Female Coaches

[3'sDad]

Sluggers: Kids are pretty smart and perceptive. They'll notice what is going on - they may not completely understand all and why until they're older. As a parent we alwaya try to answer a question truthfully - sometimes some of the details are glossed over or excluded. Avoiding the question just makes the kid more interested and they are just looking for an answer to the question they asked.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

The girls notice favoritism, no matter if the coach is male or female. When the favorite happens to be a girl that can't catch and throw and she is playing left field, is a time to start asking questions.

There are good coaches of both sexes. There are bad coaches of both sexes. I don't remember my DD ever having a preference. I guess it is the same as looking at your employer, some people really don't like to work for a woman.

 

[interested18]

I am an 18 year old who use to play but had to stop due to a career ending shoulder surgery but my former coaches invited me to help coach the team I use to play on. So I was coaching girls who were my age and some who were actually older, some who I had been very close friends off the field and some who still are. I think it is very possible to be friends with the people you coach as long as they know you mean business when it comes to practices and games. I expected the same from those people I saw outside of softball as I did from the people I barely talked to. It comes down to acting like a coach and knowing a thing or two. If they respect you I think women can be just as good of a coach as a man regardless of age.

 

[InsidePitch]

I agree with you Interested. What happened to our college aged coaches was unfortunate. They thought that the team would be managed by an adult, they were undermined by the adult sending in a HS senior in their stead who proceeded to make a clique with her player sister and her friends. The paid coaches were not given the authority to nip it in the bud and they were not experienced enough to work through it. I applaud their skill level and their ability to convey instruction to the girls and would put DD on a team where they were coaching provided there were some steps taken to correct this years problems. In a lot of ways, I believe women can relate better to younger girls in the 10-14 age bracket. I can't speak to the older because I haven't been around it.

 

[alexander58]

Definitely not. Actually the money in the wallet came from mama and daddy! ;-)

LOL, I'm not even worried about the (lack of) pay, more about the experience. I definitely need to spend some time out of this podunk town before I settle down.

Thank you. I hope that this fall ball season is successful, while we all work on the things that we need to--the girls on their softball skills and me on my people skills. I'm a very sarcastic person and I've got to watch how I phrase some things because I can come off as sounding like a not so nice person when it's just my way of stating the obvious.

I think that when I get out of college, I'm going to post on this forum and see who gives me the best offer. ;-) I would like to go places before I actually settle down and experience things. Someone here could hook me up with a coaching job, all I'd have to find would be a place to live and some work for a while. I need to experience something more than my little hick town.

It's great you recognize what you need to work on. Your people skills will impact your success as a coach much more than any softball knowledge you possess.