Coaches of top level travel programs

ang2bmd said:

My daughter's team is 15u...highly ranked in 16u. 4 kids have been together since 10u, 1 joined in 11u, 4 more in 12u, 2 more in 13u in the craziness of the pandemic and 3 newcomers this year filling in some depth. Team has practiced once a week for 3 hours since 10u. Every single practice still for 2 hours....we throw and catch and field and work foot work and cut offs and situations. We don't hit much in practice other than some live modified scrimmage in the last hour. Kids obviously work hard on their own as well. Our organization has been one thats accused of poaching rather than developing but I'm not sure what developing means if its not what our team has done.

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Based on the bold above, I would not consider this poaching. Of course it depends how those new players joined the organization. If you are running a quality team, other players/parents will have interest in joining. I do not consider that poaching.

At one point in time, I was labeled as a poacher. The truth is I never once reached out to a player that was already committed to another team. But if a player reached out to me, I would not refuse the conversation. My view is that each family should make their own decisions. I did not try to be a salesman for the teams I coached. I simply explained how we worked things and let the decision up to the player/parents. I never made any promises other than the player would have an opportunity to compete for playing time at their preferred position. Unfortunately some coaches have trouble understanding why any player would ever want to leave their team. The only reason they can come up with is that the coach of the new team must have poached them.

FP26 said:

I never once reached out to a player that was already committed to another team. But if a player reached out to me, I would not refuse the conversation.

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That is a great description of the boundary line on poaching/ recruiting.

Who is starting/ initiating the conversation.

I have a different journey: I played college baseball, coached very high level baseball for a long time before I had kids that played. Son played Tball....I go coach t-ball. DD starts softball I go coach softball.... So I was coaching "majors" in baseball and then went and coached 8u rec. Why cause it was my kids.
Now people hate all of the time on Parent Coaches.... that's fine. But as a guy who has coached at a very high level and is happily walking my DD through her journey, you never know the skill level of a coach without being coached by them. I am currently coaching a 1st yr 14u B team.... why am I not coaching a A or National team.... cause my DD isn't at that level. Simple as that.

YOCOACH said:

There are 3 types of coaches as far as I'm aware. There are coaches that work on fundamentals and develop players skills. There are coaches that can recruit the top players and win at the highest levels. Then there is the rare breed of coaches that can do both.

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This should be a sticky.

I believe someone on DFP in the past referred to first type as developers, the second as assemblers.

Important for parents of kids just starting TB to know the difference and do some research before committing.

BrianTx01 said:

Usually being a former D1 player qualifies you to be a good instructor. They have had access to high level coaching most that most people have not had. Whether that makes them a good coach or team leader is a different issue. Some are and some aren't.

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Good to put on the flyer and collect $40, but does not mean you'll get repeat business if it's not translated on the field.

YOCOACH said:

There are 3 types of coaches as far as I'm aware. There are coaches that work on fundamentals and develop players skills. There are coaches that can recruit the top players and win at the highest levels. Then there is the rare breed of coaches that can do both. I call this a rare breed because in todays' society of wanting and expecting immediate gratification, the parents usually won't let their DD's stick around those teams long enough to see the teams coached by those rare breeds succeed. Believe me, it's not all on them either. The second type of coach is out there heavily recruiting from those teams coached by the first type of coach and the rare breeds coach. The only problem with that is those types that are actively recruiting are always looking for the next best replacement and will cut those that are no longer developing because those coaches don't know how. The players will see little field time or cut at years end or even mid-season. That now puts those players that were cut or saw little PT a year or more behind their peers.

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Solid post. Could probably say a 4th. One that believes they know what it takes but find out quickly it's harder to be on that side of the fence when things go live. Call themselves something with a catchy name like "Elite" but are not close. Question everything a childs hitting/pitching coach is teaching when a slump happens but can only say "just throw strikes" when the 3rd batter is walked. This team only stays around 1-2 years to help the Coach and Asst. Coaches kid have weekend plans but will continue to post looking for player "due to unforeseen circumstances" weekly.

"There are coaches that can recruit the top players and win at the highest levels." If you can do this more times than not, you proved you can win with what you had and evaluate each year and build. Open competition tryouts.

PapaBear said:

"There are coaches that can recruit the top players and win at the highest levels." If you can do this more times than not, you proved you can win with what you had and evaluate each year and build. Open competition tryouts.

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that distinguishes the difference within the catagory/group
'coaches who recruit players'
A.the ones who actually recruit players and win.
B. ...as opposed to we recruit anybody.

RADcatcher said:

Please explain how you differentiate the difference between poaching and recruiting.
The scenario is when players are already on teams...

Look forward to further discussions on this scenario topic.
Everyone~ GO DFP

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FP26 said:

Based on the bold above, I would not consider this poaching. Of course it depends how those new players joined the organization. If you are running a quality team, other players/parents will have interest in joining. I do not consider that poaching.

At one point in time, I was labeled as a poacher. The truth is I never once reached out to a player that was already committed to another team. But if a player reached out to me, I would not refuse the conversation. My view is that each family should make their own decisions. I did not try to be a salesman for the teams I coached. I simply explained how we worked things and let the decision up to the player/parents. I never made any promises other than the player would have an opportunity to compete for playing time at their preferred position. Unfortunately some coaches have trouble understanding why any player would ever want to leave their team. The only reason they can come up with is that the coach of the new team must have poached them.

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As @FP26 explained, this is what I would consider poaching vs recruiting. Recruiting a player happens when a player/team is in between seasons/years.

RedeemerKing said:

I see coaches of more mid-level programs using either “coach has 30 years of experience” or “coach was a former D1 player” as selling points, etc.

Are there any commonalities in terms of background among coaches of the top National travel teams/programs?

Based on my limited knowledge, it would seem that many if not most top level programs are in fact led by coaches who don’t possess either of those characteristics.

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From my perspective the commonalities are as follows, note DD has been lucky with her TB coaches as many have been tremendously accomplished on the field.

Coaches with previous playing experience:
1- UofA Alum, 2001 NCAA HR leader
2-UofA Alum and 4 year USSSA Pride player
3-UCLA Alum, 3 year USSSA Pride player
4-UNLV player

Current Coaches in 18u:
1- Just a former baseball playing father (his DD is not on our team)
2- Long, Long time assistant who's worked with all of the big dogs in the ORG.
3- A dad of a kid on the team.

The sheer success on the field was a great advantage as a coach, but to me single thing that mattered the most is an unwavering approach across all coaches in the organization to teach EVERYTHING the exact same way. The former players and the current dads all teach everything the same. It is really important for the kids who stay in the org to work towards the same standard.

From 12u to 18u they all run bases the same, do the same practices, run the same drills, teach the same defensive techniques, everything even swings. It has helped to add some stability over the years.