coaching dilema

[Dusty]

Well here it is two and 1/2 weeks since my last post and it happened, I'm now an ex-rec coach. It feels kind of surreal, coaching and my dd's participation in our rec league was such a big part of our family's life.

My younger dd's travel coach asked me if I want to be an assistant coach which I may do but it depends on where my older dd ends up playing.

 

[CoachKevin]

Well it comes down to 2 choices; #1 Don't help coach, and pray that the 10U and 12U Tournaments are in the same place and at different times so you can watch, if not then you have to decide which one your going to attend. #2 You do help coach, and will probably learn some things, and pray that the 10U and 12U Tournaments are at the same place and different times so you can watch, if not then the choice is already made for you because you have made a commitment with the 10U being a coach.

I would help assist in coaching to better yourself if you ever want to head up a travel team.

 

[Dave D]

I was a school ball coach for a number of years, always coaching other parents' kids. I started out helping with my DD's rec teams when she started playing about four years ago, then ended up coaching her rec ball team for a couple of years. Doing school and rec was a challenge, but I loved my school coaching job and my DW put up with all of the time on the field. At the end of this past season, I left my school job, partly to avoid the political fallout from having my DD on my school ball team in the next couple of years. (partly for some other typical school ball reasons, too)

Last year, I got together with a group of parents and kids and started a first year 14U travel team. My DD has been the #1 pitcher on the travel ball team, and all of the parents and kids have been great so far. One way I've dealt with the pressure to be fair is to go out of my way to work with the other kids to give them a chance to improve and earn time at the positions they want, even (especially) pitcher. When we started this team, we had about 1 1/2 pitchers. Going into fall ball, we have five girls who can throw competitively. The irony is that my own kid used to get all of the innings she could handle in the circle, and now she has that many more kids to share/compete with.

Most important to me is that my DD is having the best experience she can have. She's played on a number of teams coached by others and prefers to play for me. We spend an inordinate amount of time on the field together during spring and summer, working one on one and with the team. She also spends a lot of time reading in the dugout while I do instruction with other pitchers. The best part is that we get to spend that time together and that we have a lot of stuff to talk about.

In the long run, I think it's given DD a unique perspective on the softball experience. She has a great sense of what it takes to be good, because she sees so many kids at various levels of effort and attitude. Of course we have our overload days and like Ken said, sometimes I get more frustrated with her than with other kids when things don't go right, but the overall experience has been really great.

 

[Dusty]

My older dd did end up in the same org as my younger dd which is where dw and I wanted her to go in the first place. Younger dd only tried out for the 10u team because older dd was going to multiple practices and tryouts for the 12u team.

I told the 10u coach I was in for an assistant coaching position, everybody's gotta volunteer for something after all. The 10u head coach has an older dd who's also playing 12u and since both teams are in the same org they'll probably be in mostly the same tournaments and I'll be able to watch some of older dd's games.

I don't think I have it in me to ever start up a travel team though.