Coach the coaches

BuckeyeGuy said:

I don't think the analogy fits at all, but I agree with the sentiment. You should, however, understand the game to a certain extent, yes?

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Totally agree. After 15 years of managing, coaching, and umpiring, I think there are a couple of simplistic fundamentals for new fastpitch coaches (regardless of gender) to absorb:

(1) it's not baseball - yes it's throwing, fielding, and catching...but JMHO - I know there are always exceptions - I think coaches do a disservice to the girls teaching an uppercut baseball swing and expecting it to work exactly the same with fastpitch softball...and the rules of the game are not the same in many important areas
(2) it's different coaching girls (took me 2 years to figure this one out...)

We have a mandatory 3 hour session where we will discuss things like practice organization, etc. but also bring in professional coaches to do topics like hitting basics or catching or baserunning. Additionally, we will hire coaches to do pitching, hitting and catching clinics and encourage rec coaches to do it.

Atlanta has a great clinic each January. For less than $200 you get two very long days of instruction from college coaches from around the country including Erikson, Weekly's , Mike White, Tschida and others focusing on their specialties. Its excellent for all level coaches.

So, just reached out to my local TB commish proposing that he make his coaches available for a coach the coaches clinic for rec coaches.

Me being me, I expect everyone to see the wisdom of the things I think of. In case this guy is blind to my stunning insight, I will host the clinic myself. Even if he does bow to my logic, I intend to be the organizer and agenda setter. So, here is a preliminary, off the top of my head agenda. Keep in mind that I'm thinking all day, not 1 or 2 hours:

How to coach young girls who may or may not be driven to be the best softball player ever.
Situational game play (or: How incredibly different FP from baseball)
Basic catching (as in playing catch)
Basic throwing (or: How to stop shot put throwers)
Basic infielding (this isn't baseball, you don't have all day to make that throw)
Basic outfielding (DROP STEP!!!)
Hitting and bunting (maybe some basic slap info?)
Pitching
Catching

For the mechanics, I see a presentation of good and bad examples. From that, how to identify problems and drills to correct them. From my experience, rec coaches really do not know what they are looking at when they watch a player throw or catch or pitch or swing. I want to give them tools to be able to watch a girl throw, see the drop elbow (or whatever), and then know how to fix it.

Obviously, I'd give credit where it's due and offer contact info for Kobata and Wasserman and Hillhouse and NECC and whomever I took the ideas from (including DFP) if I end up teaching this myself.

I'm brainstorming here. Not looking for criticisms just yet, only more ideas. I'll let you know when I want critiques on what to cut, or what may be beyond the scope. Right now consider that nothing is too crazy to try.

Go!

Don't do this without a good session on how to run efficient and organized practices. Rec coaches have very limited practice time and they can't afford to waste it.

If your coaches don't run effective practices all the knowledge that you are conveying will be completely lost.

One other thing. Sliding! Many Rec coaches don't teach it at all. The girls then get to 12U and don't know how to do it. At that point many of them are pretty big and they are afraid. Teach it young, give the coaches a construct to teach it. In talking to our coaches, the main reason they don't teach sliding is that they don't know how and are worried about giving bad advice that might lead to injury.

Out in Left Field said:

There is NO separate philosophy for coaching girls and boys, or how would that work there?

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You either don't understand the concept of brainstorming, or you fail at reading, or both:

BuckeyeGuy said:

I'm brainstorming here. Not looking for criticisms just yet, only more ideas. I'll let you know when I want critiques on what to cut, or what may be beyond the scope. Right now consider that nothing is too crazy to try.
Go!

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And while you may be very knowedgable, your approach to people sucks. In turn, this makes people automatically dismiss what you say. You probably tell yourself that they're jealous or threatened, but in reality we're just annoyed with yet another internet troll.

Out in Left Field said:

We have coed tennis in high school and they are thinking of making more inter-HS teams that are co-ed. There is NO separate philosophy for coaching girls and boys, or how would that work there? It is simply understanding that how you were taught (by parents perhaps) or what you see, let's say in college by Coach Knight, or on TV that is sensationalized, is not what coaching is.

From hanging around baseball, basketball, and ice hockey, some of the thoughts here about never playing or not knowing the game would never fly, so I love the self-justification. There just was not enough former players to coach in softball, but that is changing as more are stepping up.

I am off the local boys basketball league, since I played when I was 12, and I have watched almost every mens home game for my alma mater since I left there, I am a junkie for basketball drill videos, plus my kids played, so I think I think I am the one....

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If you are going to troll you have to keep your lines straight. Otherwise they just get tangled, knotted up and sink into the muck.

Axe said:

Don't do this without a good session on how to run efficient and organized practices. Rec coaches have very limited practice time and they can't afford to waste it.

If your coaches don't run effective practices all the knowledge that you are conveying will be completely lost.

One other thing. Sliding! Many Rec coaches don't teach it at all. The girls then get to 12U and don't know how to do it. At that point many of them are pretty big and they are afraid. Teach it young, give the coaches a construct to teach it. In talking to our coaches, the main reason they don't teach sliding is that they don't know how and are worried about giving bad advice that might lead to injury.

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Noted! And thanks!

This is a huge undertaking BG.... glad your trying.

One thing I didn't note, are you the P&R Director for youth Softball? If so great, if not then the first step is to get his/her backing. If that doesn't happen then expect a low turnout from the Coaches. I know we have tried to reach out to the P&R Department to get something going like you describe but don't have the backing of the Director so it was basically a waste of time.

Even if the TB Commish isn't on board, you can reach out to specific coaches that have successful teams. Many will volunteer to help.

My thoughts:
1. If the intent is to teach rec ball coaches and increase their skills be sure there is no "arrogance" associated with the outreach.. nothing will destroy any willingness to learn more quickly than a cocky rear teacher that makes you feel inferior. I see many posts on this forum that generalize rec ball coaches as a bunch of clueless idiots who wouldnt know a softball from a baseball. Ensure whom ever is reaching out doesnt have this type of attitude.
2. Fully agree coaches should be coached be it from outside organizations or from within. Seen too many dads with good intentions fail miserably either because they dint know enough and were too shy to ask or thought they knew too much and were too arrogant to ask

and Ill get on my soap box:
1. Every coach that uses the "I played XYZ years in ABC college/school etc" as a way to justify their skills is usually masking their own insecurity or letting their unfounded arrogance come through. Having been a player is NOT a requirement to be a good coach. Some of the absolute worse coaches Ive had to deal with where excellent players. Coaching is a vastly different skill set than playing..about all that being a player does is give the coach a head start on understanding the game but nothing prevents a non-player from achieving the same understanding or insight - yes they may have to work at it a little harder specially when it comes to the nuances and it may take time but their ability to handle and deal with people will play a much bigger role than how far they could throw in HS or what their batting average was... to me using "was a player" is just a BS reason for some coaches to charge more for their coaching fees.. specially when the "playing time" was in little league or even boonies HS in the middle of nowhere town...

CoachKevin said:

This is a huge undertaking BG.... glad your trying.

One thing I didn't note, are you the P&R Director for youth Softball? If so great, if not then the first step is to get his/her backing. If that doesn't happen then expect a low turnout from the Coaches. I know we have tried to reach out to the P&R Department to get something going like you describe but don't have the backing of the Director so it was basically a waste of time.

Even if the TB Commish isn't on board, you can reach out to specific coaches that have successful teams. Many will volunteer to help.

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No, not the director. Our league is tied to the school district, and our rec commish has total control of the league(I think?). If he decrees that the clinic is mandatory, it will be. I am meeting with him later this month, so I'll know a lot more then. Thanks for the input!