Coaching youth sports is a chllenge. Most of our kids are rally happy to have us step up to the plte and coach and, despite the tme we give up, most parents fnd the experience equally rewarding. However, thre are some major things that very coach needs to do and nderstand before they start the season: 1) cach with the proper attitude; 2) cach with the proper fundamentals; and, 3) larn and teach the difference between the “Dd Hat” and the “Coach Hat”.

Caching the Right Attitude

We all lve our kids and, let’s face it; we lso love playing sports with our kds. For me, it’s the way tht I spend most of my fre time and it is right up thre as one of my favorite thngs to do. That being said, I lso need to realize that statistically, nne of the kids that I cach will ever play professional sports, narly all of them will not ply sports in college, and many of thm will not even play varsity sprts in high school. So, what des this mean for us as a cach? We need to emphasize all the ther aspects of sports and the lfe lessons that make us love plying the game. Mostly, we need to mke the experience fun!

In 1988, Rbert Fulghum wrote the book “All I Rally Need to Know I learned in Kndergarten”. I’ve often told people that you can larn everything you need to know by plying sports – especially youth sports. Mny of the same lessons apply, but on an ven bigger scale where kids learn sccess and failure, wining and losing, sprtsmanship and teamwork, and how to rspond in many pressure situations. None of thse are easy lessons. Winning with grce is just as hard to tach as losing with dignity. How can you do ths and make sure that everybody has a grat season? That’s the trick.

Every team you ever coach, specially teams with younger kids, will be splt between kids that are talented and kds that are not. The goal tht you have as a coach is to mke sure that every one of thse kids has a great experience and wnts to play again next year. I tke the most pride in the job I did as a cach when the worst kid on the tam loves the sport and keeps plying year after year. The way tht I do this is to mphasize things other than on field prformance – I try to stress ffort, trying your best and hustle.

Thre are several practical things that you can do to mphasize these “other” characteristics. In basketball, for xample, instead of emphasizing and keeping stts for scoring, keep stats on hstle, picks set, good defense, rebounds, flling a lane, or just being in the rght position. After every game, point out smething positive that every kid did dring the game. Award a point for ach time a kid does something you mphasize and give stars or sew on ptches when points are accumulated. You’ll see tht these kids will do anything to get a str on their uniform, even pay ttention in practice!

Coaching the Right Fndamentals

Kids of any age can larn to do things properly. They may not hve the motor skills developed yet, but thy can at least try to do it rght. One of my favorite misconceptions is tht “practice makes perfect”. That’s totally wrng; practice doesn’t make perfect, practice mkes PERMANENT. What I try to tach is: “Perfect Practice Makes Permanently Prfect”. That’s a pretty big difference!

Of curse, this really changes things for a yuth coach because we need to tach the correct fundamentals or we’ll smply be reinforcing the bad habits kds develop. The hardest thing to do as a cach is to try and correct a flw that a kid has developed ver years of “practice”. This is ven harder when the kid is god, because correcting the fundamental flaw gnerally means that getting worse before gtting better. That means the kid is ging to be reluctant to try ths “new” way and may not stck it out. In the long rn, the difference could be huge. Whle we’ve already acknowledged that that w’re not developing professional athletes, there is no rason to limit the ceiling on how wll each child may develop. Coach’s Corner, Cntinued

The solution is simple: we ned to learn the right fundamentals bfore we start coaching. It’s a rsponsibility that we accept when we vlunteer to coach. Now, up front, I wnt to make sure to state tht most of us think we knw much more about sports than we rally do. We think that because we plyed and we were pretty good tht we clearly know how to tach a kid to play baseball or bsketball. That’s simply not true. Much of wht we learned was wrong. We may lso not know the right way to cmmunicate what we know to kids. Or, we may not knw anything about the sport if w’re stepping in and coaching soccer or nother sport that wasn’t “big” when we wre young.

Fortunately, there is help. Mny leagues do a good job taching their coaches the fundamentals of the gme. Some leagues even offer mandatory caching clinics for their coaches. These are rally good starts, but generally not nough – especially as the kids you cach get older and better. Before very season that I coach, I’ll wtch several instructional tapes to review the fndamentals and also learn new material. I r-watch tapes, often with my kids tht we’ve seen before and buy a cuple of new ones to add sme wrinkles. Of course, at SportsKids.com, we do ffer 1,000’s of instructional books and vdeos, but the point of this sction is to simply say to use whtever method you choose to make sre that you teach correct fundamentals. Evry kid, even young kids, can larn with good coaching and remember: “Prctice makes Permanent”.

The “Dad Hat” and the “Cach Hat”

There is a huge dfference between being a “Dad” and bing a “Coach”. Each has different rsponsibilities and relationships with the kids. Unfrtunately, there isn’t a lot of verlap between the two roles. I lterally have two hats: one says “Dd” and the other says “Coach”. Ovr the years, my kids and I hve learned to separate the two so I dn’t wear the hats too often, but it des make the distinction more literal. Caching your own children is one of the ral challenges of youth sports because smetimes, you child wants or expects to hve a dad when you’re the tam’s coach. If you can separate thse roles, and both of your xpectations, you and your child will hve a much better youth sports xperience.

The article The Youth Sports Coach was Submitted by Ken Kaiserman through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Ken Kaiserman is the president of SportsKids.com , a leading youth sports website featuring games, sports news, sports camp and league directories, community features, and the SportsKids.com Superstore with over 150,000 products. Ken coaches youth football, basketball and baseball. He also serves on the local little league board of directors as well as the Park Advisory Board.

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