What is YOUR Biggest Coaching Challenge?

Bgecoach: Tom at www.GetSoftballConfidence.com has a ton of tips about that mental part of the game. He talks about actual physical and mental things players can do to perform better in the box. (Check out the blog for some free video clips)

For those that mentioned parents paying attention at practice-you're so right! I'm working on a contribution to Marc's newsletter which includes that very issue.

My husband actually does not like to watch softball, but if I'm coaching or playing or our daughters are playing, he's there more than 90% of the time. It seems the older the kids get, the less the parents pay attention.

thanks stacie, i appreciate the link...

PARENTS AND POLITICS!!!
I coach at the high school level and have had more problems with pushy parents and the political side of sports than I care to remember. There are so many parents out there who second guess every decision you make. I've had parents come to my home after a game (that we lost by 1 in 13 innings!) and berate me for the lack of playing time that their daughter was getting. One parent came up to me on the field after a game (that we just WON!) to tell me I didn't know what I was doing and that she didn't understand why her daughter wasn't pitching enough. We ended up with the best record in school history, and the school's first conference title ever! On top of that our number one pitcher was first team all-conference. Despite that, and the fact that we won our summer league, I still have detractors! I've come to the realization that you can never make everyone happy, but if the players fall in love with the game, are happy and having a good time while learning THIS GREAT GAME, then I'm doing what I set out to do. I think that many of you can relate to this. We coach because we love the game and we love to teach it the right way. We don't do it for money or fame, we do it because we LOVE IT! So despite everything that we all go through from disgruntled parents to lack of support from administrators, we will carry on because of that passion for the game.

My biggest coaching challenge at 8U is trying to maintain the balance between pushing the girls too much (e.g. teaching fundamentals, proper mechanics, discipline, hard work, etc) vs. making it fun and enjoyable. You can have both but it is a difficult to maintain and I'm sure my coaches and I go to both ends of the spectrum during different times in the season. When the girls improve significantly during the season and sign-up for the following season, I know I probably have done my job.

mksoftball759 - I would have to agree will Hal about the lack of pitching practice for your DD at 11. If you are concerned about burnout, cut back on the number of practices but make each one more meaningful, say 45 minutes each or more. With my 7YO, we have only just warmed up and done a few drills after 15 minutes!

My biggest coaching challenge has been, and probably always will be, to swallow the natural male ego and remember that it's about the girls and the process to make them the best they can be. I learned very early in my daughter's pitching career that I had done everything I could for her with my limited knowledge, so I swallowed that bucketdad ego and found a professional coach for her to learn from. And from a pure knowledge standpoint, the best coaching decision I made strictly for ME was to become a certified ASA umpire.

bgecoach said:

our biggest challange this season (and seasons past) is getting the girls to be aggressive at the plate. they have some kind of fear of striking out that keeps them from committing fully to their swing. ironically the this fear of striking out causes them to actually strike out more...

i would love to hear what you all do to make your hitters more aggressive. we told our girls repeatedly that they had the okay to swing the bat and we would never say anything about striking out as long as they swung aggressively. still, half swings and looking at strikes. my team is 18u and i told them at the last tournament that they were running out of chances to swing the bat, the season's almost over.

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I've battled this as well. What I've found to be effective is going overboard positively reinforcing the actions you want to see. So when a kid strikes out swinging at a good pitch "You got your cuts, you've got her timing now, it will pay off next time your up" when they strike out swinging at a bad pitch. "That's all right, that's what we talked about, I've asked you to be more aggresive and swing at more pitches." Nothing backslides faster than doing the opposite, if you criticize a kid for swinging at a bad pitch when the key thing your working on is aggression at the plate your sending mixed signals and the default for the kid is that it's less harsh to fail when not trying (i.e. not swinging) than to fail when trying. Once you get a kid as agressive as they need to be THEN you can start working on their pitch selection.

My biggest battle is getting kids to the next level of self confidence. We've got great players, a great team I have kids batting .400+ against the top pitching at their age and I really think they are leaving something on the table because when they do have an at bat with a less than ideal outcome they dwell on it too much rather than accepting that this is a game that is all about dealing with failure. Same thing with defense, no one's perfect, one error/hit should not lead to more because it cracks you self image of being a perfect fielder/pitcher/catcher.

Im with you all on aggressive hitting. it seems the more they dont want to strike out, the more they will stand & watch strike 3 blow right by. I have talked, pleaded, & had the team run for 1 batters KOL till Im blue in the face & some of them (MY DD INCLUDED) still watch too many called strike 3's

JC heir said:

Im with you all on aggressive hitting. it seems the more they dont want to strike out, the more they will stand & watch strike 3 blow right by. I have talked, pleaded, & had the team run for 1 batters KOL till Im blue in the face & some of them (MY DD INCLUDED) still watch too many called strike 3's

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JC

What is your strike zone? Sounds like a silly question or that is the way I intended it to sound. I have a super modified Schutt fold up tee that I morphed out with decals of softballs across the front edge of home plate and hard balls to show them what a legal strike is supposed to look like verses what they can actually hit provided they are measured off the plate correctly and stride forward. I also added additional tee positions because they have no tee position for hitting up the middle or in the black. I also added gray duct tape in the 5 inch area outside of the plate and they practice hitting in that zone off the tee. My explanation is it is the hitters job to determine what they can hit not the umpires. I ask the hitters whose job is it to call balls and strikes and they usually say the umpires and I say would you turn around while the pitch is coming in and ask for permission if it will be a ball or a strike? Of course not! You determine what you can hit and the only thing we want the umpire to do is call safe or out! You hit what you think you can and never, never look at the umpire after a called third strike...it was your decision and you blew it as we taught you how to hit it. We soft toss in the 5 to 8 inch area off the plate and feel it is totally acceptable to hit those pitches. I also use the Schutt Shorty tees which are 14 inches high and below the knee cap.

A final thought for coaches and parents, "Baseball and softball is a game played by kids, however it is orchestrated and run by adults and adults do not like to loose to kids or other adults!"

Some adults will go out of their way to exploit your kids to win, some go too far in my opinion!

Howard

[ I ask the hitters whose job is it to call balls and strikes and they usually say the umpires and I say would you turn around while the pitch is coming in and ask for permission if it will be a ball or a strike? Of course not! You determine what you can hit and the only thing we want the umpire to do is call safe or out! You hit what you think you can and never, never look at the umpire after a called third strike...it was your decision and you blew it as we taught you how to hit it. We soft toss in the 5 to 8 inch area off the plate and feel it is totally acceptable to hit those pitches. I also use the Schutt Shorty tees which are 14 inches high and below the knee cap.

A final thought for coaches and parents, "Baseball and softball is a game played by kids, however it is orchestrated and run by adults and adults do not like to loose to kids or other adults!"

Some adults will go out of their way to exploit your kids to win, some go too far in my opinion!

Howard[/QUOTE]

Very good teaching.

Howard, Point well taken. I look foreward to talking to you when you come to New Castle with CB