60-70) Every time someone is late to practice without good reason- deduct $5. Every time someone misses practices without good reason- deduct $10
Harsh i know but what can you do.

 

[sartajjudge]

I think my team had a policy where if you had two exams in one day, or a morning exam the next day- you could miss practice.

 

[arnab]

another thing i would throw in is that as a captain, you really should try to limit how you let missing practice "get" to you. as a captain, there was a long time where i would get really frustrated when people wouldn't show up or care... but i started to realize that was wasted energy. as the leaders of the team, we shifted that energy into making sure that every practice was packed to the brim and as meaningful as possible. people need to feel like it's worth something and that they will actually miss out by not attending. another thing that really helps is recruiting enough people so that there's always a bench. if people don't show up, then you can pull from the eager people who are ready to put in the time.

 

[smehta313]

Hey Keshav,

this is a little late, but one thing to add onto this topic is making sure you're not overdoing it. Don't plan practices from Sunday - Wednesday from 8:30 PM - 1:00 AM and expect everyone to be as enthusiastic as you are when practice time rolls through. Make sure you're efficient and you can cut practices down 1-2 a week and then possibly more come competition time.

There's a difference between captain and dictator and although you'll always feel you're doing what's best for the team, you may want to step back sometimes and look to see if you really are.

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]On that note, hope TUB stuff is going well. Really looking forward to what you bring out of the team next semester. [/font]

 

[nmistry2]

honestly (and this was said earlier in this thread) people who are interested and really want to dance will show up and will commit. If people are skipping practice for reasons other then exams then fill their spot with someone else. You would rather have a not as good dancer who works their ass off cause you know you can develop them as opposed to someone who can feels they can do what ever they like.


Just focus on the routine and the people who are willing to put in the work and the others should be over looked. Don't be afraid to tell them that they are slacking and this is why they are not in lineup or w.e you need to say because you don't need to stress about that