Coaching Youth Sports

hing Youth SportsCoaching youth sports is a challenge. Most of our kids are really happy to have usstep up to the plate and coach and, despite the time we give up, most parents findthe experience equally rewarding. However, there are some major things that everycoach needs to do and understand before they start the season: 1) coach with theproper attitude; 2) coach with the proper fundamentals; and, 3) learn and teach thedifference between the  Dad Hat and the  Coach Hat .Coaching the Right AttitudeWe all love our kids and, letÂ's face it; we also love playing sports with our kids.For me, itÂ's the way that I spend most of my free time and it is right up there asone of my favorite things to do. That being said, I also need to realize thatstatistically, none of the kids that I coach will ever play professional sports,nearly all of them will not play sports in college, and many of them will not evenplay varsity sports in high school. So, what does this mean for us as a coach? Weneed to emphasize all the other aspects of sports and the life lessons that make uslove playing the game. Mostly, we need to make the experience fun!In 1988, Robert Fulghum wrote the book  All I Really Need to Know I learned inKindergarten . IÂ've often told people that you can learn everything you need to knowby playing sports  especially youth sports. Many of the same lessons apply, but onan even bigger scale where kids learn success and failure, wining and losing,sportsmanship and teamwork, and how to respond in many pressure situations. None ofthese are easy lessons. Winning with grace is just as hard to teach as losing withdignity. How can you do this and make sure that everybody has a great season? ThatÂ'sthe trick.Every team you ever coach, especially teams with younger kids, will be split betweenkids that are talented and kids that are not. The goal that you have as a coach isto make sure that every one of those kids has a great experience and wants to playagain next year. I take the most pride in the job I did as a coach when the worstkid on the team loves the sport and keeps playing year after year. The way that I dothis is to emphasize things other than on field performance.Coaching the Right FundamentalsKids of any age can learn to do things properly. They may not have the motor skillsdeveloped yet, but they can at least try to do it right. One of my favoritemisconceptions is that  practice makes perfect . ThatÂ's totally wrong; practicedoesnÂ't make perfect, practice makes PERMANENT. What I try to teach is:  PerfectPractice Makes Permanently Perfect . ThatÂ's a pretty big difference!Of course, this really changes things for a youth coach because we need to teach thecorrect fundamentals or weÂ'll simply be reinforcing the bad habits kids develop. Thehardest thing to do as a coach is to try and correct a flaw that a kid has developedover years of  practice . This is even harder when the kid is good, becausecorrecting the fundamental flaw generally means that getting worse before gettingbetter. That means the kid is going to be reluctant to try this  new way and maynot stick it out. In the long run, the difference could be huge.The solution is simple: we need to learn the right fundamentals before we startcoaching. ItÂ's a responsibility that we accept when we volunteer to coach. Now, upfront, I want to make sure to state that most of us think we know much more aboutsports than we really do. ThatÂ's simply not true. Much of what we learned was wrong.We may also not know the right way to communicate what we know to kids. Or, we maynot know anything about the sport if weÂ're stepping in and coaching soccer oranother sport that wasnÂ't  big when we were young. Fortunately, there is help. Many leagues do a good job teaching their coaches thefundamentals of the game. Some leagues even offer mandatory coaching clinics fortheir coaches. These are really good starts, but generally not enough  especiallyas the kids you coach get older and better. Before every season that I coach, IÂ'llwatch several instructional tapes to review the fundamentals and also learn newmaterial. I re-watch tapes, often with my kids that weÂ've seen before and buy acouple of new ones to add some wrinkles. Of course, at SportsKids.com, we do offer1,000Â's of instructional books and videos, but the point of this section is tosimply say to use whatever method you choose to make sure that you teach correctfundamentals. Every kid, even young kids, can learn with good coaching andremember:  Practice makes Permanent . The  Dad Hat and the  Coach Hat There is a huge difference between being a  Dad and being a  Coach . Each hasdifferent responsibilities and relationships with the kids. Unfortunately, thereisnÂ't a lot of overlap between the two roles. I literally have two hats: one says Dad and the other says  Coach . Over the years, my kids and I have learned toseparate the two so I donÂ't wear the hats too often, but it does make thedistinction more literal. Coaching your own children is one of the real challengesof youth sports because sometimes, you child wants or expects to have a dad whenyouÂ're the teamÂ's coach. If you can separate these roles, and both of yourexpectations, you and your child will have a much better youth sports experience.

Source: Express-Press-Release.com

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