Top Coach for Sports Communication

You’ve been on the sidelines, watching your child play for the softball, baseball, soccer, football, or any other team. You’d like to get involved, but you don’t know enough about the sport or about coaching.

Here is the deal: As long as you know a little more about the game than the players, you know enough. As long as you take some time along the way to attend a clinic or two, or even to research drills on the internet, you can stay ahead of the kids and provide value to them. If you can bring some enthusiasm and have a genuine desire to help the players progress, you can learn to coach them!

My Experience

My children started to play baseball and softball at a young age. I’ve never played any kind of organized sport, nor have I followed any professional sports. When my son joined the t-ball team, I initially sat on the sidelines and watched. As I saw what the drills were, it was quickly realized that they coach could use some help by breaking this team down to smaller, more interactive, groups. My offer to help with immediately accepted and my coaching career began.

As my children moved up through the levels of baseball and softball I studied along with them. My best gains in learning were had through the coordination with other coaches and with clinics that our league sponsored. The clinics were great in that they broke down individual skills down into a repeatable, numbered process. I’ve never pitched, but I can now get players started pitching. I’ve never been a catcher, but I can help kids be catchers.

Other considerations

The relationship with your child will change a little on the field and in practices. They are one of the team so you have to treat them like you do their teammates. That is often hard for the child, as they can’t understand why you won’t just be their mom/dad instead of the coach. A helpful technique for getting past this issue is to team up with another coach, and to have them responsible for coaching your child. It works well to tell the other coach the points that you want to get across to your child and let them do the work. Your other coaches will need the same from you.

Get Involved!

Go to the practices. Insert yourself into the process by helping with some drills. The coach may not know how to ask for help but most will not turn it down. Not sure what you are doing? Have the coach break down a drill for you. Start out as an assistant, but when you are ready make sure the league knows that you want to coach a team. Often times, they are short coaches and are looking for people who want to step up.

Assistant Coaches – the “Volunteering” of help.

Just like you have may have been a little hesitant to get involved many of the other parents are in the same boat. If a parent is at the practices and has not clearly indicated that they are not interested – they are a potential assistant coach. Learn some names, call them coach, and give them a drill to run. Believe me, more often than not that parent will be happy that they were able to help.

The Payoff

Coaching is very rewarding. Most coaches find that he benefits received consistently outweigh the time and energy put in. You will know that you have done it right when your players return for the following season and parents inquire as to your plans for next year. Over the years you will gain many relationships with parents, other coaches, and the players. When you get a chance to see the player – who has never made a play before – make the play for the first time you will never again wonder if you should have been a coach.

Do you want to build a winning girls’ soccer program, on the field and off? In Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully, one of the nation’s top high school coaches, Debra LaPrath, shares her expertise on all aspects of coaching–player development, leadership, conditioning, teamwork and much more. From establishing a coaching philosophy to making decisions during a game, this is the approach that has made her program a perennial powerhouse.

The author clearly outlines the importance of defining your coaching philosophy. It zeroes-in on your values and beliefs, the individual and team’s goals, keeps you focused on what’s best for the girls, and emphasizes being true to your own personality. At the core of her approach to coaching, is developing the character of individual players and team cohesiveness. Developing a coaching philosophy is just the beginning. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully covers many different aspects of the coach’s role including:

Developing and perfecting skills Evaluating players and defining their roles Organizing productive practices Scouting and preparing for games Adding variety to training Developing leadership qualities Motivating the team Communicating on and off the field

The coaching techniques illustrated in this book will help you develop better players, more complete athletes, and more confident young women. The book features seasonal training plans, drills for developing fundamental to advanced skills, and advice for handling off-the-field challenges. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully is a “must-read” if you are searching for motivational tips, coaching guidelines, and specific strategies for working with female soccer players. Buy it, read it, and put the knowledge to work!

You won’t be gambling with your golf if you pick one of the famous Las Vegas golf schools for your golf tuition because they are highly regarded, with some of the best teaching and swing analysis equipment in the world. Every golfer needs coaching at some time in their lives, and you can combine a number of different pleasures in Las Vegas.

People visit Las Vegas for all sorts of reasons. Some go there to get married, while others use it as a base for some Nevada sightseeing. Most visit the city for the gambling, some for the golf and many for both.

Las Vegas is a fabulous city for a bunch of guys wanting to get their golf swing sorted out, and to spend some night hours out on the town and at the tables. What city is more famous for its casinos, and the Nevada desert golf courses are out of this world.

If you have been finding it more difficult recently to hit the greens, or have been hacking a few more divots that you are used to, you could probably do with some golf instruction. If you also like the odd flutter, or want to take in some great shows, what better place than the gambling capital of the world. It’s just made for people like you. The food is good; the shows are great and the golf even better.

There are plenty golf schools like the famous Butch Harmon school that is based is Las Vegas, and the Advantage School that offers one to one tuition. This kind of tuition is invaluable to golfers but there are a lot more to choose from.

These golf schools have equipment that can break down your whole game and detect what your main problems stem from. You get the problem sorted at the source, rather than just finding a remedy for the symptom.

Professional instructors are familiar with the causes of all the common golf problems and are able to school you out of them. They have the patience to deal with all kinds of pupils, and are able to improve your game in many ways, rather than just cure a specific fault.

It is easy to go overboard in Las Vegas and return home broke, so set yourself a limit. Budget your money and decide what you are going to spend when. Don’t visit the casinos alone because it is very easy to keep cashing these checks or visiting ATM machines. It’s not free money that comes out of that hole in the wall, and a few buddies with you will keep you right.

One of the advantages of opting for one of the many Las Vegas golf schools available to you is that Nevada is an excellent choice for a winter vacation. It’s warm all year round, and very popular, so make sure you get your booking in early.

There is plenty of choice, so you should be able to find something to suit you from week long tuition courses to one day intensive one on one golf coaching. Attend a golf school in the winter and amaze your buddies in the spring!

As a sports mom, mom and step mom to four young athletes, age 8 to 19, one of my biggest challenges is understanding how to deal with coaches. I’ve come in contact with every kind of coach imaginable. For example, I’ve wondered how to deal with the coach who favors his own child.

I’ve also struggled with coaches who, on the other end of the spectrum, can’t live without my young athlete-and insist on having my child play even when he’s sick or injured! These coaches have favored my young athlete in ways that upset other sports parents and players.

In addition, I’ve had to cope with coaches who are sometimes grouchy, have bad days, or dish out negative feedback in ways that hurt young athletes’ feelings. I even had to decide what to do about a coach who was abusive.

Understanding how to deal with these coaches is not easy as a sports parent.

I worry that if I choose to speak up, I may interfere in a way that creates friction between my kids and their coaches. On the other hand, if I don’t intervene, my kids could get hurt or lose confidence.

Knowing when and when not to intervene is a really tough decision for a sports parent. I don’t want the coach to walk away with the idea that I think my child deserves special treatment. But at the same time, I want to protect my child as much as possible.

When should you intervene and have a talk with the coach? Here are some scenarios:

o When your child and the team are not having any fun

o When your child complains about how negative or mean the coach is

o When your child is forced to practice and play when injured

o When the coach threatens to bench your child for making mistakes, which may undermine your child’s confidence and increase his or her fear of failing.

If you decide to talk to your child’s coach about one of the above issues, make sure you pick the right moment. Don’t do it at half-time of the regional play-offs or in the middle of practice!