Are you coaching the team or individuals?

[Cannonball]

I must be overthinking this. It is both. You coach a team but you also have to work on position practice and instruction. You have to split your time and efforts between those who need more and those who need less coaching. You have to bring them together in an overall practice for the good of the team. If you don't challenge the better players, they will leave so you have to play a tough schedule but if you play too tough of a schedule, you will run off the lesser players. Finding the best mix is hard but doable.

 

[RichK]

I must be overthinking this. It is both. You coach a team but you also have to work on position practice and instruction. You have to split your time and efforts between those who need more and those who need less coaching. You have to bring them together in an overall practice for the good of the team. If you don't challenge the better players, they will leave so you have to play a tough schedule but if you play too tough of a schedule, you will run off the lesser players. Finding the best mix is hard but doable.

This. There are skills to learn. And a game to be played. Those things are complementary but not interchangeable. You need to develop one and put them to work in the other, hopefully at the highest level of challenge and competition possible.

 

[GOBulls!]

A team is made up of individuals with different skill levels molded into a winning team. The challenge comes in when the "stars" of the team start to assign certain privileges to them self and do not give 100% effort on certain drills, coming late to practice etc, resulting in the team splitting into 2 groups. Challenge comes in do you bench the stars and take the loss maybe to show the team everyone is treated the same or do you leave it and take the win?

 

[Lance Steckler]

you address the late arrivals on game day, put them at bottom of batting order and and tell them that they are there because they are late and they are hurting themselves and the team.

lack of effort? That's an immediate benching, even middle of inning. You don't want to try? There's other girls on this roster that do. Admittedly, I have a very short fuse on lack of effort or hustle.

the late arrivals for practice? barring legit reasons or pre notification issues, they get some extra work to do. Trust me, if they arrive late for HS or College, the penalties are not pleasant.

 

[Anthony Vertuccio]

Grass is always greener right? Sometime its not the players but the parents. If you buy into the process and trust the coach, then everyone should improve. Depends om comittment also. Either in 100% or out 100%....no inbetween. No matter the age

 

[CoachJD]

I've never personally met a coach who didn't make this exact statement. I can also count on one hand the number of coaches I've seen actually follow through with it.

I'd rather coach the team of kids I can develop, although it's nice if you have some good athletes and at least a couple kids who have a good sense for the game to be team leaders.

I'd rather manage a game with the team of All-Stars.