Leading your aspiring Youth Coaches
In competitive leagues, as well as recreational leagues, aspiring coaches play a vital role when it comes to assisting the whole club to reach the overall goals. These can be winning a tournament, or even teaching the fundamentals to basketball starters. Although there are a lot of things to be taught, the first thing I would recommend when trying to inspire youth coaches is to instill passion. Youth coaches, no matter what game they are coaching, must be passionate about the game. If you are passionate it makes things much easier when working hard while achieving the set goals for the basketball team.
Read MoreParents and their support for Youth Sports
Are you a parent who has a child that is hounding you to play sports? Then you should give in. It has been well documented by studies that those parents who allow their students to play sport end up having very responsible and successful adults when the children are all grown up. Of course, just because a child plays sports does not mean that you do not have to do some things, too.
Supporting your child and the sports they play is a huge thing. It shows them that they are cared for. By showing up to as many games as you can, you are showing your child that there is someone out there who wants to watch all the important things in life. The simple home run can be the biggest step in a child’s life. Some parents don’t understand this.
Read MoreConflicts between the Coach and his child on the team
There are many peewee and school teams that both boys and girls can play for. That’s good to know right? Well, what if your father is the coach? Is that a good thing? Different people have different answers. For some, it’s a good thing, but there are some conflicts. Let’s look at a few of those.
The first problem that many people find is that some think that the father as the coach will play his or her son or daughter more than the other players. Every child wants a chance to play. It is expected that each child will get a fair amount of time to play as well. However, some parents who are the coach do not do this and therefore, play favorites.
Read MoreArranging Pre-Season Parent Meetings for your Youth Team
A lot of people may right off the bat ask what the purpose of arranging a parent meeting in a youth league serves. People automatically assume that youth league means fun, and means that there should be no organization or no formality to it.
That is incorrect, meetings with parents allow a coach to get to know the parents and vice versa. It allows a coach to get insight on their potential player, and the support system behind that player, and allows parents to get a look into the plans that the coach has for the team. Sometimes parents may not like certain plans, and sometimes their fears will be put aside because this one on one time provides the perfect chance to get everyone on the same page.
This interaction also allows for information exchanges that benefit everyone involved. It can give coaches new ideas, parents may end up volunteering to help the team, and also allows both parties to get their chickens in a row and get everything out there so there are no unpleasant surprises. Some youth teams are run harder and more professionally then others, and some are run for fun and recreation. This meeting can establish where on that scale the team fits, and if it fits with the potential player.
The meetings will go well so long as the purpose of them is kept in mind, while some socializing is in order; you have to realize that gossiping is not in order. Trying to jockey your child a better position by bad mouthing another person can end up hurting your own child in the end. These meetings serve as both meet and greet, and informational. They are meant to not only get the information out there, but to exchange it, to bounce ideas around, and at the end of the meetings, allow the coach to come out with a better overall picture of his team, and a better overall picture of his players and their families.
A coach will be able to tell from these meetings if certain parents may be “trouble makers” or may be the “super fans” that can sometimes push their children too far. As much as a coach is responsible for his players, sometimes a coach may have to talk to the parents in a same manner as a player to ensure that corrections are made. It sounds a little silly, but in today’s age of competition it is completely true.
Arranging the meeting is something that both parties are responsible for, but before the start of the season, a coach should have made the effort to meet with all of the parents, and should ensure that parents know he or she is available at any time for discussion of any positive feedback or concerns and will be happy to address them and even give them status reports of their kids. Some parents are very hands on, and some just like to know their child is being taken care of.
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Read MoreParental Guide – Choosing the right Coach
Choosing the right coach can be difficult for parents considering you really cannot get to know someone right off the bat from a few simple meetings. What you can do is inform yourself to the maximum level, and be sure that you keep your child in mind when you are chatting with the coach.
The initial step in the process is meeting with the coach and going over goals for your child, and what the aim of the team is for the coach. Depending on the age of your child you may want to choose a more fun and recreational league for children ages 12 and under, and a more competitive league for kids over 12 years. Joining competitive sports is a healthy development tool and encourages healthy competition, but only with good influences and responsible adults around to guide the way.
Coaches are an important part to athlete and team development. With the amount of time that the coach would be putting in with any of the children, parents will have to make sure that a responsible adult is in charge and going to guide and direct those in his care well.
One thing parents need to avoid is discounting a potential coach due to lack of experience. Everyone has to start somewhere, and some of the best coaches started where someone was willing to go out on a line and give them a chance to do the best they could. You should judge a coach based on what he presents, and what he brings to the table, and the directions he plans to take, not based on what a professional coach would be like.
Misconceptions can doom some of the best fits for the job before they even get out of the gate. Especially with some of the coaching scandals that have gone around in recent years. If parents are unsure, but think it could potentially be a good fit, maybe they should attend a few practices and scout for themselves. It would give them a view with their own eyes of how the coach interacts with kids, and allows the coach to show his stuff in its natural environment and not just talk about it.
One thing that is for sure in the early years of sports, you will want a coach that puts an emphasis on teamwork and having fun, and less of the emphasis on winning. These early years are the best time to instil good sportsmanlike conduct in the players and get the good habits etched in stone. If you do not get these habits set early, you could find them developing bad habits that will be hard to work out of them in the later years.
While there is absolutely no way that any parents can pick a coach that is going to be absolutely perfect and work out in every way imaginable, you will find out that as long as you arm yourself with information, and make a decision based off of it, then you will be pointed in the right direction.
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