Tournament Coaching Etiquette

[druer]

I suppose this is a rant, but I've waited the obligatory 24 hours since yesterday when I spent a miserable day at a tournament watching the sport I love become watered down with teams that should have been wearing soccer uniforms instead. But as long as these teams are there I wanted to pass along 3 key pieces of advice to them that might at least help. Please feel free to add your own.

Rule #1: Be at the park at or before the time you tell your team to be there.
Correlary #1: Especially when you have all of the equipment and you haven't bothered to teach your players to carry a ball in their bat bag and none of your assistant coaches understand the warmup pattern.
Correlary #2: Don't you dare show up 20 minutes before the game, rush your team through batting (5 balls each), no field practice and then berate them after the game for making "mental" errors.

Rule #2: Think through the fact that when you go to Podunk to play a tournament with 1000 of your closest softball friends, you should expect that the one Applebees in town might not be prepared to deal with you and your coaching staff during a "quick" lunch break.
Correlary #1: Ask for the check as soon as you've placed your order, and pay at that time.
Correlary #2: When in doubt, refer back to rule #1 and take PB&J sandwiches if you must, but don't ask parents to give up their weekend to drive to Podunk, pay $100's of dollars for a tournament and then leave their kids hanging until 2 minutes before the after your lunch break game.

Rule #3: Understand the simple fact that the circle they draw near your dugout is for your on-deck batter to get her timing down, and head into the game. She needs that time to build confidence and see the movement of the ball.
Correlary #1: If you choose to disregard that fact, then begin every sentence you share with your #1 or #2 hitter each inning with "What I'm about to share with you is much more valuable than you actually having success this at bat" and then commence your diatribe so you can hear yourself talk.
Correlary #2: Instruct your bookkeeper to disregard any at bats a player takes when you have forced a player to give you her focus and have not allowed her to utilize the time the sport has designed into the game via the "on-deck circle."

 

[Immortal1]

Rant excepted and understood. Have been in a few of those situations myself and learned the valuable lesson. Thank God I have not had to deal with ALL of them on the same weekend.

Would be interesting to hear your comments last nite but probably NOT appropriate for this forum

 

[druer]

@Immortal1 - Good guess, wouldn't want to soil my reputation. Let's just say that after spending 6 hours a week for months and months doing free batting lessons for girls I was ecstatic after all of the rainouts we've had in GA to finally see my players in action. To see team after team after team having all of the above problems (plus others) I was livid. I had to leave mid-day because I knew I would end up saying something nasty to coaches on teams I didn't even have players on. It was just that bad.

 

[Coach Tom]

Wow, I can't even imagine that, and I've seen some bad coaches over the years. Pretty sad to see this at TB.

 

[FPMark]

What age level was this? My guess is this coach has not been in TB very long.... or wont be very much longer.

 

[12ucoach]

I think rule #3 should be burned into the 3rd base coaches box everywhere. I can tell you how many times I've seen that happen.

 

[sluggers]

I do understand your points...but I see the problem more as the coach giving the team a convenient scapegoat.

The whole point of coaching is to teach kids how to play the game without the coach. The kids and parents should be taught how to get ready for a game. A well-coached team doesn't need the coach.

(1) COACH SHOWING UP ON TIME Things do happen. There are car wrecks. People do get sick. People do get lost. A coach should have a clear plan for warm-up without him. A well-coached team will be ready to play with or without the coach. The coach doesn't need to stretch, jog or do soft-toss. The players do. And, not bringing a softball to the game? You mean that 14 sets of parents didn't have 7 softballs between them?

(2) TOO LONG OF A LUNCH BREAK See above. Sure, I get your point. But, a well-coached team doesn't need the coach.

(3) BATTING CIRCLE It is your DD's responsibility to get ready for an at-bat. Do you really think that her standing in the batting circle for 10 seconds is going to get her ready to hit? Come on...most lead off batters never get a chance to take practice swings. They run in, grab a helmet, and are standing in the box. Are you going to accept them making an out because they didn't get any time in the circle?

I do not condone berating the kids. That doesn't make sense. But, for the kids to say, "We played poorly because the coach wasn't on time" doesn't make sense either.

 

[Lozza]

They've paid 1000s of dollars for a tournament and they don't have a canteen that takes lunch orders?

 

[Sparky Guy]

The whole point of coaching is to teach kids how to play the game without the coach. The kids and parents should be taught how to get ready for a game. A well-coached team doesn't need the coach.

Something that I've done with my teams over the years is to make each player a Captain for one day at a time on a rotating basis. Each girl on the team must take charge of the team for the day when it is her turn. She is responsible for getting the team going and leading them through warm-ups, handling the team equipment and other things at tournaments. This forces the shy kids to have to take charge. It helps keeps the dominant personalities in check along with building more of a team feeling.

The best part about it is I don't have to track whose turn it is. The kids take turns in uniform number order so they all know when it is their turn. Whether it's team practice, practice games, hitting, or a tournament day one of the girls is in charge. I found it makes the warm-up routine smoother and the couple of times I've been late the kids have started their warm-up on their own and go through it from start to finish.

 

[druer]

You mean that 14 sets of parents didn't have 7 softballs between them?

That's exactly what I meant with Correlary #1 in Rule #1. I asked players if they even had a ball in their bat bag. Not in their glove to keep the pocket formed, not in the bag period. Not in mom/dad's car. Nothing. That's the rub. These teams are rec teams playing out of their element. With coaches that aren't trained to actually help these young players learn how to think/work on their own. They do well in an all star tournament, then decide they'll take thousands of dollars of parent's money to play travel ball and they can't show up on time, can't get back from lunch until minutes before games.

The whole point of coaching is to teach kids how to play the game without the coach. The kids and parents should be taught how to get ready for a game. A well-coached team doesn't need the coach.

Exactly! And if they can't do that, then the least they need to do is keep their pride in check and not verbally abuse the players when their team gets spanked because they didn't get more than 5 soft tosses to hit, and no ground/fly balls to catch, let alone throw.

Clearly any coach on this forum is trying to learn and wouldn't do these things. That's why I started with "I'm ranting" and asked for other crazy things that coaches/parents have seen that should be in a "Coaching Common Sense 101" book that is given to all new coaches when they get into travel ball