Former Los Altos baseball player sues coach after being benched...

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

May 17, 2012
2,804
113
I would argue most people wouldn't know a good softball coach if they saw one. Most parents equate winning to being a good coach. While that is a criteria it shouldn't' be THE criteria.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
I would argue most people wouldn't know a good softball coach if they saw one. Most parents equate winning to being a good coach. While that is a criteria it shouldn't' be THE criteria.

I think the hardest thing at these ages is balancing coaching with instruction. Most of the girls simply do not have all the tools or fundamentals down. You have to balance how much time to you spend building skills in girls so they can fill a need versus simply picking the player with the best skills at the positions you feel are most important and simply going down the pecking order, which usually ends up with you getting burned for doubles that get buy OFs because you just knew the infield was more important.

In HS given the limited amount of time in the season you simply don't have much time to instruct and are just stuck coaching what you have and just hoping it works out.

Now when you have a travel team you should be able to do some instruction and guide girls on what they should be working on all year to make them better so they fill needs the team has unlike some just keep recruiting until you get what you want.

IMO coaching needs to be separated from instructing completely and that should be the job of your assistants...best team I ever coached we had a coach responsible for instructing OF and one for IF and they both knew what they were doing, which left me free to think about lineups, pitching and player rotations, in game strategy, etc. instead of yelling at Suzie for stepping in on a fly ball or Jane for not getting her glove down on a grounder. We all worked on hitting and I could trust them which was a huge relief and then I worked with pitchers and catchers.

I would be interested to hear what others think....maybe derailing the thread a little could start a new one if needed...coaching versus instructing
 
Last edited:
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
It's only a matter of time before one of these cases wins. The vast majority of coaches who coach HS are in it for the right reason and do the best they can. Most are
generally fair and while they might not be great coaches treat the kids well. With all the HS's out there there are bound to play god with young kids futures and when
someone can gather proof it will become an issue. It may start with a football coach who hides the extent of an injury to try and win a sectional game. It may be the coach
who tells a kid if he doesn't run track he will get cut from his basketball team. It may be someone proving that a kid made a team because the parents donated more than some
other kid.

There are the Bud Kilmers (Varsity Blues) out there and if they get in trouble they deserve it. The problem is that if these become common place we'll have good coaches having to defend themselves against stupid allegations and will force them to not do it.

You can argue that life isn't fair and I'll agree when it comes to playing time, but if I were on a jury and they proved that coach lied to a kid about an injury causing a serious injury I would have a hard time having any sympathy for that coach.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
IMO coaching needs to be separated from instructing completely and that should be the job of your assistants...best team I ever coached we had a coach responsible for instructing OF and one for IF and they both knew what they were doing, which left me free to think about lineups, pitching and player rotations, in game strategy, etc. instead of yelling at Suzie for stepping in on a fly ball or Jane for not getting her glove down on a grounder. We all worked on hitting and I could trust them which was a huge relief and then I worked with pitchers and catchers.

I would be interested to hear what others think....maybe derailing the thread a little could start a new one if needed...coaching versus instructing

I can understand your thought process with this, but I think it depends on a number of factors. When I coached rec ball, I was very heavily focused on instruction. I did very little "coaching" based on your definition. As we started moving up in age and talent level, instruction started to decrease while coaching began to increase. Even at 18u, we still are VERY focused on instruction at our practices, but there is very little need to do it during games. During games, we do a lot more coaching. So it's the same coaches that wear different hats. We just happen to wear those hats at different times.
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
In HS given the limited amount of time in the season you simply don't have much time to instruct and are just stuck coaching what you have and just hoping it works out.

HS coaches have the players 6 days a week during the season. There is time for instruction. It's up to the coach to know how to use the time wisely.
 
Aug 12, 2014
644
43
IMO coaching needs to be separated from instructing completely and that should be the job of your assistants...best team I ever coached we had a coach responsible for instructing OF and one for IF and they both knew what they were doing, which left me free to think about lineups, pitching and player rotations, in game strategy, etc. instead of yelling at Suzie for stepping in on a fly ball or Jane for not getting her glove down on a grounder. We all worked on hitting and I could trust them which was a huge relief and then I worked with pitchers and catchers.

I would be interested to hear what others think....maybe derailing the thread a little could start a new one if needed...coaching versus instructing

What you call "coaching", I've always called "managing", but I agree with your point. These are markedly different skills. As the girls got older, I realized that I'm not able to teach higher level skills. I'm good with teaching the basics to younger/newer players, but after a point, I don't have the eye to pick up the finer points of hitting or throwing. But I'm very good (at least IMO :) ) at planning practices, setting lineups, and the other managing stuff.
 
Aug 12, 2014
644
43
HS coaches have the players 6 days a week during the season. There is time for instruction. It's up to the coach to know how to use the time wisely.

Yup. My DD is a freshman playing JV this fall. There are 12 girls - DD and three others have experience but aren't varsity level, two played for their middle school teams but otherwise did not play even rec ball, and the other six have never played (two of them didn't even have gloves at the first practice). Practice started the 14th and their first game is the 31st. The season runs through Oct 4. They have 25 practices scheduled (they want the JV players to go to the varsity games), so 50 hours worth of instruction time. We'll see what they can do with it. The varsity team is really good, so you figure the coaches know what they are doing - I don't think they were just lucky to have a bunch of stud hitters show up at the school.
 
May 7, 2008
8,506
48
Tucson
I know of a HS coach that for sure held grudges and played his favorites. He won, so it was overlooked. But, he was a bully, pure and simple.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,831
Messages
679,484
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top