Needing Advice

[Momo'sDad]

I appreciate your response but I'm afraid that I'm going to have to disagree with you there, these kids & parents are not clueless about softball. Last season when this particular coach was focusing more on a 12U team that he tried last year, (which, BTW, were horrible but when the same girls played for another coach this spring, they only lost one game and even beat teams 3 yrs older than them) they done awesome, steadily getting better to where in their last tournament, they lost the championship game by 1 point to the state champs, so they can play softball.

Usually girls who have success at age 9 will be even stronger at age 10. For them to regress as badly as you've described under the same coach has me believing that there's something wrong with the team chemistry. I'm not blaming that coach, but rather, the culture. Even at 10u, it's a very important consideration.

It sounds like you really want to keep the team together and that's admirable for social reasons that cannot be measured. Are any of the strong players planning to stay with you?

 

[2x softball dad]

If you take over coaching the team you'll be in the same situation that the current coach is in now. Maybe not the yelling part but the part with the parents wanting to get another coach at the end of the year. You have to remember how important 10U softball is. Most parents think thier DD are going to play in college and be on the USA team. If these girls are practicing and playing as much as you say they are, then it's either they weren't coached correctly for a whole year or they aren't that good. And if it's the second you'll be that coach again.

And I'm fine with that. If I don't help the girls succeed, then I've failed and I would gladly step aside, but I really feel that we have the talent to compete. I've watched these girls play together and I've watched them play separately and all but 1-2 are very talented and with the proper coaching, I feel that they can all improve even more.

Taking over someone elses team is not the right thing to do. If you think you could do a better job talk to the coach and see if you can work something out were you are helping him or start a new team. And if you start a new team I think you'll be surprised how many of the complaining parents go with you. It won't be as many as you thought.

The problem with talking to the coach is some of us have tried that and it went as far as his ears and stopped. I think that he's the kind of person who wants to be in charge completely and if an idea or suggestion is not his own, then he doesn't want to do it so I feel that talking to him is not going to be beneficial.

As to the coach yelling at the players, that just wrong. Has he always been that type of coach, if he is why did you keep you DD on the team this long. Or does it only happen when he's feeling the pressure, either from the game or from outside the dugout. How is he during practices. I bet you he's brunt out from the long year of coaching (something to look forward to). Maybe it's time for him to go, but I still think a parent taking over is not the answer.

Don't get me wrong, he's not a hateful ol' fart but he get's frustrated with the girls very easily and he shows it. The girls don't react to that well. I think that a parent taking over is what they need, but I also think that the parent needs to have coaching experience, which is why I am looking into it, and I will also utilize the other two parents who have successfully coached as assistant coaches. I agree that it shouldn't be a parent with no coaching experience, not sure if that's what you're saying or not.

If I were you, I would find another team for my DD's to play on next year and get away from the drama.

I would but where we're a small community, there are no other teams close. This is why we started the team in the first place because the girls love softball but there were no options available for them.

 

[2x softball dad]

If this team is losing by 15-20 runs and is barely scoring, then I'm not sure how much talent this group has. If you've got talented players and are a 2nd-year 10u team, you should be competitive in most every game you play. I don't have a great or even good softball mind, but we've got 5 pretty talented players, so we're able to beat teams that only have 3-4 talented players. We're having success because we've got more good players than they do, not because I've got a better knack for extracting game day effort from 9yo girls than the other coaches out there.

The loss' are not generally that bad, some have been fairly close actually. We have a very good infield and the vast majority of the balls that are hit to the infield are either caught or the batter is thrown out at first. Most of the runs are scored when the ball is hit to the outfield, which is our weakest area as far as defense. Our biggest problem seems to be their hitting. The coach spends the majority of practice on hitting but we don't have a pitching machine so he pitches to them. During these practices, they kill the ball but when they get in a game, they can't hit. Standing on the sidelines, I can tell that he isn't throwing them nowhere near fast enough. The opposing teams pitcher is always throwing them faster and they have trouble hitting.[/quote]

I'm with Sluggers and MagicDad. I would not take over someone else's team under these circumstances. My advice is to form your own team and I would seek to have a core of players whose parents work with them at home away from practice.

Well, we're scheduled to have a parents meeting soon to decide what we, as parents, want to do. Some have already said that they won't play for him anymore, and it's not because of their record, but how he coaches and how their DD feels about him as a coach.....they just don't want to play for him anymore. Forming another team may be what we decide to go with but in all actuality, it isn't his team, it's our team. We, the parents, were the ones who started it and we gave him a chance to coach it.

I admire you for wanting to become a head coach, but you do not have any further obligation to this group at the conclusion of your fall season. BTW, is your DD a pitcher?

Under normal conditions, I'd say that you were right about obligation, but as I referenced above, I was in the core group that started the team, so I feel that I am obligated to do what is in the best interest of the girls, which is to help them learn the game, have fun playing it, and have some success.

No, she's not a pitcher. She pitched some last year but we didn't focus on that this year, she plays 1st base and catcher.

 

[2x softball dad]

Do any of them cry when they strike out? aawwww.........never mind.

There's a couple!

Thats a red flag for me, at least the 3 hr practices. He obviously wasnt teaching them anything worth while and I'll bet the kids were crazy bored after about an hour and a half. Thats alot for 10 uers, even 12 uers.

Yes they were, and so were we! I never did agree with 3 hr practices, especially when they didn't focus on areas that needed improvement. Basically the 3 hrs consisted of: A- The girls take their positions, he tells them where the play is at and hits the ball to them, B- He pitches 20-30+ pitches to each girl while the others are in their positions, C- They run. Every now and then they would throw something different in but that was basically it. And he was SOOOO focused on them taking their signs while at bat and if they missed a sign or didn't do what sign he gave them, he would jump all over them.

 

[2x softball dad]

Well, if the current coach leaves and the team wants to stay together, SOMEBODY has to take a turn in the barrel. Sounds like you want to do it, and that's the only way to find out what would have happened.

Well, that's what I'm thinking. Will I do better? I have no idea. I believe that I can but the only way I will know is if this time next year, we've succeeded.

 

[KevinC]

At first I was wondering why your team's record was so bad but your later posts shed some light - yelling at the girls during a game is bad but not having effective practices sounds like the real problem.

First question I would ask myself is: what is best for my daughter? Am I the best option to be her new coach? Once you decide to take it on make sure you change your focus to: what is best for the team?

If you have other parents that have more coaching experience why don't they want to take on the job? If they are more experienced at skills development and/or game management than you but don't want to deal with the administrative duties maybe you could be the manager / AC and one of them could be head coach.

Make sure you and your assistants are on the same page. If they have different ways of doing things than you someone is going to have to compromise or there could be friction, especially if your ACs have more "experience" than you.

 

[CoachAl]

2nd red flag!

someone else already mentioned yelling at 10u players as the first bad sign of why this team is not having any success....and success IMO is not measured by the W-L record!

the 2nd red flag MOST DEFINITELY are the practices. If the practices are as you described, I can pretty much guarantee these girls are bored to tears after about 30 min. softball may be a team sport, but it is a sport built on a bunch of INDIVIDUAL fundamental skills that have to be learned and practiced over and over again.

IF you take this team, go with skills based practices 90% of the time where the players are split into stations to work on fundamentals. There is a time and place for running the old "balls in positions" drill but not every practice. Get plenty of parent help too and educate them on what the players need to be taught. And above, you must find a way to make practices fun!! That is the only way girls this age will focus and learn. They are totally into the whole team thing (way more than boys are!) if you keep it fun!

Either way I wish you luck here. 10u is a very rewarding but challenging age group to coach!

 

[2x softball dad]

At first I was wondering why your team's record was so bad but your later posts shed some light - yelling at the girls during a game is bad but not having effective practices sounds like the real problem.

I agree completely and I actually think that it's a combination of the two. During practice, he doesn't yell at them and they hit, they catch, and they throw accurately, etc., but during the game is when the yelling starts and they seem to go to pieces. Combine that with ineffective practices and you end up with a horrible record that we have.

First question I would ask myself is: what is best for my daughter? Am I the best option to be her new coach? Once you decide to take it on make sure you change your focus to: what is best for the team?

I agree, and I already have. I don't want to coach so I can play my daughter where "I think" she needs to play, I want to coach so that I can, hopefully, make them better by encouraging them to give their best in every play, by allowing them to prove to themselves that they can do whatever they set their mind to, with time and effort. I've watched some of the girls go from, last season, being very good ball players who seldom made an error to this season, acting like they don't know what a softball is because they've lost the love that they had due to boring practices and losing games excessively.

If you have other parents that have more coaching experience why don't they want to take on the job? If they are more experienced at skills development and/or game management than you but don't want to deal with the administrative duties maybe you could be the manager / AC and one of them could be head coach.

There are 3 of us parents who have coaching experience, one is not available during the weeks because of his work schedule, but he would love to coach them. The other one will be assisting me, or I am fine with assisting him. He knows the game as good, if not better than me and I am all for whoever is better.

Make sure you and your assistants are on the same page. If they have different ways of doing things than you someone is going to have to compromise or there could be friction, especially if your ACs have more "experience" than you.

Well, we've talked alot during the season and for the most part, we are on the same page. I'm sure down the road that there will be times when we would disagree on something but I'm easy to get along with and I'm the type of person that, if someone has a better idea than mine, then I'm all for it.

All of us parents want to do what is best for the girls and to do what we can to keep this team together so any issues that arise, I see no reason why we can't work through them. This is our 2nd year of being together and there have been times when we didn't see eye to eye on everything but we've always got through it because our daughters is why we do this.

 

[2x softball dad]

the 2nd red flag MOST DEFINITELY are the practices. If the practices are as you described, I can pretty much guarantee these girls are bored to tears after about 30 min. softball may be a team sport, but it is a sport built on a bunch of INDIVIDUAL fundamental skills that have to be learned and practiced over and over again.

IF you take this team, go with skills based practices 90% of the time where the players are split into stations to work on fundamentals. There is a time and place for running the old "balls in positions" drill but not every practice. Get plenty of parent help too and educate them on what the players need to be taught. And above, you must find a way to make practices fun!! That is the only way girls this age will focus and learn. They are totally into the whole team thing (way more than boys are!) if you keep it fun!

Either way I wish you luck here. 10u is a very rewarding but challenging age group to coach!

That is exactly what I've been saying that they needed to do during practice, break down in 3-4 groups and focus on different aspects instead of the same ol' same ol', practice after practice.

 

[Mike]

The coach spends the majority of practice on hitting but we don't have a pitching machine so he pitches to them.

Nothing wrong there, pitching machines have a purpose, but limited IMO. What are the other 10 or 11 girls doing while he is pitching to only 1 kid?

Our 14u kids dont spend that much time standing around, I plan out practices my the minute and for the most part stick to it. Limit kids standing around to not more than say 30 seconds when doing stations, once they throw have something for them to do, lines need to move quick, During the first hour of practice I dont spend more than 7 or 8 minutes on a specific skill or station.

IMO there must be absolutes; example, every practice we cover calling the ball, the actual drill might vary so as not to get stagnent but we only spend 5 minutes a practice on it, then we move quickly to run down drills and spend 5 minutes on that, etc... Once we see a definciancy we slow down and back up a bit. Basically break the game down and then build practices based on what you think is important. Make practicing fun and fast paced. But HAVE A PLAN.

The last 20 or 30 minutes slows down a bit to work on more situational stuff that you cant really hurry through, but even then find ways to engage them all; example, practicing cut offs, Ofers are reading, reacting, getting to and throwing the ball, middle infielders are lining up for cuts, catchers are lining up middle infielders and giving commands, pitchers backing up, baserunners are reading hit balls, practicing taking leads, tagging up or going half way depending on the hit, every so often hit a line drive to the 2nd baseman and double up a runner to keep them on their toes. Thats alot going on but its pretty easy to manage with a little help. Thats just one example of many, be creative.