Coaching Objectives: Managing Parents
You don’t want to stumble across a grizzly bear cub if it’s mother is around the corner. And sometimes, the parents of the girls on your softball team can be just as scary.
Read MorePosts Tagged ‘coaching series’
Coaching Objectives: The Easiest Way to Make Your Team Better
There is something you can do as a coach that is almost completely in your control and has nothing to do with teaching skills or managing tough game situations. Yet, it can easily strengthen your team, especially if you’re involved with a school program. This post is aimed mainly at coaches of school teams, but it’s good advice for rec/travel coaches as well.
Read MoreHow to Get Better at Coaching Softball, Literally
I’ve been coaching softball for many years now, but I was a player for even longer. I, as any long-time player does, had coaches I respected and coaches behind whose backs I complained endlessly. While one might argue that simple competence means nothing if a coach does not promote a healthy emotional environment, a positive spirit, and responsible behavior, it is the essential foundation for good coaching. A coach may be an extraordinarily pleasant and caring person, and try wholeheartedly to cultivate these feelings within the team; but without skill and tremendous knowledge of the game, a coach will not earn the respect of his/her team.
Read MoreCoaching Objectives: Team Goal Setting
As I mentioned in my first post of this coaching series, your primary objective as a coach at all times should be to facilitate the physical AND emotional growth of the athletes under your watch. Aside from your general demeanor, the most concrete way to handle this is by setting goals. A sports team, especially one comprised of teen girls, is a delicate ecosystem, and like many other aspects of coaching, goal setting can easily become counterproductive if not done sensitively. Today we’re going to discuss how to set solid, productive team goals.
Read MoreDealing with Concussions: A Guide for Coaches and Parents
This wasn’t exactly my original plan for article #2 in my coaching series, but with Colin Kaepernick leading the 49ers to the Superbowl in Alex Smith’s place, I’m reminded that we all need to talk about concussions—in fact, I don’t think we can really talk about concussion safety enough.
For any of you who don’t follow football, Alex Smith began this season as the 49ers starting quarterback, and was doing pretty darn well before suffering a concussion mid-season. He wasn’t out of commission for long, but Colin Kaepernick did so well in his place that Smith lost his job, for no reason other than that he got hurt. I could rant on and on about concussions in professional football and how having to worry about losing your job if you have one is not a good situation…but we’ll keep this about coaching and parenting young athletes.
Read MoreCoaching Objectives: What Kind of Environment Are You Fostering?
I’m going to take a little break from the technical pitching info and spend a few weeks talking about what is probably the most important aspect of fastpitch softball: coaching. I know a lot of our readers are probably coaches, and parents who are not necessarily trained coaches but are volunteering their time to give their children the opportunity to play softball. Hopefully the information I provide in this series of articles will help you spruce up your coaching skills and move you toward achieving the common goal we all have: positively affecting the lives of young athletes and creating a playing environment that helps them grow not just as players, but as people also.
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