To All the Coaches

[0-rain]

I'm assuming most parents became coaches for their son/daughter. But what qualification do you have to coach a team? Are you able to develop kids and makes them better? Did you take any coach clinics?

I've been asked to be a head coach on the 11U travel team my son tried out for. The orinigal head coach (great head coach) decided to leave and join another coach and form an elite team. The manager of the team is a great guy. He and I share the same philiosphy, develop first, winning second. The problem is I'm not a true head coach. I'm a good assistant coach but I dont know baseball like some others do. So I dont think it's fair for the kids/parents to spend money/effort if I cant teach/develop them. However, i did get couple of phone calls last night from parents urging me to coach. Kids like me cause I'm good with kids. I make practice fun. I give them prizes for doing well. I've coached some of these kids when they were 7-8 yrs old, in house. But this travel and their not 7-8 yrs old anymore.

Am I selling myself short? I have experience being assisted coach for the past 2 yrs in travel but I pretty much just hit grounders, pop flies to kids. I can do the drills easily but I have no experience with hitting and pitching.

Most importantly if i do become a head coach, I would then need to move my son who is on a good team right now to be on my team.

[d-mac]

Most importantly if i do become a head coach, I would then need to move my son who is on a good team right now to be on my team.

This makes it tough. I would talk to your son first and foremost about what he wants to do. If he wants to stay with his current team, I would decline the coaching position.

As far as qualifications, here is how my coaching has evolved. My playing experience consisted of high school/Legion. Baseball was probably my third favorite sport behind football and basketball, mainly due to the baseball strike in 1994. My son started playing t-ball at 5 and I was asked to help coach. Half way through the season the coach quit and I was asked to take over. At 6, I coached the team again. At 7, our church didn't have enough for two teams so we combined into one and I was assistant with a coach who was a former legion coach. This was the age that my son started becoming hooked on baseball. Luckily, I played ball with both of our high school coaches so I stated going to some of their practices and became a sponge. I also had a friend of mine that was a GA for an SEC school and I got as much info from him as I could. I got a ton of info off of the internet, from QC baseball, youtube, this site, batspeed, etc. At 8 we played rec and I coached our team in 4-6 AA travel tournaments.

At 9 we dove into travel much more and also played 10 year old rec. During this time I would take my kid to any college camp that was close that he wanted to attend. I would stay with him at the camp and pick up on stuff and asked a lot of questions. I found that the players and coaches were extremely approachable. I wasn't going out on the field, but when they were inside in the cages I would just walk down and ask a question while the boys were picking up baseballs. One question would lead to another and then on breaks, I'd hit them up for more. I think they can see the difference when you are asking them a question about their approach or philosophy versus what do I need to do to get my little johnny to the major leagues?

Our 10 year old season we went full time into travel. Our team was bumped to AAA as 9 year olds and we began the 10 year old season at AAA. We also decided to join a baseball academy at 10. Part of joining the academy was that every coach had to attend 40 hours of coach training. This was invaluable. Our team had a lot of success and we ended up being the 3rd best Majors team in our state.

I know you didn't ask for my personal story, but here is my point. When my son was 7 we went out and watched a big Majors travel tournament. I never thought he would play at that level or I would coach at that level, this past season we won that tournament. Last year when we were knocked out of 9AAA state going 0-3, we came home and watched the last two games of the Majors state, I thought we will never be as good as these teams. This year we were in the Semi's of Majors state and blew a lead in that game. When he was 5, I never had any vision of me coaching his baseball teams. I was probably a pretty poor coach to start, but I feel confident in my abilities now. We were able to develop our kids and every year they have gotten better. It is hard to believe that 6 kids from a 5 year old t-ball team played 10 year old travel ball together this past season.

[d-mac]

Most importantly if i do become a head coach, I would then need to move my son who is on a good team right now to be on my team.

duplicate post

[TexAg]

Most importantly if i do become a head coach, I would then need to move my son who is on a good team right now to be on my team.

why is that? if you're coaching the team now without him on it, why does he need to switch teams just because you're now the HC? also, out of curiosity, why are you coaching a team if your son is on another?

[0-rain]

why is that? if you're coaching the team now without him on it, why does he need to switch teams just because you're now the HC? also, out of curiosity, why are you coaching a team if your son is on another?

Sorry for the confusion. I'm an assistant coach to my son's current team. He tried out for a different team because the original head coach on the new team is an amazing coach. Now that he's gone, they've asked me to coach.

Thanks D-mac for your input.

[The Flush]

I never really wanted to be a coach (and still don't really want to). I became a coach becuase my son wanted me to and becuase I came to the conclusion I could not do worse than most of the other rec league coaches. I also figured that by being a coach, I could prevent my son from being on one of the "bad" coach's team. At signups last year, I checked that I would be an assistant coach. A friend who has coached my daughter in the past asked me to be her assistant coach, so I said yes. My qualifications are that I really enjoy spending time playing ball with my son (nearly every day in the backyard) and that I know that I don't know much, so I spend a lot of time reading and learning at places like BBF. My biggest weakness is that I am not a natural teacher, which makes it harder working with other people's kids. That is probably the main reason I prefer to be an assistant coach than a head coach. There will not be many returning coaches in my son's league next year, but I have already told one of the assitant coaches from another team that if he became a head coach, I wouldn't mind being his assistant coach because I think we would work well together. The problem I think he just wants to be an assistant coach as well.

[tg643]

When I coached LL I would say six of the eight coaches were not qualified to be head coaches. It showed when they tried to continue coaching past LL. If you don't understand the nuances of the game you need as assistant who does. There are good baseball people who don't want to be head coach or have the time?

[real green]

When I coached LL I would say six of the eight coaches were not qualified to be head coaches. It showed when they tried to continue coaching past LL. If you don't understand the nuances of the game you need as assistant who does. There are good baseball people who don't want to be head coach or have the time?

What exactly is the qualifications required of a rec little league coach?

I wouldn't expect a LL coach to be qualified to coach competitive 60/90 ball. It would be nice but not a requirement for rec LL.

Expectations of "volunteer" rec leagues coaches can get WAY out of prospective!

Some things I want from a LL coach:
1. Concern about safety issues - amazed at some of the lack of concern regarding safety
2. Good with kids
3. Available time
4. Organized
5. Communication skills
6. Some Baseball Knowledge

I don't expect my kid to be getting college quality coaching from LL. Don't get me wrong, when it happens it's nice. I don't expect it, and I don't consider a LL coach with lower baseball knowledge or experience as a bad coach. It's appropriate for the age group.

[Jake Patterson]

When I coached LL I would say six of the eight coaches were not qualified to be head coaches. It showed when they tried to continue coaching past LL. If you don't understand the nuances of the game you need as assistant who does. There are good baseball people who don't want to be head coach or have the time?

When I coached basketbal I had a former college coach as my assistant... She forgot more about the game than I knew. It never changed the fact I was in charge, nor the fact she knew more. We worked it out and we both had a great time. About a dozen of our players made college... One this year is getting a shot at the WNBA.

When I was in the service I found that behind every great company commander was a great executive officer....

[HeinekenMan]

The disparity between coaches at the rec level can be significant. But it's not always about how much you know. It's really about how much you're willing to learn. I have read all sorts of articles, watched tons of videos, listened to other coaches and posed questions on boards like this one. In some cases, I taught kids the wrong stuff and had to teach them differently later. But there are also coaches who don't know much and aren't really motivated to learn, and there are coaches who think they know everything and refuse to consider that maybe they could use some help.

If you decide to manage a team, make sure you are completely dedicated and willing to spend time reading books, watching Youtube videos, etc. to learn as much as possible.

[The Uncoach]

There is such fantastic advice in this thread that it's hard to add to it, so I will just point out a few of the gems you should really pay attention to.....

...I would talk to your son first and foremost about what he wants to do. If he wants to stay with his current team, I would decline the coaching position.

Absolutely! Don't coach this team, if your son doesn't want to play on it.

....If you don't understand the nuances of the game you need as assistant who does. There are good baseball people who don't want to be head coach or have the time?

...When I was in the service I found that behind every great company commander was a great executive officer....

TG and Jake hit the nail on the head, if your son wants to play on this team and you are going to coach it. Even if you had experience/knowledge, it can't ever hurt to have assistants who also know the game and can help out.

[0-rain]

Having talk to my son briefly, my son loved the idea me being a head coach. I get the feeling he's excited about it cause he thinks he's going to get away with murder. Plus let him play any position he wants with batting in the top 3. He's learned the coach's son favoritism at very young age. I plan on being fair and again develop every kid to their full potential.

Most dad's that know baseball really well are already head coaches. Other dad's just want to win at all cost. The rest dont even want to be involved. It's going to be pretty tough to find one w/o paying for it in our area.

[d-mac]

The disparity between coaches at the rec level can be significant. But it's not always about how much you know. It's really about how much you're willing to learn.

This is great advice.

[johnlanza]

If it were me, as much as I love coaching baseball, I probably would not coach the team if my son is playing elsewhere. There's a thing called "time" that we never seem to have enough of. I guess it depends on your personal schedule. It would wreck havoc on our family time if our games/practices kept us going in different directions all season long.
And if I had to give one bit of coaching advice - and I am, by no means, an expert - make sure you can line up the assistant coaches before the first practice. I've always enjoyed being part of a like-minded coaching staff who know more about the game than I do

[tg643]

What exactly is the qualifications required of a rec little league coach?

I wouldn't expect a LL coach to be qualified to coach competitive 60/90 ball. It would be nice but not a requirement for rec LL.

Expectations of "volunteer" rec leagues coaches can get WAY out of prospective!

Some things I want from a LL coach:
1. Concern about safety issues - amazed at some of the lack of concern regarding safety
2. Good with kids
3. Available time
4. Organized
5. Communication skills
6. Some Baseball Knowledge

I don't expect my kid to be getting college quality coaching from LL. Don't get me wrong, when it happens it's nice. I don't expect it, and I don't consider a LL coach with lower baseball knowledge or experience as a bad coach. It's appropriate for the age group.

If a LL coach's solution to hitting problems is "get that back elbow up" he's not qualified to coach. If a coach can't correct a kid throwing like a girl he's not qualified to coach. Here's my favorite: Between innings an opposing LL coach told me his pitcher had a pain shooting from his elbow to his hand. He asked how much longer the kid should pitch. He's not qualified to coach. Coaches need to be more than adult supervision.