I happened to be at the fields of a league that had recently purchased our products to provide to their coaches. I watched parts of of three different teams’ practices. What I saw was both gratifying and disappointing. My son had a varsity game at a local high school which, it turned out, is adjacent [...]
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By Adrian Parrish No matter how you conduct your soccer try-outs somebody will find a flaw, somebody will be unhappy, even if you opt to keep every player that attends the tryouts. The reason being is that it comes down to opinions and the inability to please everyone. You can ask the parents or the [...]
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Although every pitch is very is very important, learning what counts are the most important will not only make you a smart catcher, but it will help keep pitchers in the ball game longer and translate into more wins for the team. Here are the counts of a ball game listed in order of urgency: [...]
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The fifth and final installment in Dr. Alan Goldberg’s series on helping athletes through injuries. This segment deals with what coaches can do. #1 BE EMPATHETIC- Let your athletes know that YOU understand what THEY are feeling and having to go through. Understand where their anger, frustration and disappointment comes from and allow them time [...]
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By Maureen Dracup I received this email from that U10 girls’ coach I worked with; an update after their last game. “Before our game on Saturday, I started off with telling the team that we were going to try something different today. They were going to coach themselves. I was going to watch, make substitutions [...]
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By Maureen Dracup Over the past couple of months, I spent time attending coach education events; a licensing course in Chula Vista, California, the NSCAA convention in Baltimore and the USYSA workshop in Pittsburgh. While the classroom and field sessions are an invaluable venue to pick up new ideas and grow as a coach and [...]
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We received this email from a coach who is struggling with disgruntled parents on the soccer team she is coaching: I am the coach of a u11 academy girls soccer team. I have been getting a lot of flack from parents about playing time. This is from, of course, the parents of the weaker players [...]
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By Todd Guilliams Our objective in a nine-inning ball game is to hold our opponents to four-runs-or-less. This goal provides direction for our defense during the course of a game and practice. Once the goal has been established (four, five, six runs or whatever works in a specific program), then the players have to understand [...]
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In leagues everywhere over the next several weeks, coaches will sit down and determine the fate of their seasons by selecting the players who will make up their teams. Want to make sure you don’t make a mistake with one of those critical first picks? Would you like to find that late round “diamond-in-the-rough” steal? [...]
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