Hitting Coach

I am a high school coach. One of my players has their father as their hitting coach. Several times before games he has come to our cages and worked with his daughter on hitting before the game. As a coach, I believe practice time and pre-game time are "mine". I think it's great dad is involved with with his daughter, but if he needs to coach her up, he needs to do this on his time, not mine. I wouldn't mind if this was done before/after practice or before we meet as a team on game day. Am I wrong thinking this way?

Several times before games he has come to our cages and worked with his daughter on hitting before the game.

Click to expand...

Dad is 'only' doing what you 'allow' him to do......
Personally I wouldn't dare do this with My DD's high school team. I speak to my DD the night before a game about some hitting points.

Simple solution, really. Just announce that parents are not allowed contact with their DDs once they arrive at practice/games and until the are released. If this rule is observed being broken, DD sits.

This works well.

Your Team, your rules! And you are allowed to change the rules too.

Would you care if dad was actually not related to her but a paid hitting coach? I'm betting you'd feel the same way, and you would have no issues telling paid coach that it was game time and that she would go to him later.

I agree with these comments you need to either go with an all over statement to all parents or talk to the dad on the side. I am the same way with my travel ball teams parents unless I directly ask you to come help then there job is to sit and cheer the team on. I have been on the other side as well and all it took was the coach asking me to back down during his time I apologized back off and cheered the team on.

SCflash said:

I am a high school coach. One of my players has their father as their hitting coach. Several times before games he has come to our cages and worked with his daughter on hitting before the game. As a coach, I believe practice time and pre-game time are "mine". I think it's great dad is involved with with his daughter, but if he needs to coach her up, he needs to do this on his time, not mine. I wouldn't mind if this was done before/after practice or before we meet as a team on game day. Am I wrong thinking this way?

Click to expand...

No offense...but that wouldn't happen on my 8U rec team much less my 12U TB team...

I'll paraphrase what I am interpreting what others have said...set boundaries and expectations...

You're the leader....be one...CP

You probably need to talk to this parent directly and then issue a blanket statement to the entire team about when it is appropriate for outside coaches to be involved with the players. My DS's baseball coach was outstanding about setting the boundaries very clearly before the season began. We had a meeting every summer before the tryouts for all interested parents. It was very clearly outlined what would be expected of all the kids in the program from 7th grade to 12th grade. This included practice time, game time, monetary expectations for fund raising, uniform requirements, what they wore while they traveled together, how they behaved, discipline issues, everything. Then he would drop the bomb on all of the smothering parents that were new to the program and had been used to running their superstars "career" to that point. He would tell everyone that during practice time, travel time, and game time, including an hour before games and until they left the field house after the game, they were his responsibility. The parents were not to approach the dugout.

They were not to bring their precious child a gatorade, water was provided for all players.

They were not to offer coaching tips to their little darlings, coaches were there for that.

They were not to approach coaches about playing time or position assignments. If they wanted to discuss those issues then they could schedule an appointment and do it privately with the coaches, but the player had better have had the conversation with the coaches first or the parents would likely not like the way the conversation went.

If any of the rules were violated for any of the players then that player would immediately be pulled from that game and sat for the remainder of that game. If the coach felt it was too near the end of that game then they would sit for the next game as well. He told all of the parents that if they had an issue with it then they should attempt to walk a gatorade to one of the kids playing football at the next varsity football game or approach one of the coaches during the 2nd half of the next varsity basketball game and see how well it went. This was his team and his rules. The players did not have to play for him if they did not want to.

I loved that coach.

quandofloo said:

You probably need to talk to this parent directly and then issue a blanket statement to the entire team about when it is appropriate for outside coaches to be involved with the players. My DS's baseball coach was outstanding about setting the boundaries very clearly before the season began. We had a meeting every summer before the tryouts for all interested parents. It was very clearly outlined what would be expected of all the kids in the program from 7th grade to 12th grade. This included practice time, game time, monetary expectations for fund raising, uniform requirements, what they wore while they traveled together, how they behaved, discipline issues, everything. Then he would drop the bomb on all of the smothering parents that were new to the program and had been used to running their superstars "career" to that point. He would tell everyone that during practice time, travel time, and game time, including an hour before games and until they left the field house after the game, they were his responsibility. The parents were not to approach the dugout.

They were not to bring their precious child a gatorade, water was provided for all players.

They were not to offer coaching tips to their little darlings, coaches were there for that.

They were not to approach coaches about playing time or position assignments. If they wanted to discuss those issues then they could schedule an appointment and do it privately with the coaches, but the player had better have had the conversation with the coaches first or the parents would likely not like the way the conversation went.

If any of the rules were violated for any of the players then that player would immediately be pulled from that game and sat for the remainder of that game. If the coach felt it was too near the end of that game then they would sit for the next game as well. He told all of the parents that if they had an issue with it then they should attempt to walk a gatorade to one of the kids playing football at the next varsity football game or approach one of the coaches during the 2nd half of the next varsity basketball game and see how well it went. This was his team and his rules. The players did not have to play for him if they did not want to.

I loved that coach.

Click to expand...

I agree with this, and with most of the other posts that were made with one caveat. I will get DD a drink when she needs one. She simply motions to me with an empty bottle and I sit a full one on the ground outside the dugout. Now if her team provided drinks, I would be good with that. Unfortunately her team does not...