Quiet on here today. Anyway ...
I've put together a nice little career coaching youth sports over the last 10 years or so and had a great time doing it. I figure many of you have probably have some experience with this as well and thought it might be an interesting topic for discussion.
During my junior year of college I worked as a drumline instructor at a local high school. This is where I learned that I had a decent temperament for, and kind of enjoyed teaching. I continued that for about 5 years and have since coached soccer, basketball, and football for kids between the ages of 8 and 14. I enjoy the challenge of teaching new skills in new ways based on the different skill levels and personalities. There have been good teams and bad teams, and only a few run-ins with punk kids or unreasonable parents. I've had a lot of fun and learned a lot about myself in the process.
Any other part time coaches here? Stories? Tips? Bueller?
Comments
I once yelled at a coach for benching my kid. Does that count?
(Psst, read my sig before reacting.)
Ha, so you're one of THOSE parents ...
Yeah, well WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW?!? L2COACH, N00B!!!1!!one!!!1
;^)
He's not a parent, he just goes to kids games to yell at coaches and refs.
I coach peewee and minor league baseball. This spring with my peewee team (6-8yo) I had a parent bitch me out after the first game for us stopping the game at 7:50 (Monday game) because his kid was on deck to start the next inning and he had only batted once (kid had in fact batted twice). League rules say we can't start an inning after 8pm. Chill the F out buddy it's the first damn game and your 7year old kid played in the dirt all night and also needs to be in bed at a reasonable time on a school night...
That parent:
We implemented a straight (power) T offense last year for 9-10 yr old youth football team. It was fun to see them learn the system at that age.
Nice. We ran the wing T. Took two games before we could find a center who could snap the ball to the QB without botching it.
Center is a position that can make or break at that level. What defense did your team run?
4-3 I think. May have had 4 linebackers at times. I wasn't involved much with the defense.
And this one, just because it came up on the search and made me laugh.
The last one is my favorite.
Exactly like this with slight differences.
I taught drumlines for 4 years while at Tech and I was about to say, Yeah, it ain't like that, dawg.
My cousin was a drummer at SCSU (HBCU) in the late 90's (bassdrum) and he always said Drumline was rather accurate, except that Nick Cannon would have never been able to join not being able to read music. Much less got a scholly. And pay to play schemes weren't prevalent.
I played sousaphone and Our drummers didn't have those chops though!
But I remember my Fr and Soph years we were precision roll step and we got teased for not being the high stepping performance band. We got a new band director from Norfolk state and the first game we came out high stepping and I never had more fun than that one game vs John Marshall. It was a home game and the Northside Bowl fans were expecting the same 'ol style. Except....we weren't.
We shut their band's mouth that night.
Half our high school drum line didnt know when to move, they made a cymbal player memorize the movements. But I knew them all and fuck you i had the big bass or the quads so I was going to run over people if they didnt move.
Oh yeah, HBCU drumlines are totally like that. But most high schools in America don't march that style.
My coaching excellence in intramural (more properly, as a player-coach) and EA's NCAA Football, speaks for itself:
90.69% all-time winning percentage.
So... you're leaving us for aTm?
Coached youth soccer, little league, pop warner football, rec basketball and aau basketball. Was busy but fun. Got to make lots of friends that were our kids teammates parents.
Pop Warner is insanely well organized. The commitment to coach football is no joke. From late july to november u eat, drink, and sleep football. No time for anything else.
Wife coached pop warner cheerleaders while i was doing football. We went to state playoffs several times and had some fun parent parties at the hotel we stayed at. Wifes team places 4th in Northwest US regionals. We lived in Boulder Creek, CA and were representung the San Lorenzo Valley (in the Santa Cruz Mts). Small community that had an excellent football history. We did a giant fundraiser for the travel to go to that national comp and the community showed up huge! We had enough raised that we got the girls a limo ride from hotel to event and donated some money back to local charities.
AAU basketball was really insanely competitive. We did tournaments across Silicon Valley and even went to huge tourney in Reno, NV. Kids were almost always great and always wanted to learn. Ive still got my practice n playbook i used for that. The local high school coach played Div II basketball and i got him to do shooting clinics and the kids just absorbed the heck out of that.
Good memories, great friends, and our kids were too busy and never got into trouble.
I coached two intramural softball teams my senior year. One was my dorm team, and we made the playoffs, only to lose in the first round to a team with several of the football players on the roster. But I had the most fun coaching the American Society of Interior Designers all-girls team. That was an enchanting spring.
Currently coaching my daughter (coach-pitch) and oldest son (T-ball) this baseball season.
Just coached them both in basketball this past fall.
10/10 will do as long as I can. Can't wait for the baby to pick up sports too so we can keep this thing going.
Ur doin it right. Stay the course the best u can. The dividends for ur kids, u and ur wife later aill be awesome. Enjoy the ride!
So slightly tangential, my sister (coaches swimming for a living) was talking to me about how her summer league job gets in the way of her practices with the masters team and she is now swimming with the year round swimmers (meaning if you are 40 and competing then you are Dana Torres, my sister is just practicing). She was commenting on how terrible the practices are. Which growing up in WV and not being Olympic type talent we never had great coaching. We were both adults until we had coaches understand how to practice. The team she was swimming with is a very competitive team in her state, yet they are doing things that have been proven false and lead to over use injuries.
So I was wondering what resources people here use top make sure they are doing things the right way.
Have a friend who was an assistant coach at a local middle school in 804. Head coach admitted to using YouTube videos for his coaching techniques. Friend is a former player, and lit into him after several kids got hurt. He is still coaching.
I love soccer.
I hate that youth soccer in this country is completely ruined for kids by age 5, and a drain on your wallet.
I coached a couple of years for my daughter. She ended up hating the sport. I hated the parents. Hate is too light of a word.
You must have fancy some soccer where you live. Where I'm from soccer is ruined because there aren't enough kids that want play due to the season overlapping with baseball. Travel sports are now making this even worse.
I remember when travel sports was limited to high schoolers. The fact that there are kids doing travel sports and regular rec/school teams, means those rec/school teams get left out.
I also don't understand how kids turned into one sport robots.
I also don't understand how kids turned into one sport robots.
Parents! I've seen parents push their kids in summer swim. Seriously summer leagues are as far away from the Olympics as you can be. We did it to have fun while getting us out if double practices for meets. They think their kid can be every thing they arent and its sickening
Love soccer as well. Both sons picked it up, and the oldest excelled at it. Played travel a few years, and then got really into it. Was dropping him for summer training with one coach who had 30 kids or so show up each week. Figured the #1 rule of working with kids these days is NEVER be alone. So i started hanging around. Chased balls down, stayed out the way, got some exercise, and made sure everything was kosher: no fights or stupid stuff with 30+ 12-16 year olds. Then he really needed help. Got my E license, jumped into it full bore, and ended up on the sidelines as assistant for the jv and varsity teams a few years ago. Empowered the kids to make decisions and not be robots, and removed the punishment they typically had. We beat a team they hadn't beat in 12 years in the first game. Rest of the season we played teams that had 8-14 seniors on the team...and it wasn't pretty at times...but we had a blast. Still involved, and get to sit on the sidelines here and there. I try to look thru the coaching lens for various situations and truly believe its improved my outlook on many levels.
But the worst has always been the parents. Coaching just their kids from the sideline; counterintuitive to what the coach is saying or telling kids to hog the ball. And then yelling at the ref incessantly. I've had to pull a few aside and have discussions with me. The worst is when they want to strip things down directly after a game. Nope. Give it 24 hours. Think about it. Let me think about it. I will NOT do that right now, especially in front of the kids. They deserve their time to compartmentalize things as well and not be tainted. (Even though they probably are getting in a car with their kids for a ride home immediately.)
The 24 hr rule is so important. I Grew up playing competitive tennis, and my dad knew not to talk about a loss until the next day, or until I brought it up first. If try to coach someone right after a loss, it's going to come off as unwelcomed or offensive, regardless of the intent.
When I went to sign my daughter up for Pre-K to Kindergarten soccer this spring they asked me if I was interested in coaching. I laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Not a chance in hell I volunteer for that. Even if I knew anything about soccer (other than always play as Brazil or Germany in FIFA 98 on the N64), there's no way I have the patience to teach it to a gaggle of 5-year olds. I'd certainly get fired for excessive use of wind sprints.
I started at U10 and would not want to coach kids younger than that. I think you're mostly just baby sitting at that age.
I've done a fair amount of coaching in my past, but sadly my work travel schedule currently limits me. In grad school I was the Head Goalie Coach and JV Coach for Christiansburg High school. I've also coached soccer at the middle school level and coached swimming for 6 years.
I always TRY to remember my coaching days whenever I criticize Fuente and other VT coaches.
This is a great point. Whenever I hear other people or catch myself screaming about why player x isn't seeing the field more or why they called that play don't I don't agree with I remind myself that the coaches see what the players are capable of everyday at practice and whatever calls they're making are *probably* the right ones. They are working with a lot more information than we are as fans.
When you have Tyrod, RMFWs, RW, and Darren Evan's in the backfield and its 4th and 1, run the fucking ball! Coaches make bad decisions, some times it's the coach, some times its execution, but when you have one of the best backfield ever and fail to use it that's on the coaches.
Friend of mine was coaching a baseball team of like, 14-15 year olds (including his son). They were terrible and winless. When he was unexpectedly out of town, I agreed to stand in and coach a game.
I had seen them play and decided to do only two things different than my friend. (1) I went to the pitcher (and his dad) and said no curveballs unless you are ahead in the count. Kid (and his dad) was in love with his curveball but only about one or two out of 5 were any good. Most were in the dirt. His fastball wasn't anything special but he could at least keep it down and around the plate. (2) Whenever we had a reasonable chance to run or advance, I made their catcher and outfielders throw out our runners.
Our pitcher only walked a couple guys, gave up 1 earned run, and we had only one runner thrown out on steals or trying to get an extra base.
We won a low scoring game...something like 5-3...and I retired.
1.000 career winning percentage!
The one thing I observed as a player in rec leagues from age 5-15 was that the teams that won the championships were the teams that forced the opposition to make plays. Aggressive base running all day long. Kids at that level don't/can't make the throws, the catches, and the tags in time or accurately 8 out of 10 times.
I was the first base coach on my intramural softball team, and like all great first base coaches I was borderline blackout for the games.
I think he just waved em around to second, then changed his mind, and finally told him to slide back into first. I think.
The shortstop on our church softball team was a multi-sport athlete (small college), including all-American (DB) in football. Our first baseman wore a welder's glove under his mitt. Typically, no one would hang around first base.
Currently coaching both of my sons baseball teams. If you ever want to maximize introspection and work on your communication skills,I highly recommend trying to teach one of the most complicated sports to large groups of kids ages 5 to 7.
and also crush the souls and dreams of your opponents.
Coached or Assist Coached all of my sons' soccer and basketball teams from age 5 to 18. Church basketball mostly in the latter years.
Top five episodes (not ranked)
1. Youngest son's 6 yr old soccer team - Called the kids over after the first quarter by yelling, "Huddle Up!" After a few moments of straggling, one of the kids yells out, "C'mon guys! we gotta cuddle up!" That moment has survived as an inside joke between me and my youngest (now 20) to this day.
2. Youngest son's 9 year old soccer team- We were blessed with a few kids who were lightning fast with good handles, and my son was THRIVING as a keeper. We smoked everybody that year. One Saturday in the middle of the season, the director of the league walks over to my sideline in the middle of a game where we are torching the other team 9-0. The director asks me to try and lighten up by subbing my goalkeeper out. I told him we had already done that. He asked me where he was, and I said, "That's him right there. He just scored his 2nd goal." #notsohumblebrag
3. Middle Son's 5 year old basketball team - There's a scrum for the ball involving my son, and he sort of comes away with it, looks up at the ref, makes the sign, and screams, "TIMEOUT, TIMEOUT!" at five years old. Both refs look at each other for a second, and one of them blows his whistle and yells "TIMEOUT BLUE!" The other coach's face was priceless. #areyoufuckingkiddingme?
The cute potential of the moment was at 100% with my son's little rec specs...
4. Oldest son's 5 yr old soccer team - We played a variation of Duck, Duck, Goose with a soccer ball... and the kids loved it. I could bribe them to do anything so long as the last 10 minutes of practice was Duck, Duck Goose. This isn't an incredibly fascinating story, but it was my first turn as a coaching dad, and I learned so much child psychology that year.
5. Middle Son/youngest son high school church league - First and only time I was T'd up and ejected from a game. We had a 6'7 270 lb kid playing in the middle. (This kid went on to play O-Line at a D-III school on scholarship.) He was totally getting Hack-A-Shacked all game long, and the refs would not call one foul. After several (fairly noisy) complaints by me, the head ref T'd me up. At some point he asked if I thought I could come out there and do a better job than him. I told him that I absolutely could... and that I even had my own whistle, I just needed his shirt. He sent me packing after that. My wife was mad, but my kids were amazed. I chalk that up as a wash.
Great stuff. I will never hear the phrase "huddle up" again without thinking of this post.
I coached youth baseball and basketball for many years, but baseball is my sport. I served on our local Little League Board for 5-6 years, and coached my son from T-ball through Little League, All-Star travel teams, middle school teams, Babe Ruth, and some AAU ball. I've taken teams to Cooperstown and to Myrtle Beach for week-long tournaments. I've been fortunate enough to coach several kids who play college ball now.
In all those years, I've only had one complaint from a parent, and that was over 10 years ago. I always had team meetings complete with handouts of expectations for players AND parents at the beginning of each season. Parents and players were to show respect at all times for opponents, umpires, and coaches. Dugouts and fields were to be cleaned up before and after every practice and game. When coaches are speaking, players are to look that coach in the eye. My kids were taught to tip their hat to the home plate umpire before every at bat. Parents were not to come on the field or visit the dugout, and players were not to leave the dugout to visit parents. No food, soft drinks, or energy drinks in the dugout. Water and sports drinks only. I told parents that I (and my assistants) were teachers, and the ball field was our classroom. Let us have those two hours to teach in peace. I took my coaching responsibilities very seriously, and scripted out each practice down to the minute (my coaches and friends still rib me about that). I'm sure we've all had to suffer through our kids being coached by lazy and disinterested coaches; I didn't want anyone to every say that I was unprepared or just mailing it in. Even at the 8-year old level, I had several stations set up where 3-4 kids would be rotating in and out of quickly (hitting, fielding, throwing, catching). The worst thing you can do is have young kids standing around doing nothing and being bored. Keep 'em moving and engaged. Sliding, running, relay races, etc., even up to 16U travel teams when some of the players were driving to the field. I told my parents to expect their kids to come home from practices sweaty, smelly, dirty, and smiling.
During the regular season, everyone played equally. The worst kid on the team played just as many innings as the best kids. Everyone paid the same amount to play town/rec ball, and should play equally. The kids who were All-Stars were going to play a lot more games during the summer after the regular season ended anyway. My son, who does play in college, pretty much started every game on the bench (I wanted to show parents that there would be no favoritism). Each kid played at least two innings in the IF and two innings in the OF each and every game. Every kid pitched (even if only for a batter or two), and every kid played SS. Sure, sometimes you would have your least skilled player at SS while your ace was on the mound (meaning there was less likelihood of a hard hit ball to him), but hey, parents and grandparents got to see their kid play SS. I did tell players and parents that, if a kid couldn't catch very well, he or she would not play 1B or catcher due to safety reasons (and also to keep games moving). If a kid walked three in a row, he would be taken off the mound for the day. Nothing worse than having kids looking for 4 leaf clovers in the OF while a pitcher is throwing ball after ball after ball. You can lose kids that way.
All-Stars and travel teams were a different matter, as the number of games and even innings your team play in tournaments is based upon performance. Quite a bit more difficult to manage, but you do try to put your players and team in the best position to win. If you get to the finals, everyone gets to play a lot of innings.
I was lucky. Even though my coaching days are over (at least for now), most of those parents are still my best friends to this day. We all get together pretty often, even though most of the kids no longer play. Most of those kids still call me "Coach", which is awesome.
This is the MOST REWARDING part. And the reason why I continued to coach and still keep in touch with many of these kids even though some are off at college now.
I had a coach in high school; late 80's-early 90's; that I still call coach to this day. And my boys know when I say "Coach" they know exactly whom I'm speaking of. It truly is fantastic to have the name earned.
I coached youth soccer while at VT with a fraternity brother.
We were assigned a team that went winless the season before we started with them, to .500 in our first year, to 2 perfect seasons, then back to .500 when we got bumped up an age bracket.
Had an absolute blast with the little dudes. For that level, we worked almost exclusively on movement (these were elementary to middle school aged guys). Dribbling, passing, vision, crossing. These dudes were dominant because they would space out and just dominate teams. We would let them play 'world cup' at the end of each practice so they could practice finishing, but god damn they were a fun bunch.