Question for the high school parents

[Rolling Hard]

Some of the worst coaches I have seen were former D1 players. I see teams advertise this all of the time, coached by former college player that played at so and so.

You are just rolling the dice there in what you will get.

At least he dad coached teams are vested in the teams success. Hired college coaches that are there for the summer can be a circus.

Just my observations...

Yep. This has been my experience too. I am sure there are some good ones too.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I think this approach requires a level of familiarity and comfort between coach and player, and it only can be done with certain players.

Some players need love. Some need tough love. Some need you to lighten the mood with a sarcastic joke. Some need different things in different situations.

The coach's big mistake is taking that approach with a player he doesn't know yet.

John Wooden treated all players fairly, not equally, as he stated in his book They Call Me Coach. Each player is different, he believed, and treating Bill Walton the same as Henry Bibby was unfair to both players, as each was different.

 

[El Oso]

She’s a freshman? Sounds like he is trying to figure out if she is mentally tough enough for varsity.

Mentally tough enough for High school ball? I mean HS softball is not the Army. It's high school softball. It means nothing. It's not life or death. These girls aren't marching off into a war zone. Why the need for mental toughness in high school softball? Is a girl's ability to take sarcastic criticism a necessary trait of a good softball player? I think not. There are much better ways to go about doing what you described than the sarcastic methods of this coach. IMO

 

[El Oso]

I think this approach requires a level of familiarity and comfort between coach and player, and it only can be done with certain players.

Some players need love. Some need tough love. Some need you to lighten the mood with a sarcastic joke. Some need different things in different situations.

The coach's big mistake is taking that approach with a player he doesn't know yet.

Man would I love for you to be coaching my DD's high school team. You have this thing figured out my man.

 

[Strike2]

You’re spot on and probably one of the reasons hs is like this is because coaching. I’d like to see more qualified women coaches (former college players), the sport is too full of dad coaches that do no teaching and only care about plastic figurines.

The picture really starts to clarify with that comment. How do you think those thousands of players get to the point where they can even contemplate playing HS, much less college ball? Somebody must have taught them something while chasing all those plastic figurines. Without those "dad coaches", either your DD wouldn't have a youth team to play on, or wouldn't have anyone to play against.

I have no problem whatsoever with women coaching at all levels. In fact, it's all around me. My eyes tell me that male college softball coaches are going the way of the dinosaur. I suspect that HS will follow, at least to an extent. That said, simply being a former college softball player guarantees little in terms of teaching, relating to players, or outcomes. DD's team played a number of opponents coached by recent players and small-college assistants. I don't remember a single instance of any of them beating the "dad coaches".

 

[chinamigarden]

Mentally tough enough for High school ball? I mean HS softball is not the Army. It's high school softball. It means nothing. It's not life or death. These girls aren't marching off into a war zone. Why the need for mental toughness in high school softball? Is a girl's ability to take sarcastic criticism a necessary trait of a good softball player? I think not. There are much better ways to go about doing what you described than the sarcastic methods of this coach. IMO

Your taking a 14 year old girl and asking her to play against 18 year old women. Yes mental toughness is necessary. Not every freshman is mature enough to deal with the social pressure.

 

[Filterbing]

Some of the worst coaches I have seen were former D1 players. I see teams advertise this all of the time, coached by former college player that played at so and so.

You are just rolling the dice there in what you will get.

At least he dad coached teams are vested in the teams success. Hired college coaches that are there for the summer can be a circus.

Just my observations...

I agree here, not every player has the teaching skills or disposition to coach. I want to know philosophy of instruction and the team culture. Worse level of instruction to me is line the girls up at short, blast line drives with shouting get in front of it!

 

[_MIA_]

If we had to choose TB coaches blindly then the discussion of generalizing the coaching abilities of male parent vs non-parent former players would have relevance...luckily we don't.

 

[slowcelica]

Some of the worst coaches I have seen were former D1 players. I see teams advertise this all of the time, coached by former college player that played at so and so.

You are just rolling the dice there in what you will get.

At least he dad coached teams are vested in the teams success. Hired college coaches that are there for the summer can be a circus.

Just my observations...

This is different from what I’ve seen, and experienced the best coaches we’ve had did not have a kid on the team, some were former college players. The dads that coached from our experience 90% only care about where their DD played and trophies.

 

[slowcelica]

I agree here, not every player has the teaching skills or disposition to coach. I want to know philosophy of instruction and the team culture. Worse level of instruction to me is line the girls up at short, blast line drives with shouting get in front of it!

Lol You literally described what they did at fall workouts last year!