Expectations of a team with paid coaches?

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Apr 30, 2018
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What are your expectations for what a travel ball coach(s) should bring to a practice and tournament and how many coaches should a team have during practice and during a tournament? DD team has one coach at the tournaments with just a few balls and a line up card. I see other teams at these tournaments with 2-3 coaches, batting tee, bow net, and a bucket of balls minimum.

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Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
Doesn't that really depend upon the organization? My dd has had to coach by herself so often this summer that she has recruited her boyfriend to help. Otherwise, she was on her own. She could not do everything. She has a real job. Oh, and that paid thing? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Sometimes those who are supposed to get paid don't and sometimes those who are supposed to get paid do.
 
Apr 30, 2018
349
43
I'm new to travel ball so I'm trying to understand what my expectations should be. Are paid coaches of a B/C level team the same level as volunteer coaches and your just paying extra to avoid any potential daddy ball issues or should the expectations be a bit higher? Organization has around 20 teams.

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May 16, 2016
1,024
113
Illinois
I coach a 10u team. I am not paid but my daughter got to play for free. For tournaments, I bring one bucket of balls, one bucket that has tcb wiffles, and heavies in it, one bownet, a couple of throw down home plates, and a Tanner Tee. I also have my backpack that has lineup cards, scorebook, first aid kit, and a binder that holds all the birth certificates and team insurance info, etc.

For practice, I bring most of the stuff listed above plus another bucket of balls. All the equipment was paid for by the organization.

I am fortunate enough to have an assistant coach that is more knowledgeable than myself regarding coaching softball. Unfortunately, he can't be there every weekend. When the assistant coach is there, I run the offense, coach 3rd base and take care of all the substitutions. The assistant coach calls pitches and coaches 1st base.

I will admit that it can get slightly overwhelming coaching 3rd base, running the offense, calling pitches, and positioning the defense by myself. It is amazing how far out of position some of these 10u girls can get on defense from one batter to the next. When I am running everything by myself I don't do as good of a job substituting players in, or I may miss calling out a play for a first and third situation.
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
I'm new to travel ball so I'm trying to understand what my expectations should be. Are paid coaches of a B/C level team the same level as volunteer coaches and your just paying extra to avoid any potential daddy ball issues or should the expectations be a bit higher? Organization has around 20 teams.

Expectation are all over the place and really do depend on the area, the organization, the type of paid coach, the type of team, how the team is organized, etc, etc... I have seen pretty much every mix of setup as you can imagine and at a widely varied cost.

SO I hate to say it depends - but it really does depend.

Normally the expectation is that paid coaches are better than some random parent coaching and that the daddy ball issue is not present, but often the expectation doesn't meet the reality. Some of the very best teams are still coached by a parent - some are not. It is coaching quality for the most part - actual true daddy ball (which in my opinion is somewhat less common than many whiners like to make it out to be) to me is just a symptom of poor coaching or sometimes just poor coaching decisions.

I will say equipment for practice comes from the team budget - I have never seen the expectation that the coach is mean to provide balls/bownets/etc. In general the coach is just paid to coach (plus expenses).

To give a real opinion - you are probably going to have to provide way more details than you have.
 
Apr 30, 2018
349
43
I wasn't very clear. I'm not trying to differentiate between what the coach provides vs the organization. I'm wondering if you put your DD with a paid coach 10u B/C level team with an organization running 20+ teams, what would you expect to see when you arrived for a tournament? Is 1 coach, a line up booklet, and a few balls acceptable?

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Jun 12, 2015
3,848
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Paid or not, I'm having a hard time picturing how you go to a tournament without a bucket of balls and a net, at the very least. How does he warm them up?
 
May 4, 2016
70
18
East Coast
I wasn't very clear. I'm not trying to differentiate between what the coach provides vs the organization. I'm wondering if you put your DD with a paid coach 10u B/C level team with an organization running 20+ teams, what would you expect to see when you arrived for a tournament? Is 1 coach, a line up booklet, and a few balls acceptable?

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Whether the Coach is paid or not, at 10U B/C, you need three Coaches. One on 1st reminding the girls to steal aggressively, one on third reminding the girls to swing at any reasonable pitch, and one in the dugout reminding girls to stop eating candy and to look at the line-up posted on the clipboard.

Likewise, you need three Coaches to warm them up beforehand because you're a long way from 14U girls doing it themselves.

As to whether the Head Coach is paid or the parents are serving as Assistants is irrelevant. If the Head Coach is trying to do it solo, that likely just means they are a newish Head Coach and they have not learned how to ask for help yet. It doesn't mean they are not a good Head Coach or that the Org is letting you down. There is a learning curve for all participants in softball: the girls, the coaches, the parents!!!, and the org.
 
Apr 30, 2018
349
43
Paid or not, I'm having a hard time picturing how you go to a tournament without a bucket of balls and a net, at the very least. How does he warm them up?
I agree, so I volunteered to start bringing my bucket, tee, net and plate to games. Coach has them pair up and throw for warm ups and then she will go out and hit some pop fly's and grounders. Once I started bringing my gear I call them over in pairs to hit a few. I'm very carefull to not coach them on their swing though. I just offer encouragement. She usually tries to get the third base dugout so she can do everything from the third base side. She played in college so she knows the game, but is new(ish) to coaching I was an AC in 8u rec ball and we had 3 AC's and it was still a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, I like the organization, coach and the girls, I'm just trying to figure out what should be expected. Sounds like I need to talk with the coach/organization head and make some resoectful decisions.

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