Usefull Coaching Skills

[InTheCrowd]

How about adding:

1. Tough but fair.
2. Teaches the game to the players not just the rules.
3. Be reasonable, these are kids still.
4. Have fun with the kids; it's not all about wins and losses.
5. Ask for a raise occasionally.
6. And it's okay to lean on us parents to make sure the team has food, drinks, first aid kit, etc.

How's that...

 

[miker]

How about you pay him/her enough to coach the team so they don't have to work. That way they won't have to worry about leaving work early and fighting traffic trying to get to the field on time. Oh yeah.. They can't have a life outside of the team and have to leave early. Be real.. 99.99% of the people coaching coaching are not getting paid enough to only coach softball.

Ask your coach how many re-heated dinners they've had because they came straight from work to the ball field. Maybe they had enough time to buzz a drive-thru to grab a burger. More power to you if your work schedule allows you the flexibility to be at the field 20 minutes before everyone else. Most folks don't.

well said....

 

[druer]

Thick skin to deal with parents
Magic 8 ball so they can always make the right decisions
Thick skin to deal with parents
Magic 8 balls so that they know in advance which players would have made the play that another made an error on
Did I mention thick skin?

 

[Sparky Guy]

Thick skin to deal with parents
Magic 8 ball so they can always make the right decisions
Thick skin to deal with parents
Magic 8 balls so that they know in advance which players would have made the play that another made an error on
Did I mention thick skin?

Being deaf at times helps too.

 

[quincy]

Organized

Having different expectations for individual players

Setting realistic goals

 

[CoachKevin]

This thread was perfect. I watched a JV game on Friday where the coach tried and tried to hit fly balls to the outfield and couldn't. Her swing was terrible...lol. When I see that I really feel for the kids as they are probably not learning anything. As a coach, if you cannot hit the dang ball then maybe you should go out and practice instead of making yourself look like a fool.

 

[Texarkana]

Yea, OK, I may be a bum because I can't hit a decent Fungo, but give me a break for trying. No problems with infield grounders, but OF and fly balls give me fits. I bet I hit (or tried to hit) 300 balls Saturday (we had a week off). Grown up fungo bat and all the bats in my daughters bag, I still am just plain awful!!! I did learn to somewhat enjoy "fungo golf". My handicap is just really high. On a different note, I did notice a couple of little things and helped two struggling hitters really come alive at the plate last weekend at a tournament. You know what they say, "....and those who can't, coach."

 

[Ken Krause]

A sincere desire to see your players succeed (rather than win glory for yourself) is essential. You end up losing a few more games, but your players learn more in the process. Pretty good trade-off in my opinion.

 

[Sparky Guy]

A sincere desire to see your players succeed (rather than win glory for yourself) is essential. You end up losing a few more games, but your players learn more in the process. Pretty good trade-off in my opinion.

You got that right Ken. This year I have a former player who is the starting varsity SS for the #1 ranked HS team in the area as a soph. Another one was starting varsity last year as a soph and this season as a JR on the same team and another one has been starting varsity infield on another team since she was a freshman. All three of these girls had great work ethics even as 10U players. I see the names of some of my other kids in the paper from time to time. It's great to see them succeed.

My teams generally lose quite a few games, but I make sure the kids are equipped with the foundation they need to build on for the rest of their playing career when I'm done with them. I'll have parents moan about things. What I always tell them I have NEVER heard of a college coach asking what they did at 10 or 12U.

It's when they see me after the kids are older and they understand the reasons behind the things I do with young players to prepare them for the future is when they say thanks.