Planning practice when you don't know how many coaches

[dbronstein]

Any tips for planning practices when you are never sure how many coaches you'll have? I coach rec and have an AC, but then after that, I'm at the mercy of whichever parents stick around at practice. So some practices we have another two or three helpers, but some practices it's just the two of us. And I usually don't know ahead of time. Does anyone have any suggestions for planning practice when you don't know how many stations you can have?

 

[Lance Steckler]

depending on the ages, plan on 2 stations with a couple more that the players can do themselves.

 

[gdc03120]

In the past 7 years or so, I've run a summertime 16U rec team completely solo. Only in the past year did I have SOME parents willing to volunteer to help (but I had to ask first since most parents dropped their kids off and left until the practice was over). Therefore, I had to plan my practices on the assumption I had NO help and would be running things solo. All of my drills involved activities where the girls were standing around as little as possible - rapid-fire repetition. Any group work was done the same way - the less the girls were standing around, the more focused they'd typically stay. Doing scrimmage-type games also kept the action going without needing a second set of eyes to keep things under control.

My suggestion: Do as many drills where the girls are always in motion - create fewer groups with more girls but where the girls would be in motion (i.e. soft toss hitting/fielding, shagging fly balls, etc.), and do game-type drills where the girls are more focused on winning/the competition than external factors.

 

[dbronstein]

depending on the ages, plan on 2 stations with a couple more that the players can do themselves.

It's 12U. They aren't going to do any stations themselves.

 

[sluggers]

1. List all the stations you would like to have.
2. Prioritize the list.
3. Starting at the top of the list, set up the stations until you are out of parents. You do the most important station.

(FYI: Supervising more than 3 or 4 parents is too complicated. Most rec parents have no clue how to do anything. They give awful advice.)

 

[uncdrew]

I'd work to pin down some more helpers. Usually a plea to "It's for the girls" and "it'll mean so much to your DD" and "It doesn't matter if you know the game or not, we'll tell you what to do" works.

So many parents would love to do it but are a bit gun-shy.

You can even instruct the girls to call them "Coach Drew" or whatever. It makes the parents feel important.

 

[dbronstein]

Thanks for the replies. I'm pretty good at roping parents in to help when they are around, but I never know if they are going to be around.

 

[chinamigarden]

Thanks for the replies. I'm pretty good at roping parents in to help when they are around, but I never know if they are going to be around.

Try to get one to commit to being another assistant coach. You need 3 coaches at that age for game. So get one now.

 

[dbronstein]

It gets better. The AC told me today that her daughter joined the school soccer team and they practice on Wednesdays, so they will be 45 minutes late to practice.