How to help coaches

[drope]

Straight to the point :
I let my daughter select a team she would like to play for 16u team.
The team has a couple of well coached good players.
I attend practices and there are 4 coaches. They are good people.
No written practice plans, unorganized and lots of discussion among coaches
while players stand and listen.
Some of the players know more than coaches.
I have kept my mouth shut to avoid any retaliation against daughter,
daughter likes team & there is lots of potential ?
Any suggestions ?

 

[Amy in AZ.]

At age 16, you have to stay out of it. If it bothers you don't go to the practices. My DD would have asked me not to , by then. I think your daughter has made her decision. Support her. Smile. Don't join in with the parents that complain. If they approach you and try to bring you down, smile and say "My daughter loves this team."

Then, I would keep working with my daughter and try to get her to go to a major softball camp.

 

[mudbug]

You dont need a written practice plan, but there should be one in someones head. They shouldnt make it up as they go because that will just waste time. A well run team will accomplish more in 3 hrs than poorly run teams do in a week of practices.

Ask them questions which make them think. Come to practice and casually inquire what they are going to work on today. Maybe they will get the hint that they should have a goal for every practice. Or remark about specific mistakes and poor performance in the last game as things needing work, etc.

 

[fastpitch]

I like mudbug's approach... What level of play is this? Do you know what kind of coaching history these coaches have?

 

[sluggers]

I'm with Amy on this. At some point, you have to land and go home.

If you want your DD to improve, you need to work with on her own time.

Ray

 

[stephanie]

That's it...I'm "copy and pasting" your art...!! LOVE IT!

 

[mtcoach]

I'm assuming this is travel ball?

As a volunteer coach and father, I would be pretty bent out of shape. As a head coach, I always had a practice plan to hand out to coaches and parents who were assisting. While the ladies were performing their warm ups, I would gather up everyone who is involved with practice and we would go over it (took about 5 minutes). I would assign responsiblities to my assistant coaches and hook them up with a parent to assist them.

We would break everyone down into small groups running several supervised stations so the ladies were not standing around. When appropriate, we would then spend 15 to 30 minutes at the end of practice putting together what we did into a game situation. Many times we would be able in incorporate conditioning with our situational time by working on base running, steal situations etc with runners.

There are many resources out there to conduct good practices. I've heard a few times, "I'm just a volunteer coach". The way I look at it, if you expect 110% from your players, get off your butts and give a 110% to your coaching, volunteer or not.

Even when I coach Rec Ball, part of my winter is spent developing practice plans, looking for new drills that are fun and develop the players skills and really at no cost but a bit of time and a 110% effort.

 

[mudbug]

I'm with Amy on this. At some point, you have to land and go home.


If you want your DD to improve, you need to work with on her own time.

Ray

Not clear if she is concerned about individual skills or team skills. Theres only so much you can work on by yourself. And it likely wont do any good either if the other players dont know how to play the game to the same level. Spent a school ball season before watching this exact thing before, very discouraging.

 

[Sparky Guy]

Straight to the point :
I let my daughter select a team she would like to play for 16u team.
The team has a couple of well coached good players.
I attend practices and there are 4 coaches. They are good people.
No written practice plans, unorganized and lots of discussion among coaches
while players stand and listen.
Some of the players know more than coaches.
I have kept my mouth shut to avoid any retaliation against daughter,
daughter likes team & there is lots of potential ?
Any suggestions ?

I think what you found out the hard way is your daughter is not serious about playing ball. From your first line I'm assuming she tried out for and made multiple travel teams. She picked the one she felt fit her softball goals. However, her goals may not be yours. Is she complaining about the team and the way it's run? Has she asked to look into other teams? Is she unhappy with any of the coaches or her team mates? Or does she come home from practice with a smile on her face happy with what the team is doing and the level it's playing at?

These are questions you have ask yourself while being brutally honest with answers. Not saying it's right or wrong. She's old enough to decide what she wants to do with it. By 16U it's her game, not yours.

 

[StacieM]

Lots of good thoughts shared here and yes, Ray - love the helicopter parent graphic lol

Sparky is right as well...my DD would get annoyed on a team like that where coaches are disorganized and time is being wasted. I'm pretty sure that after the season, she'd want to go somewhere else. That said, if she'd already committed to that team, I would follow the others advice and stay out of it, try to look on the bright side of things and have meaningful thought provoking conversations with my DD during the season to help her learn more without pushing too hard.

But if your DD really likes it there, then you may have to really think about what Sparky said.