Coach Experience

[MNDad]

I’ve got a little different perspective on this. Back in 10U & 12U I served on the board of our local rec program. This is where I first started hearing how former players didn’t always make good coaches. The statement itself is true of course, but in practice it was just an excuse to discriminate against women.

We had plenty of Mom’s who were willing and wanted to coach. The few times they were accepted it was as assistants or coaching the B teams while Dad’s coached A. It wasn’t just our program, it’s that way everywhere. In rec programs Dads are often head coaches, Mom’s are assistants or in charge of snacks. When it gets to a high level, yeah, there’s plenty of criteria to consider along with former playing experience. When it’s a program taking whatever help they can get and roles are decided on gender we have a problem.

 

[let it be fun]

I think that former players make the best coaches. However, they need to be taught how to coach. I agree with several others who have discussed learning and growing into the job. I see a lot of organizations that bring on the college players and pair them up with experienced head coaches as assistants. I think this is the way to do it. Let the experienced coach deal with unhappy parents, etc... and let the college players coach. From what I have seen, the college players can put together some really good practice plans and are able to relate to and motivate the players in a way that older adults can't. As far as college players or former college players having natural talent and being unable to teach average athletes how to play I haven't seen it that much. I see more of the players being amazed at how much work the college players are willing to put into mastering their craft and fine-tuning little things. When I was coaching a 14U team there were some college players in the cage one time before we were going to do some hitting work so we watched them for about 40 minutes. They were home on Christmas break and working with a local hitting coach who we worked with as well. The hitting coach was on them the whole time and those college players only hit off the tee for their whole session. Our little girls had been complaining about how this hitting coach made them do way too much tee work but after watching those college players working it gave them a good idea of the importance of hard work and attention to detail. College players who have/had good college coaching bring work ethic and attention to detail with them bundled with "legitimacy" in the eyes of a teenager.

 

[Rambler34]

I am pretty sure Nick Saban was never a great football player...neither was Bill Belichick!

You are so right. A great teacher and leader do not have to be the best athletes. A lot of times the best coach was a 3rd string qb who learned the game. Mike Leach and Chad Morris never played a down of football in college and they have had pretty good careers so far.

 

[BuckeyeBW]

My opinion. Great players do not automatically equal good coaches. My daughters head coach played D-1 baseball and really teaches them a lot of good fundamentals especially in the field, he knows enough to be dangerous to work with them on other things but isn't great at them. He really coaches them well in mental aspects. My DD hitting and pitching coach played Pac10 and had an illustrious career, and played some pro ball, she has also coached at the D1 level. She is amazing and not only does she work my daughter hard, my daughter really enjoys her. I feel she really helps prepare her. My DD previous coaches played small college ball. Both had good qualities but her new coaches are a major step up.

 

[sluggers]

Anyone who coaches a softball/baseball team should be congratulated and praised. It is a thankless job.

College players know more about softball than 95% of the coaches out there. But, they haven't developed sufficient filters and thus tell the truth too much. They also tend to snicker at parents at inappropriate times.

Here is an example:

Parent: What is the best position for a baserunner on the bag?
Good coach: Well, there are merits to both positions. A lot of colleges use Method A, but I prefer Method B. It provides a real opportunity to get the player down to the next base as fast as possible. We'll work on that with your DD. It might take her to the next level!
Former college player coach: I've seen your kid run. The only way to get her to the next base faster is if I could install jet packs in her cleats.

 

[JerseyBall]

I am pretty sure Nick Saban was never a great football player...neither was Bill Belichick!

Add Jim Leyland to that list.

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

 

[JerseyBall]

If you talk to some older coaches who started after college, many will tell you they were awful in their early years. There's so much to learn beyond how to play and mechanics. When I listen to these coaches talk, they usually will tell you they had a moment where they had a reckoning that they didn't know as much as they thought.

In the ASA training material for new coaches, they make the point that sometimes some of the coaches who never played turn out to be some of the best because they understand they have a lot to learn and will put in the work to educate themselves more than a former star will sometimes.

In the last organization I coached with, they had enough experience to make the decision that no recent college player, no matter their level, should start out as HC. They had to put in their time first and see the game from a new perspective. Too often these coaches would push way too hard or get extremely frustrated with the players.


Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

 

[JAD]

Add Jim Leyland to that list.

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

The NBA and college basketball are full of coaches who never played at a high level...and Michael Jordan was a flop as a coach!

 

[CoachBroker]

After several years of dad coaches my daughter finally got a former D1 coach on a high level travelball team. We were very exited about it at first. It was the worst experience we have had in travel softball. She was young and arrogant. It almost caused my daughter to quit the sport she so loved. In a 3 month period my kid went from wanting to play in college (for the last 4 years) to not wanting to play in college or attend camps. We left the team at the end of fall and have had to walk on egg shell going into this year. 10 years from now she may be a great coach but I have no desire to deal with a 20 something year old as a head coach again.

 

[dbronstein]

I think a lot of great players "flop" as coaches because playing came fairly easy to them, so they get frustrated when their players struggle to do what came so easily to them.

And I'm not saying the greats didn't work hard to get to the top, because they did, but they also had an innate talent that most don't have.