Why Pushups Make Bad Punishments
Pushups don't work as a consequence but I hate the arguments people put up against them
The one I hear is: “Don’t use pushups as punishment or athletes will hate pushups.” That line never landed for me. Pushups are not supposed to be fun. They are training. The joy of training isn’t direct, it’s afterwards when you get pride from doing it. The real problem lives somewhere else.
Pushups are a short term solve to a larger problem. If you want athletes to hustle in and out of the teaching circle and athletes aren’t doing it. The pushup threat will work in the moment because athletes want to avoid discomfort. Your athletes will comply while you’re watching. The second the threat is gone, the behavior comes back. You trained avoidance, not standards.
This is not what you want. You want athletes to understand why it’s important to hustle in and out of the circle choose to do it on their own. That takes relationships, repetition, and trust. It’s hard to develop, takes more time, but will result in something stronger.
The hidden lesson of punishment
Punishing with exercise teaches three bad ideas: training is a tax, the coach is a cop, and effort is for when you are in trouble. That is the opposite of a culture you want to develop. You want training to feel like a privilege and effort to be the default. This is why we use standards and not pain to motivate athletes. Standards outlive supervision. Write them. Teach them. Rehearse them. Hold to them the same way every day. That is how athletes internalize the expectation.
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What to do instead (practical plays)
Agree on the importance
Have a detailed conversation with your athlete about why the standard exists. Specifically on how it serves the athlete and what they want. Once you are both aligned here, consequences feel like assistance to improve, not a cruel punishment.
Rehearse the right behavior
Make sure your athletes have the tools to do what you’re asking of them. If someone is late, don’t blast them with pushups. Walk them through the on-time routine, step by step. Find what’s holding them up. Figure out the time they must leave by calculating travel time, and things they need to do once they arrive. like putting away gear, putting on shoes, taping laces, etc. Make them run that sequence clean tomorrow at the start of practice. Then work backwards to find a time they need to leave by. Make sure to have a conversation with the athlete and parent so everyone is on the same pag understand. You are training the habit you want.
Make time the currency, not training.
Missed standard = time given back to the team. Athlete stays after. They have a 5 minute conversation with you about why punctuality matters. Then they spend the time they were late to take care of the room. It costs time, not training. It repays the group without confusing training with punishment.
Tie consequence to the job
Leaving out messes? They lead end-of-practice reset for that zone and show the checklist. The consequence fixes the exact miss. Talking during instruction? They take notes on the technique and demo it to start the next practice.
Praise by the standard
Constantly praise when folks get things right. When someone nails it, say why. “You were laced up and ready 15 minutes before practice with a partner lined up. That’s respect.” Name the behavior, tie it to your teams values. You reinforce the blueprint and encourage athletes not doing so to work for the praise.
Reset calmly, always
No sarcasm. No scenes. Corrections are quiet and quick. Calm coaches build stable rooms. That steadiness makes standards stick.
Bottom line
Physical punishment buys temporary compliance but costs culture. Teach the importance of the standard. Break down barriers to achieving it. Tie consequences to the job and calmly implement it. When you couple this with athletes feeling good about doing whats good for themselves, you create better behaviors that stick.