hey, starsnuffer,rec to TB

[2DDspitching]

Coaches coach the kids. Managers manage the game (strategy ,tactics , line up , registration).
If you are really a coach you coach all the kids regaurdless of what level. So with that said no I'm not kidding you.
There isnt any one that coaches that would think it is easier to coach a kid that has no athletic ability over the kid that has a ton of it.

Are you implying that there should'nt be any strategy or tactics involved with rec. ball ? It is still softball and it should be played the same way regaurdless of the level. If you have strategies and tatics in TB you should have them in rec. or league otherwise you are taking part of the game away from them.

And the goal of TB is not to keep the parents happy it is about trying to win. That is the difference between TB and rec. or league.

 

[Coach JV]

TB is all about taking the girls to the highest level. The majority
play TB because they love the game and will give 100% for a win.

Rec ball is not easier or harder, it is different as others have referenced
above. The unfortunate part of rec ball is parents that are 'know it alls'
and continually run their mouths. Last week I had a parent from another team cussing
at a 10yo first year pitcher. End result? manager gets tossed from the park
by a volunteer umpire. PLease reference the " more drama in softball"
thread from last week!

 

[nanotech14]

When I started the original thread or rant. It was because my dd's travel coach asked for me to be one of his asst. coaches. I gladly said yes , I tought I could bring something to the table to help the team. I quickly found out thats this coach was the my way or the highway type. Now I'am not saying every thing that he teaches is wrong by no means. But when he is in his second year as a TB coach and only his second year coaching at any level and can't seem to see that other people can help him add value to the team. That is the wrong way to look at it. Than when you read and feel like the TB coaches have this, were better than other coaches at the rec.level. It was the straw that broke the camels back. I had enough. I wanted people to see the value of us rec. coaches.

 

[FPMark]

Sounds like you made 2 mistakes. #1 was going to the wrong team, #2 was vollunteering to assist a coach you didn't know, and have no respect for. Recipe for disaster if you ask me. Hope I'm wrong but sounds like a long season ahead.

 

[Dusty]

Coaches coach the kids. Managers manage the game (strategy ,tactics , line up , registration).
If you are really a coach you coach all the kids regaurdless of what level. So with that said no I'm not kidding you.
There isnt any one that coaches that would think it is easier to coach a kid that has no athletic ability over the kid that has a ton of it.

Are you implying that there should'nt be any strategy or tactics involved with rec. ball ? It is still softball and it should be played the same way regaurdless of the level. If you have strategies and tatics in TB you should have them in rec. or league otherwise you are taking part of the game away from them.

And the goal of TB is not to keep the parents happy it is about trying to win. That is the difference between TB and rec. or league.

I wasn't trying to be argumentative in my previous post and I don't doubt that you personally find coaching travel easier than rec but I'd be surpised if many others do also.

With the possible exception of the registration process, I don't know of any head coaches who delegate game management duties to someone else. So as a head coach, you would run practices and then have someone else make game management decisions at tourneys? (again , just curious not saying you should or shouldn't).

While I would agree that all things being equal it's easier to coach a kid with talent and athleticism than one who doesn't possess those traits but often times the talent comes with a lot of baggage associated with it in terms of the kids, or parents, attitudes. If as a rec coach you make nominal progress over the course of a season with a three toed sloth than the kid and her parents are going to think you're the greatest coach ever.

As far as strategy goes, I've never seen anything that rises above rudimentary done at the rec level. With such a short season and practice schedule, even the best coaches wouldn't have time to teach any advanced strategies or tactics at the rec level. I've seen more coaching strategy and tactics deployed at rec tryouts and drafts to ensure the coach gets the pitcher and catcher he wants than anything actually done in games.

While the winning/losing stakes are higher in travel I would disagree that the goal of winning is greater than keeping parents and kids happy, they are both just as important. If you win all the time but kids/parents are unhappy with playing time or positions than the good times aren't going to last long.

My dd's current travel coach makes it look easy and I wouldn't be surprised if he said coaching travel is easier than coaching rec but if he did I would probably assume he's just forgotten all the hard knocks he took early in his travel career.

 

[Dusty]

But when he is in his second year as a TB coach and only his second year coaching at any level and can't seem to see that other people can help him add value to the team.

So he didn't even cut his teeth as a rec coach before taking over a travel team? You mentioned in an earlier post that you didn't do your homework but it sounds like the org didn't do theirs either, they should have at least been able to find a coach with more rec experience. Maybe the org just doesn't care about this team and was willing to throw anything that came along together and field a team.

 

[starsnuffer]

I think most would agree that experience is important. Remember that travel teams typically play 4-10 games per weekend, two weekends of this can end up to being more games then a rec team plays in an entire season. Add to this the fact that TB teams are playing a wide variety of opponents and are exposed to a wide variety of top-tier players and coaches (even if their own coach is not), while rec teams will play the same handful of teams over and over through their short season.

This isn't to say that rec ball is less then travel ball, it's simply pointing out that there is no way that a rec-only coach could ever be exposed to the same amount of softball in the same amount of time as a travel ball coach. If both coaches are not pig-headed and stubborn, and both are smart and capable of observing and learning, then the TB coach will obtain more knowledge simply due to the environment. This isn't a disparaging comment, it's simply the truth of the situation. There are many many rec coaches that also have TB experience, maybe with an older daughter, maybe with their current daughter. We're not talking about two classifications of people, here.

-W