Just took on a new coaching job. Help!

peachyvolgirl · Jun 8, 2015

So I've been playing fastpitch since I was 8. I'm 22 now. From the time I was 10, all I've done was pitch. Living in a rural town on the east coast, I played high school ball at a 2A school. For those of you who don't know what that is, here's an explanation: Public schools here play by school size. 1A is smallest and 6A is the largest. Generally speaking, the bigger the number, the tougher the competition. I played club ball for a decent team where I pitched and played second base a little. After my senior year of high school, I found my way to two different juco's for pitching. After I came home, I found a school to help out at. My first year I was there for the varsity pitching only. The second year, I was "promoted" to varsity assistant coach. After the season was over, I was presented the opportunity to take over the school's middle school softball. I took the job... But to be honest, I'm a little worried. I know the game backwards and forwards as a player, but it feels totally different as a coach. Any tips on how to transition from player to coach? Last year, I was extremely timid. I second guessed myself a lot because I only played at the juco level, and to be honest, I didn't play a whole lot. I almost don't feel qualified. I don't want to go into a season feeling this way. It seems like I struggle with taking charge and figuring out a practice plan. I know several pitching drills, but not so many for IF/OF. Please, guys. I want to be good at this! Any and all advice would be great!

Please, no bashing! I'm trying.

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GunnerShotgun · Jun 8, 2015

As a middle school coach I would do the following.

1. Only work on things that you will actually do during the game. Base running, cut/relays, bunting, catching pop flies.

2. You will get the least amount of return working on the following: Hitting, pitching, fielding ground balls, and the catching position.

Basically anything that requires a foundation (see #2) you will not have enough time to implement and your time would bet better spent on being really good at things in #1.

You need to figure out where to the maximum ROI (Return on Investment) with your time as you are limited to just a couple of months with the girls. You will either be lucky to get a pitcher and catcher every year or you won't.

That's what I would do...

peachyvolgirl · Jun 8, 2015

Thanks! That makes sense. My middle school assistant happens to be the varsity head coach as well. Luckily I'll be able to bring my middle school girls in for some work outs with our older girls. Maybe that will help, too.

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canyonjoe · Jun 8, 2015

You can find thousands of drills that help you improve, but what you need to determine is what you want your coaching philosophy to be an stick with it for
the season.

Do you want to micro manage every detail or let your assistants handle it. When establishing team rules are you willing to stick by them even if it leads to a
loss. Are you willing to play more players at the possible expense of losing a game,etc.

Realize that you will make some mistakes and learn from them but don't make excuses.

Finally, have a practice plan and at least stick to the order of things. Don't do the same thing every practice except maybe the same warmup drill. Keep it fun and
let the kids enjoy the experience. Don't measure wins and losses, but improvement. Have someone videotape the first game, one during the season and one during the
end of the season and see if you can notice the difference.

klamath632 · Jun 8, 2015

The very best thing you can do is to force yourself to write that practice plan. Start with the big things. How much time do you want to spend fielding? throwing? hitting? situations? Map those out. Then figure out individual drills that will help in each area and slot those into five or ten minute periods.

If you know that at 4:00 you are supposed to be doing tee work, 4:30 fielding fundamentals, 5:00 game situations, it's very easy to keep practice on track and the girls hustling around accomplishing things. If you walk into practice winging it, your girls will end up winging it, and if they learn anything it will be entirely by accident.

Softball is a game of monotonous repetition of fundamental skills. Your girls will get better if you drill them relentlessly. You need to keep doing research to find new drills to keep things fresh for them. (Check YouTube. USA Softball has lots of videos of drills from their practices.) Once the movements are burned into their muscles, they can spend more time thinking about the game and understanding situations. If they are still spending all their time remembering which foot to drop back first for a popup over their heads, they won't have time to remember to look back that runner at third base before getting the out at first.

Always be supportive of the girls. The only thing you can control is the words that come out of your mouth. Are they positive or are they poison? (And yes, I know everyone here knows those aren't my words.) Cheer them on when they make good plays, cheer them up when they make errors, and be sure to correct their mental mistakes immediately-- talk to them when they come in from defense and review each play. Suggest improvements, and get them ready to hit.

You've been a softball learner all your life. Now you're the one teaching. Probably nobody has ever taught you how to teach. At 22, you haven't got the experience of raising a child, so it's going to take some time. Talk to people you respect, talk to your parents. Think back to when you babysat kids. Use all of that knowledge now and do the best you can. All coaches started where you are right now, and the good ones worked hard behind the scenes so that nobody else knew just how scared they were.

peachyvolgirl · Jun 8, 2015

canyonjoe said:
You can find thousands of drills that help you improve, but what you need to determine is what you want your coaching philosophy to be an stick with it for
the season.

Do you want to micro manage every detail or let your assistants handle it. When establishing team rules are you willing to stick by them even if it leads to a
loss. Are you willing to play more players at the possible expense of losing a game,etc.

Realize that you will make some mistakes and learn from them but don't make excuses.

Thank you! Going to work on that philosophy now. I really want these girls to understand the fundamentals. I want them to be smart about the game. I never had someone teach me the mental aspects - only the physical. I'm okay with taking a few losses so long as they learn from their mistakes. I've definitely learned from my rookie mistakes in coaching last year. I can only hope that this year, I'll be better.

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peachyvolgirl · Jun 8, 2015

klamath632 said:
The very best thing you can do is to force yourself to write that practice plan. Start with the big things. How much time do you want to spend fielding? throwing? hitting? situations? Map those out. Then figure out individual drills that will help in each area and slot those into five or ten minute periods.

If you know that at 4:00 you are supposed to be doing tee work, 4:30 fielding fundamentals, 5:00 game situations, it's very easy to keep practice on track and the girls hustling around accomplishing things. If you walk into practice winging it, your girls will end up winging it, and if they learn anything it will be entirely by accident.

Softball is a game of monotonous repetition of fundamental skills. Your girls will get better if you drill them relentlessly. You need to keep doing research to find new drills to keep things fresh for them. (Check YouTube. USA Softball has lots of videos of drills from their practices.) Once the movements are burned into their muscles, they can spend more time thinking about the game and understanding situations. If they are still spending all their time remembering which foot to drop back first for a popup over their heads, they won't have time to remember to look back that runner at third base before getting the out at first.

Always be supportive of the girls. The only thing you can control is the words that come out of your mouth. Are they positive or are they poison? (And yes, I know everyone here knows those aren't my words.) Cheer them on when they make good plays, cheer them up when they make errors, and be sure to correct their mental mistakes immediately-- talk to them when they come in from defense and review each play. Suggest improvements, and get them ready to hit.

You've been a softball learner all your life. Now you're the one teaching. Probably nobody has ever taught you how to teach. At 22, you haven't got the experience of raising a child, so it's going to take some time. Talk to people you respect, talk to your parents. Think back to when you babysat kids. Use all of that knowledge now and do the best you can. All coaches started where you are right now, and the good ones worked hard behind the scenes so that nobody else knew just how scared they were.

I've tried the practice plan before. I mapped out times as you suggested. The only problem is I ran out of time. I never like to end a drill with someone doing it incorrectly, so I went over time. Is it okay to quit the drill and move on?

I'm pretty good at staying positive. My head coach told me last year it's okay to get on their butts, and towards the end of the year, I finally broke out of my shell. I stopped letting the little things go unnoticed and it seemed to pay off in big games. I finally found the happy medium and I think I'll pick up where I left off.

Lastly, I appreciate the last paragraph the most. That put things in perspective for me. It's not that I'm stupid or incompetent. I've just got to learn the other end of the spectrum. Starting to think I've got this...

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canyonjoe · Jun 8, 2015

You are going to do fine. The mental side of the game is huge. I found out that I have 14U TB players that didn't understand tagging
up until recently. If you have time chalk talks work well or for a rainy day. I imagine at the middle school level some kids have barely
played.

peachyvolgirl · Jun 8, 2015

canyonjoe said:
You are going to do fine. The mental side of the game is huge. I found out that I have 14U TB players that didn't understand tagging
up until recently. If you have time chalk talks work well or for a rainy day. I imagine at the middle school level some kids have barely
played.

Yep... Same here. We have some high school kids who don't understand tagging. Could be because they didn't have anybody at the middle school level teaching them the foundation. Softball here on the east coast is just so far behind in the younger level it's sad. Truth be told, I didn't understand a lot of the mental parts of the game until I played 18U. Nobody ever took the time to teach us the mental part because they had to compensate for the physical stuff. Make sense?

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canyonjoe · Jun 8, 2015

peachyvolgirl said:
Yep... Same here. We have some high school kids who don't understand tagging. Could be because they didn't have anybody at the middle school level teaching them the foundation. Softball here on the east coast is just so far behind in the younger level it's sad. Truth be told, I didn't understand a lot of the mental parts of the game until I played 18U. Nobody ever took the time to teach us the mental part because they had to compensate for the physical stuff. Make sense?

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We had a coach this week at our game tell the kid who was on second on a grounder to SS that next time she should run over the kid. I told him you would be out for interference and he looked at me like I was nuts. Early on in practice have a scrimmage or 2 where you just have a coach pitch they put a lot of balls in play and you will
see how few kids really know how to play.

Just took on a new coaching job. Help!

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