by Gary Tougher

Created on: July 02, 2007

Always make it fun for your team!

It's easy to get caught up in the aspect of the administrative aspect of youth coaching. If you are a great multi-tasker then you are more than likely a good candidate to be a coach/manager. However my experience with coaching has taught me that there are not that many who can take on the jobs of coach and manager and then do both really well. Coaches should coach and managers should manage. If you take on the job as a youth team coach, (you may find it takes as much time as your day job, that's why I refer to it as a job,) one of your first tasks is to find yourself a good manager. Mangers who are efficient at doing the paper work and are also good communicators are just as important as your lead-off batter or your star running back. Paper work is very time consuming and being freed up from these tasks will allow you to get on with the job of coaching. The manager can come from the parent group or can be an interested adult who has experience with the administration of youth teams.

Have your manager set up an early meeting with parents whereby the standards that you and the manager have set for the team are discussed and guidelines are laid out. Be sure to be clear at this meeting that you expect nothing but exemplary conduct from the parents and that they all know that they are expected to be cheerleaders for the team and all parents and children will show the utmost respect for the opposition and towards all officials. Ask that the parents not to live vicariously through their youth athletes, your job will be to coach them in the basics of the sport, the major leagues and professional sports are a long way away regardless of the talent of their youngsters. This seems basic in it's explanation, but believe me not all parents will get the message and you need to be clear from the outset that it's a team sport and their athlete is but a part of it.

Once you are ready to hit the (field?) be sure to have all practices well organized and try to keep all players active at all times. A good measure is more practice than games, they will learn more in practice than playing a game. Don't get caught up in playing a huge number of games. Always keep it fun! I know I said that in the title, but it's worth repeating. The children came to you to play a game, keep it that way. Games are supposed to be fun not drudgery, always include some fun exercises at each practice. Lastly, try to treat all your players the same, you will have different skill levels from the outstanding to the not-so-skilled and a lot of times this is based on the co-ordination of the child, not in their efforts. Encourage all to try hard.

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