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The Youth Sports Coaching Thread

tequila4kapp said:
If you don’t mind me saying...

Sometimes as a coach we have to recalibrate how we measure success. Sounds like this could be one of those times.

I would also share that the single worst job I ever did of coaching was with a group like you have. Some of my take aways were that I should have realized what I had and adjusted my expectations accordingly. Keep your cool and keep plugging along. You got this...
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Don't mind at all!

This is what we did at this week's practice. I set some defined roles for some of the kids, and we had a really good practice. Offense will still be a challenge, but I got some great effort out of them. That's all I can ask.

Now, my 1st/2nd graders are causing the problems. Six of the 10 don't want to listen in practice. This will be the team I lose my cool with. I'm not volunteering to babysit!
 
tequila4kapp said:
If you don’t mind me saying...

Sometimes as a coach we have to recalibrate how we measure success. Sounds like this could be one of those times.

I would also share that the single worst job I ever did of coaching was with a group like you have. Some of my take aways were that I should have realized what I had and adjusted my expectations accordingly. Keep your cool and keep plugging along. You got this...
Click to expand...

So true Frank. My U-11 soccer team is the team that has a little talent, but if can't overcome mistakes. So I have to coach them different with expectations of winning individual position battles and not letting the overall score define their worth or progress.
 
mikeg_74 said:
So true Frank. My U-11 soccer team is the team that has a little talent, but if can't overcome mistakes. So I have to coach them different with expectations of winning individual position battles and not letting the overall score define their worth or progress.
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Good stuff, Mike

You guys may need to remind me of this ... my softball team is moving up 1 to 2 levels of play. It’s going to be a different year.
 
Duffer Waldorf said:
I set some defined roles for some of the kids, and we had a really good practice.
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So much for that. One of the kids I wanted to be primary ballhandlers was in an accident this week and is out indefinitely.
 
We've gone from 8 to 10 to 20 pts in 3 games. Progress!

Great effort and fight tonight, even with the other team cheating the entire game. We just don't have the offensive skills the other teams do.
 
If last night repeats itself, I may go Bob Knight on one of these kids before the year is out.

That really frustrates and saddens me.
 
Duffer Waldorf said:
If last night repeats itself, I may go Bob Knight on one of these kids before the year is out.

That really frustrates and saddens me.
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I didn't recognize the team that showed up tonight. Fantastic effort and behavior that was rewarded with a W!
 
Oldest son starts soccer in a much more competitive league in a couple of weeks. Last season was a cake walk for him individually, but when they were on the losing side of the docket, his frustration really showed. I'll be interested in seeing how he handles this new league and team, because the chances are good that he won't be the best or most gifted player. I wanted to get him into this league to learn the fundamentals and hone his skills, because it's clear he has a head for the game and has good instincts. It'll be a growing moment for all of us I imagine. Me in helping him to manage his expectations, and him in preventing his frustration from getting the best of him. I won't be coaching him (I know nothing of soccer), so I'll just do what I can with him at home to practice.

Youngest though just turned three, and that means tee-ball! Looks like I'll be dropping down from coach pitch back into the tee-ball ranks to coach my youngest.
 
I picked up my rosters yesterday. For some reason I’m really looking forward to coaching two teams this year. It’s my final season with my oldest so no doubt it will be emotional when it’s done.
 
As expected soccer games have been canceled through the end of this month. I get the need to be safe, but it's bittersweet for me. The last year coaching my oldest daughter and I might not be able to do it.
 
mikeg_74 said:
As expected soccer games have been canceled through the end of this month. I get the need to be safe, but it's bittersweet for me. The last year coaching my oldest daughter and I might not be able to do it.
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Sorry to hear, that would be difficult. I'm not there with my kids yet, but can imagine it. I have trouble being done with coaching high school kids who aren't my own!
 
mikeg_74 said:
As expected soccer games have been canceled through the end of this month. I get the need to be safe, but it's bittersweet for me. The last year coaching my oldest daughter and I might not be able to do it.
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At least you have some sort of direction with your league, not that that makes your situation any easier though. Our director hasn't communicated anything which leaves us coaches in the dark with nothing to relay to parents.

I'm not coaching any of my own kids or anything (don't have any yet) but this is possibly my last season coaching with the same group of boys I've had for three full years of spring and fall soccer. It would suck if this is how it ended.
 
First time I’ve come across this thread. It’s awesome (but not surprising) there’s so many THP youth coaches! I haven’t coached for over 5 years now, but one of the kids from my youth diving program who I coached nearly a decade ago just repeated as state champion. He was talented then, but I never could have predicted this! He has far exceeded my abilities, which is really cool to see. Hopefully I can get back into coaching at some point!
 
Is your sport in season? Is your organization / team suspending activity or still playing through the C/virus situation? We (youth fast pitch softball) shut down for two weeks.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Is your sport in season? Is your organization / team suspending activity or still playing through the C/virus situation? We (youth fast pitch softball) shut down for two weeks.
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All the local soccer clubs around here in NE Ohio have shut it down until at least April.
 
The crazy thing was when SARS hit children under 12 had the worst rate of infection. This the under 19 age group has the lowest rate of infection and the least severe symptoms when they do get it.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Is your sport in season? Is your organization / team suspending activity or still playing through the C/virus situation? We (youth fast pitch softball) shut down for two weeks.
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I coach high school tennis. Boys are in season and we're shut down for a minimum of 2 weeks. No matches or practice.
 
Great thread. I spent 14 yrs coaching youth football with an emphasison 7-8 yr beginning tackle. This allowed me to do something away from my son so i could avoid any possibility of nepotism that is crazy in youth sports. My biggest goal was to teach and keep kids busy. Being married to a second grade teacher we talked a ton about kids that age and how to keep them on task. The biggest lesson i learned was 7-10. That is minutes and the avg attention span of younger players. So i worked hard on developing practices that revolved around those numbers. Never did anything more than 9 min and had enough stations to keep all kids occupied and not standing around. I loved working with these kids and enjoyed watching them grow up and keep playing. I still help out every year and would not have it any other way. The other thing to remember is this. If you are coaching so your son/daughter can play the position they want, you are wrong. If they are the best for that fine, many times its not the case. My son hated when i coached him because he had to dbl earn everything just so i would not appear to be playing favorites. Its why i stayed with the little kids. Gameday i was a quality coach usually looking for tendencies on opposition. Worked well.
Enjoy coaching. Have fun. Laugh a lot! If kids are better at the end of the season you did your job. One more. Treat all the kids the same regardless of ability and dont drive any player away from the game. You never know, it may be the game they love most.


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tequila4kapp said:
Is your sport in season? Is your organization / team suspending activity or still playing through the C/virus situation? We (youth fast pitch softball) shut down for two weeks.
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Shut down the soccer and baseball leagues indefinitely here in SC.
 
We are now shut down indefinitely. The two most prominent governing bodies cancelled all tourneys through mid-April. Schools have shut down, which means no access to fields/facilities.
 
I’m in the midst of struggling with the dynamic of coaching your own kid.
 
Nice thread. Brought back some fond memories.

Back in the 1980s we were at our daughter's highschool fast pitch softball tournament. It was game time, and their coach had not shown up yet. All the players were there, ready to go.

My daughter comes up to me and tells me they need a coach, and wanted me to fill in. That without a coach, the umpire was going to call a forfeit. I agreed, and immediately enlisted my wife as my assistant
coach. (aka Team Chaperone) My youngest daughter, I roped into being my 3rd base coach.

Long story short. I coached these young Ladies like I had learned to play hardball, baseball. Like I had taught my daughters to play. I didn't know any other way.

They posted a 4-2 mark in that tournament taking home a third place trophy for their school.

I had never been around a happier bunch of kids in my life. Even some of the other parents came up to my wife, and I with hand shakes.

That tournament turned out to be the start of a pretty successful, 8 year run for me as a volunteer Bobbie Sox, and American Girl fast pitch softball coach.

Some of the best 8 years of my life. A lot of fond memories.
 
My son and his friends decided to get the band back together for a final season of 18u travel hockey. So just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. But my friend (the head coach) and I (assistant) told them right up front what the deal would be. We will be running the team as "pre-men's league". The kids are going to make line combinations, solve problems, and generally make most decisions. We are there to be the required adult presence and hopefully nothing more. To keep costs down, we will have a minimal number of practices. We also dropped down a level to a less competitive division so some of their friends from HS that weren't skilled enough to make the team in the past would be able to play. Basically the season, if there is one, will be one last chance to have fun and skate with their friends before they scatter into adulthood.
 
I coach a local Football team that my lad plays for. At the moment there is no training due to covid

We are now Under 15's

Not sure how long I will be doing it as my lad is at the Blackburn Rovers Academy, we are just waiting for the green light so he can continue his trainign with them, with the hopes of joing the Elite academy. He is a goalkeeper, just like I used to be
 
I’m really frustrated. My team has a lot of talented players but they are not performing individually or collectively at all.
 
tequila4kapp said:
I’m really frustrated. My team has a lot of talented players but they are not performing individually or collectively at all.
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Getting the team to perform collectively is always the hardest part and what my soccer team has struggled with consistently. We have the talent to beat anyone we play, but unless they show up wanting to win, it's usually way closer than it needs to be or should be. That's what this whole condensed season has been about for my team. Consistent performance up to my standards as well as their own. With how weird this season has been, I sat them down as a team before the first practice and we discussed what our objectives were for the shortened season. Getting everyone on the same page and having them hear what other teammates, and not just us coaches expected, really helped drive our competitiveness this season.
 
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