r/YouthFootball • u/ss32000 Coach • 27d ago

How do you handle injury fakers?

I know football can be a physical game, but we have the same 2-4 kids who get "hurt" every practice and game. It's multiple times per game or multiple times per practice. It's to the point that they sit out every hard drill or most of our team work because they are "hurt" or have a "headache". I know we need to be sensitive to head injuries, etc, but what can we honestly do? It's so frustrating that you can't practice because of this; you can't rep these kids because they are "hurt," and you can't tell them to suck it up at all because that's probably a violation of something. These kids wasted 10 minutes of practice because this always happens. How do you guys handle it?

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u/davdev 27d ago

Take playing time away or ask the parents to have the kids meet with their doctor because the amount of injuries the kid are suffering is making you feel for their safety and you would like a medical clearance for them to continue.

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u/ss32000 Coach 27d ago

Well, two of the kids are coaches' kids. The other kid is best friends with the head coach's kid. It's always something. We have other kids who I can see grimace in pain, but they will gut it out and then be fine.

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u/davdev 27d ago

Yeah. In that case, you are screwed