if you could do it all over again

[fgold68]

this is a question for all of you coaches out there.

If presented the opportunity would you go back and start all over again

Without a child of your own on the team, just to take yourself and an good asst and go back and teach 7 and 8 year olds and then follow them until they reach 16 years of age?

starting this fall I am going to be given that opportunity and we are going to give it a shot.

I have been doing this coaching stuff for 10 years and find it incredibly rewarding. Although I lost count on the number of mistakes I made at approx 1million give or take a few

In talking to people they always say IF i could only do it again I would do this and that, Well it is time to do it.

Personally I hope to cut my mistakes by about 500k or so.

So here are the questions.


Would you do it?

If you would Just wondering what you would attempt to do differently?



I have my own ideas I am just looking for a good discussion.


have a great day

[kylebee]

I'm too young to have "done it all again." Hopefully I do it somewhat right the first time.

[gwynnfan]

this is a question for all of you coaches out there.

If presented the opportunity would you go back and start all over again

Without a child of your own on the team, just to take yourself and an good asst and go back and teach 7 and 8 year olds and then follow them until they reach 16 years of age?

starting this fall I am going to be given that opportunity and we are going to give it a shot.

I have been doing this coaching stuff for 10 years and find it incredibly rewarding. Although I lost count on the number of mistakes I made at approx 1million give or take a few

In talking to people they always say IF i could only do it again I would do this and that, Well it is time to do it.

Personally I hope to cut my mistakes by about 500k or so.

So here are the questions.


Would you do it?

If you would Just wondering what you would attempt to do differently?



I have my own ideas I am just looking for a good discussion.


have a great day

What do you do when you get there? Do you start all over again?

[fgold68]

for me the first thing we will do is play every single variation of "catch" that I can come up with.

Before anything else the kids have to really really have a firm grasp of throwing and catching

[fgold68]

I'm too young to have "done it all again." Hopefully I do it somewhat right the first time.

Nobody ever thinks they are doing something wrong. Everyone really believes that what they are doing at the time is the best thing for the kids both now and long term.

Not that I am really old but trust me time and exp teaches you A LOT and boy you learn a lot of different ways of doing things. Not only physically on the field but how you handle the kids psychologically even how you handle parents

[gwynnfan]

for me the first thing we will do is play every single variation of "catch" that I can come up with.

Before anything else the kids have to really really have a firm grasp of throwing and catching

No, I am sorry. I meant you, 8 years from now. Would you start with another group of 8 year olds. Do you then stay at Varsity or the travel team you created for them. Do you quit coaching then?

[fgold68]

No, I am sorry. I meant you, 8 years from now. Would you start with another group of 8 year olds. Do you then stay at Varsity or the travel team you created for them. Do you quit coaching then?

Assuming I still find great enjoyment out of it and I am asked to do it again I would LOVE to keep running in 8 year cycles.

Hell I am only 40 I could do 4 more rounds of this. that would put me in my 70's and I cant think of anything better than being 70 and going out to the ball field.

Why not? Actaully I also had the chance to stay on and coach 14-16 year olds in connie mack after this year ended but the more I thought of it, I think the journey is incredible and I cannot imagine it ever getting stale.

[gwynnfan]

I am your age. The question is are you going to have the same energy at 50 and 60. Also what happens with the kids who either change their heart or who never exactly take to the game and their skills are inadequate to compete with the rest of the team? I understand the lure of it. Trying to answer the "what if" question.

[fgold68]

I am your age. The question is are you going to have the same energy at 50 and 60. Also what happens with the kids who either change their heart or who never exactly take to the game and their skills are inadequate to compete with the rest of the team? I understand the lure of it. Trying to answer the "what if" question.

I can only assume I will have the same love for the coaching as I do now and have had since the beginning. I really cannot answer the what if question other than to say if I lose the desire then I step away

To answer the other question, I would never assume that all the same kids would still be there every year. This is a LL, kids come and go all the time. Adjusting to the new kids every year is part of the fun.

Even now I go into a drug store or pizza place and hear Hi coach. I still see kids who only played for 2 or 3 years Turn over is not a horrible thing.

My doing this would not be to make some kind of "super team" It would be having a great time teaching kids the greatest sport around and watching them grow as players and men

Might sound corny but that is how I am approaching it


Don't get me wrong though, There will never be a game that we don't play as hard as we can to win, I NEVER want to lose a game but the journey is a lot of fun

[gwynnfan]

I misunderstood you. I thought you were asked to take a group of talented 8 year old kids. Coach and train them as a team until they were 16.

[Jake Patterson]

I am doing it all over again... I retired from HS ball at 50 and was talked into running a MS program and am having a blast. I run clinics for young kids and coaches and still teach individual players. I am uncertain if I would have the energy to do young kids again or HS again but I am having a blast with 12-14's.

To be able to start over? Hmmm... The biggest lesson I learned looking back was how little I knew as a daddy coach. I took the Dogma of the game and those who taught me way too serious and did not learn what I should have when I began. I expected too much from my kids and was fortunate enough to have a dad who slapped me upside the head before I spoiled the game for my kids. Both still enjoy the game in their own way with my youngest still playing and doing some coaching himself. Seeing dads pushing their kids using the "but they enjoy the competition" arguement saddens me.

[TG Coach]

I've been through 7/8's twice within seven years. I think I did it right before. We laughed a lot. We had fun. Our practices were comprised of fun drills and competitiions. The kids rotated positions every two innings. We batted continuously. We won a lot in spite of playing everyone equally.

The part the kids like the best was getting baseball cards after the games. One dad told me three years later the baseball cards kept his son from quitting midseason of his first year. To get a specific card a player had to know something about the player. We also did a take home baseball quiz to do with parents with the top prizes being more collector type ($5-10 value) baseball cards. We got some great answers to Who's On First?