Coaching

Since it appears no one really looks here, I wanted to use this for some thoughts.

My children play sports - the Squirrel plays softball (high school, rec, and travel) and the Turkey plays baseball and basketball - and I've got a lot of friends with kids in sports.  I've seen a lot of personalities and behaviors in the coaches we've had and that we've played against.

I want to address this post to anyone out there that coaches - QUIT only focusing on the "raw talent" kids!  If you would invest time into the others, you might find you've got a great player on your hands!  Just because a boy "plays travel ball" doesn't mean he's where all your time should be spent.  In fact, often he's the LAST one you need to work with.  Let's work on little Terry's infield skills.  He might turn into a pitcher later on.....  The other kids notice who you are giving attention to and they pick up on who you think are the better players.  That snowballs into them treating those kids different - telling them they aren't good players, yelling at that player when he/she does something wrong (coaching from the field), etc.

Another thing, it is NOT all about winning!  I'm not saying give everyone a participation medal - anyone who really knows me KNOWS I don't agree with that.  What I'm saying is you should be promoting a bond between your players and teaching them the game.  I've seen MANY girls quit playing softball at the 10U level because the coach stuck them in the outfield every game and it's boring out there!  And let's try players in different spots.  I'm all for teaching a girl to be a great 1st base player, but if your team is down with very little chance of making a come back, is it really going to hurt to try Sally at short?

And can we stop with the "Daddy/Mommy"coaching?  I get that your child is the best out there, but how about YOU coach and don't let Jimmy tell you where to put his friends?  Just because he wants his friend Sam to play 2nd doesn't mean that's the best spot for him.  Sam may be a GREAT center fielder!  And little Jimmy doesn't have to play the whole game either.  He'll be OK, I promise.  In fact, you may find that he LIKES sitting an inning here and there.  It may also prevent him from having to have surgery at a young age due to injuries.

Let's be nice to each other too.  There is no reason a coach should call another coach and fuss at him about "talking" about him.  Let's use the golden rule - do unto others as you would have them do to you.  In other words, don't talk bad about someone, don't steal players from another team, don't try to "fix" a player because you don't like the way a coach taught them to do something (unless it isn't working for them - ie, if a weird looking batting stance is working for a girl, LEAVE IT ALONE).... I could go on!  These kids hear and see how you treat each other and they tend to emulate those actions toward that coach.  This also applies to the league board where you are coaching - if you don't agree with something, stick it out and either run for the board next time or find another league.  Turkey was on a baseball team this year where the coach got mad at the league after the FIRST GAME of the season.  He not only QUIT as the coach, but took his son and some of the other (travel ball) players with him, leaving the team to scramble to find enough players to make a team and a coach.

The Squirrel is on a rec team right now and the league has ONE other team in her age group.  It's a GREAT dynamic between the players on each team as well BETWEEN teams and the coaching is great.  I wish I could invite you to see it.  The coaches are all coaching ALL the players without stepping on each others toes.