Little League Coach
 

Does anyone here coach Little League? I've either coached or help coach my son's basketball and t-ball teams in the past. This will be his second year in coach pitch. The league he is in has a shortage of coaches so I decided to step up and coach this year, despite of my 1 day on 2 days off schedule. Tball seemed pretty easy, just teaching the very minimum basics. Where to run after hitting the ball, catching and throwing .
This year, I want to be able to not only coach but teach these kids. Does anyone have any experience with the 6-8 yo age group? Any good sites to check out? All help is appreciated.

My dad has coached kids in his church before and says just to be patient. Just keep doing what you were before and I'm sure you will be fine. But then again if you are a firemen then I'm not so sure lol. My wife wants me to coach our sons team when he is old enough to play but I am scared I will be too hard on them because I was such a perfectionist with my sports when I played. Good luck!

No worries machme, my assistant coach is an leo! I think we are gonna name the team Guns N Hoses.

Coaching is like being a 2nd father figure. Point blank.

This.

Are you coaching in Garland?

It's pretty cool. I still have kids high five me from teams I've helped coach in the past. It's a great feeling knowing you made a positive impact on a kid.

No, I'm down in Waco.

Prefect lol talk to the guns and hoses foundation they might help y'all out

Ok I was just curious because a few leagues around here are looking for multiple coaches. I'm the assistant coach for my boys team so I am going over to the coaches house tomorrow night to go over the draft. If sounds funny as hell to say that about 7-8 year olds but we have a draft.

We did a lot of working on ground balls, catching and throwing. We spent the first few practices on that. Then we worked on batting, you wouldn't believe how many kids that age don't even know where to stand to bat.

My boy is 7, his birthday is later in the year so he misses the next age group. He's in 5-7 yo group and we had a draft too. Your plan is pretty much whatwe did, we had our first practice yesterday. Mostly it was for us to find out who has what abilities. We have a kid thats never played or even thrown a ball. His dad said he started to work with him about 3 days ago and hit the poor kid in the head twice!

I don't have any kids but I've "helped" coach my little cousins tball teams and 7-8yr old team last year. I loved it. I really enjoyed teaching them something that they'll use for a few more years. It's taught me patience and that you might have to tell certain kids the same thing over and over again lol

Obviously put the kid that can catch the best at first base, then set your infield. We were one kid away from having an outstanding infield. Outfielders are easy to find, sorry to say. 7-8 over here is machine pitch and it took awhile for the kids to get the timing down of the ball coming out of the machine.

Base running took some time, especially with the stuff they didn't see all the time. Like holding up when the ball is hit in the air. They just want to take off as soon as it's hit. That was fun trying to explain that to some of them why they had to stay on the bag lol

Something I learned too, don't be afraid to hurt their feelings, most of them won't get their feelings hurt. I tend to be hard on the boys that I knew were really good and had potential. So when they would start goofing off or not do what I knew they could do I would get on them pretty hard. Then later after practice I would go and explain to them why I did so. I'd tell them "I get on you more cause you're one of the better players on this team and I know you can do better than that". They would usually smile real big and run off

Damn, I actually miss the little shits

And no offense to parents on here, but some of these kids are real shitheads and apparently their parents don't get on to them at all. Cause I haven't pissed off a parent yet while coaching or "yelling" at their kid. Hell, most of the time when I've felt I shouldn't have been so loud or yelled I'd go and apologize to the parent and they would say "oh no, you say whatever you need to, he doesn't listen to me" WTF?? lol

Parents are scared to be a parent to their kid nowadays to avoid them "rebeling" or shying off. Which by doing exactly what they are doing, causes that to happen. That's the part that would be hard for me to coach is if a kid is being a little prick, and I get on to him, his parents turn it around on me, which would not end well for them.

Bert- I totally understand patience! I was trying to teach a kid the machanics of throwing, I'm sure I had to say Look at me a dozen times! I've also have had the kids that just are little brats too. We had a kid last year that just flat didn't want to be there. His mom made him play to get him out of his room.

We made it pretty clear to the parents that we want the kids to have fun but we would not tolerate constant acting up. We told the parents that the kids will be made to run if they continue to act up. That's a pretty standard discipline in sports. The parents seemed to be fine with it.

Having kids that don't want to be there is the worst. We had a couple in fall ball that could of given a shit less about baseball. At the beginning of the season we made sure they played equal amounts of time but by the end of the season we were like fuck it. Let the kids play that want to play, so they would sit out more than one inning in a row. The other part that kills me is when at the end of the season you tell a kid to go to right field and he doesn't know where it is and you have to take them out there. I get pissed because I have shown that kid in every practice and every game, but he doesn't care so I get to show him again. Parents if you kids don't want to play don't force them, it makes our jobs harder.

Yes, it's true some kids are a serious pain in the ass. Some kids you can get away with yelling, others not so much. My little 5 year old girl is so sweet you just look upset with her and she will start to cry. So yelling at her isn't necessary. As a parent, I wouldn't allow my kids to play for a coach with a yelling and screaming style. Especially some of those coaches I have seen who scream profanities at the kids. If some coach tried that shit with my kid he'd be quickly finding out the nutritional value of his teeth.

LOL, you have no clue what you are talking about. You have no experience as a parent to draw any conclusions like that. People without kids telling other people with kids how to parent absolutely crack me up.

And what exactly would you do if a parent turned on you? That attitude is playing with fire in a big way. It's not your place to parent someone else's kid. If you're a coach and the kid is being a shit, you sit them out and they don't play. That's the extent of your involvement with it. You trying to turn on me and saying it wouldn't end well would be a big mistake on your part. Never attempt to get between a parent and their kid, it's not your place and the parent will always protect right or wrong in the situation.

My priority was to make sure they were having fun. If they aren't having fun, then I'm not having fun and no one wants to be out there then lol


and speaking of using profanity. I cuss like a sailor when I talk most of the time and I was surprised at myself on how well I was able to control my language when I had to. Yay me :D

Don't really feel like coaching again until the kids start to pitch. That's when it'll become really fun for me to coach.

Oh and it doesn't help me wanting to coach when my little cousin is one of the worst players on the team and one of the little shits I'm always having to tell to pay attention and "don't do that and sit down!!" when in the dugout. You would think the kids have never drank or seen water before

LOL, I know the feeling. I swear so little now that I find being able to say FUCK outloud is actually stress relieving. Cruising out to the meet being able to listen to my old school west coast rap or any other inappropriate for kids music. When my 5 year old is in the truck I'm stuck listening to Taylor Swift most of the time. lol

I don't remember specifically telling anyone EXACTLY how to parent? I just said be a parent, and not a best friend. Read, dipshit. Here we go with your bullshit "experience" rants again. I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about, but yet that's what I see everyday. Just because someone doesn't have kids of their own doesn't mean they don't know how to be a parent. What I said is exactly what happened to both of my cousins in high school, of whom I watched become drug addicts and constantly run away from home. I watched it with my own eyes. But again, it's something that differs from your opinion, and because it doesn't agree with your opinion, it's not true/fact/believeable/whatever the hell you want to call it.

Did I say it would get physical? Or are your just automatically assuming that so that you can go ahead and form an opinion off of very few words? I vote the latter. This forum has started to become a bust lately with all the same old shit that continues to pour out of a few mouths from some of the same old people.

Dipshit?You in a mood or something this morning? Yes, another experience reply, because yet again you are giving an opinion on something you have no firsthand experience with. Seeing what some parents are dealing with, and being in the position of dealing with it are two entirely different things which someday will find out for yourself and you will agree with me later.

You were the one who worded their statement "it wouldn't turn out good for them" implying you were going to do something, which we both know you really wouldn't without your keyboard.

Now, if the board is a bust, feel free to leave. No one is forcing you to stay here. If you're having a bad day, that's fine. Just relax and stay away from the board today if you can't deal with it and concentrate on work. Otherwise, kick back, relax and get off your high horse.

Ok this is going a nice long response so just stay with me.

As for your friends that ended up being fuck ups, good for them. My best friend growing up had parents that partied with us every weekend. Hell even smoked pot with us. Now he makes about 200k a year has a hot wife that makes over a 100k a year. Lives in DC and has a huge uptown apartment in Dallas he rents out and a 200k house in Richardson he rents out. Sounds like parents that were friends with their kid wasn't the problem here. I actually know more kids that their parents were real strict on them that are fuck ups. But hey your experiences are the only ones that count. Sometimes it doesn't matter what type of parents you have, a fuck up is going to be a fuck up no matter what.

As for yelling at kids on a baseball team. Well I guess I do yell from time to time but that is because I'm on the other side of the field and that is the only way they will hear me. As for making them run laps, yes if you don't behave get your little ass running. Now if the kid is standing right in front of you and you are yelling at him, you are in the wrong and shouldn't do that. As a parent I would have a huge problem with you yelling in my kids face and it would only happen once. I can promise you it would not be me with the problem.

To sit back with no children and tell people with kids how to raise them, is a joke. You have no idea what its like. I can also tell you as a parent your not going to let some jackass scream in their face. Raising kids is not easy, it is the hardest thing you can possibly do but one of the most rewarding things you can possibly do. Once you have kids you will realize there is a fine line on being a parent and being a friend. You have to be both, not just one or the other.

Lastly stop with the name calling, it will get you no where.

That was one nice long response

I warned you :rollfro:

Not friends, it was my family. Big difference when you grow up with both of them and then just watch them destroy themselves because their parents, my aunt mainly, didn't want to me a parent and discipline them when they deserved it.

I don't think you understood what I meant by being friends instead of parents. I'm talking about being a parent when they need to be a parent. Reprimanding and punishing when it needs to be done, not just saying "oh it's okay" or something and letting the kid skate by with it. Like BERT said a few posts above, "Hell, most of the time when I've felt I shouldn't have been so loud or yelled I'd go and apologize to the parent and they would say 'oh no, you say whatever you need to, he doesn't listen to me'..." If you never get on to a kid for doing something you don't want them to do, then odds are they won't listen to you later on. That's what I was trying to say by my statements.

And again, nowhere was I specifically stating to people how to raise their kids. I'm speaking from what I've been taught, and witnessed. I know that once I have kids, it will be a whole new ball game, but I plan to raise them the exact same way I was raised.

Sorry about the name calling.

However, I find it funny as hell how this comment, "But hey your experiences are the only ones that count." is said in this instance, and I know you are saying it sarcastically, when that same comment is thrown around in all the other discussion/arguments that go on around here that everyone else "experiences" count more than othersa because they say so. Hypocritical much?

Its a great experience. Some of the best times of my parenting career. Do it. Your appreciation and understanding of the game will be greatly enhanced. Our teams were always competitive, and I'm most proud of the impact I had some of the little Johnnies. Managing talented kids is easy. Its really hard to get production, fun, desire and skill into the bottom of the order types. I was actually pretty good at that part, mostly because I know what it feels like to love the game but be lousy at it. I took the absolute last player in the draft (yeah that kid), and he earned the leagues sportsmanship award. By the end of the year, he was catching balls in the outfield, and progressed from a 3 pitch strikeout (nearly every time) kid to even earning a few walks and hits by the end of the year. Very satisfying, maybe even more than my kid's perennial all star status.

Mine just finished a great high school career last year, 3 year letterman, 3 year playoffs, garnering all-district honors all 3 years on varsity. First home run in high school was a varsity grand slam as a sophomore. After that, they couldn't keep him off varsity. :) 1st team all-district, and the team's silver slugger (best hitter) for the last two years.

I'm kind of in the heartbroken stage. It looks like his college career has flamed out almost before it started. He could/should be playing in many scenarios, but not the one that has occured. Its been a heck of ride. On the plus side, its currently cheaper paying for college than what we paid annually for select ball, lessons, equipment, travel, etc. He's looking for adult leagues to play in, and now umpires for the same league he played in. :)

As far as resources, the Little League/Harold Reynolds DVDs are great. PM me, I may still have a copy of all 10. Barnes and Noble used to have a great selection of "coaches" books. For the time being, you are doing great to keep them from chasing butterflies, learning skills, and having fun. With my kid, I stopped practices early while he was wanting more. It was really effective in building up the desire, and love of the game.

I was most effective as a practice coach, not as much as a game manager but I loved the chess match aspect, and got a lot better at it. Practices always worked best when I taught a skill, they practiced it, then played a simple competitive game using that skill. They absolutely loved it. You've always got more to work on than time, so plan accordingly.

Post game talks are great teaching time. Give away a few cheap baseball cards for great plays, or great effort, and you'll find them fighting for recognition.Mini Baby Ruth bars work great too and I hear that some coaches like candy too. Game balls for the big star of the game and even if you have to give away two some games, make sure every little Johnny gets one over the course of the season. You don't have 12 kids on your team. Its more like 36, and the parents can be the biggest challenge. When you get to drafting teams, after all the talent is gone, draft based on parents. Hot moms are in short supply. ;)