I’ve heard the beginning of this statement finished the same way hundreds of times. “I started coaching because the first coach my son (or daughter) had was so bad I thought I could do a better job.” This statement tells me two things: 1. There are a lot of well-meaning parents out there who could [...]
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Depending on the age of child you are coaching, and the situation, there are times that even youth volunteer coaches need to get tough. Your job is to teach, and this can’t be accomplished if you never utter a stern word. A coach can be too easy on his players, even the little guys, and [...]
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I have three boys and a girl, in that order. After coaching boys baseball for ten years, adjusting to little girls softball was, well, an adjustment. My daughter played pretty hard, and was not too afraid of getting hurt, but one little girl, Zoe, taught me some of the most wonderful lessons of my coaching [...]
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Comments about drugs, alcohol, religion, race or those of a crude or sexual nature can never be made. Don’t ever swear. This should go without saying. I was coaching a 12U girls softball game recently and the opposing team’s catcher was wearing a sweatshirt under her chest protector. She called time and wanted to take [...]
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I’ve seen numerous coaches do this, apparently so afraid were they of looking bad in front of parents and fans. I’ve watched coaches at third base say nothing to a player as he decides to run home from third on an easy ground ball to the pitcher. But after the pitcher threw it to the [...]
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When a player makes a mistake, try to find something positive to say. Obviously it doesn’t take much effort to say, “Good try!” or “Hey! Almost had it!” or “You’ll get ‘em next time.” But comments like these take so much pressure off of your players. It is simple really. If every mistake leads to [...]
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If you’ve ever watched good coaches in action you’ve noticed that they know how to talk to their players, and what to say. But you also may have noticed that they show more than they tell. And even better than that, the best coaches get their players to show instead of tell as well. I’ve [...]
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OK, so you’ve learned to get eye to eye with your players as often as you can when talking to them, now…what do you say? I think more important, is what not to say. Here are some common sense guidelines to follow: Never say anything critical about a player’s ability. If he’s not hustling, it’s [...]
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