You coach them all, but you focus on the ones who are willing to give back.
It sounds like your real problem is a parent problem. Holding a pre-season parent meeting where you lay our rules and expectations will go a long way.
New Coach, advice appreciated
- Thread starter sanderson47
- Start date
Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch
Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.
You coach them all, but you focus on the ones who are willing to give back.
It sounds like your real problem is a parent problem. Holding a pre-season parent meeting where you lay our rules and expectations will go a long way.
I constantly see people recommending running players through stations. Some tee work here, some popups, some grounders, etc. I hate stations. Any time you get girls standing in any kind of line without 100% direct supervision, they'll goof off. Leave them alone and they'll goof off and whoever is at the tee or up front in line, will also goof off. Even the kids that love to play will goof off every chance you give them. It's in their nature.
You have to keep them actively engaged, either teaching them something specific (preferably in the infield, because for some reason they seem to take the grass less seriously) as one group of ears, or having them in line and really pushing the pace of the drill so they don't have time to get into chit-chat. In my worthless opinion, sending a group of kids off to load up a tee for each other for 15 minutes is a complete waste of time. Taking 20 swings off a tee in-general is a complete waste of time unless that kid is transitioned off that tee right to the plate to hit actual short toss, machine, etc. They have to leave that tee with one specific correction in mind and apply it to the "real" pitches. They'll always revert back to what's comfortable if they're left without supervision and reinforcement.
It's just so difficult to teach multiple skills without a few assistants. Even for something like popups, you can't teach if you're the one hitting them. You need a hitter and a coach standing with the group. I hit the popups and yell instruction, and 9 out of 10 times they come back around in line and do the same flawed technique. No one is concerned about someone yelling instructions from 100ft or more away. It's all just tough to do all-around, but stations are the worst. So don't get too stressed out about it. If you're doing your best, then you're doing great. Recognize your flaws and try to fix them. Many, many times I've stood there while HC is instructing something specific, and asked him a question about something I'm not clear on. The kids aren't gonna do it, and if I have a question I KNOW they do. Just keep trying to learn and get better. Rarely is anyone's first experience an ideal result.
Students learn best when they are ready to learn, not when the instructor is ready to teach.....Once I understood this my frustration level decreased. As someone else said, coach them all, but work with the ones who will do the work and give back.
Being gooder is funner. How we become gooder is the challenge for youth and the commitment to be better.
Hang in there, keep things moving at quick pace so there isn't time to stand around. My 9u teams says "man we barely have time to catch our breath".....exactly
Short instruction/demo of what we are trying to do and then get after it with fervor.Hang in there, keep things moving at quick pace so there isn't time to stand around. My 9u teams says "man we barely have time to catch our breath".....exactly
One day I had practice all to myself. I was tired of watching the girls not communicating, so I told them on the group chat to make sure they had pockets. Didn't tell them why, and they were all like "WHY DO WE NEED POCKETS!!!"
I brought them all foam earplugs to wear on the field. Then I turned on the PA and blasted music and put them through IF/OF at about 110% speed. It was chaos for a few minutes. Balls were overthrown and assignments missed, etc. Then I saw a couple girls take control. Yelling loudly, waving their arms and pointing. They got it together and did very well. I couldn't believe how well it worked.
They hated it and still groan when I mention it.
I'll admit it, I'm still confused about the pockets thing.
haha. I just wanted them to have somewhere to put the earplugs when we stopped using them, but they know me well enough that it could have been for anything, or nothing. But the fact that I had some of them scrambling to find practice attire with pockets amused me.
I'm always trying to get in their heads. There's one sure-handed 2B that lost her cool and missed two easy infield pop-ups in the literal worst game my middle school team ever played. They were crying and fighting and everything. My daughter had cried so hard she had a booger halfway out her nose. That game is legendary because it was kinda the turning point for us. Rock bottom. And these days I'll just casually stroll by that second baseman in the infield and say "remember when you missed those two pop-ups?" and she dramatically screams "oh my gawwwwd stop reminding me!" or I'll randomly toss one straight up and scream something like "remember the pop-ups!" and she'll panic and try to chase it down. It's always stuff like that with me. Keeps the mood light.
Similar threads
