Coaching Youth Softball
Tips for Beginner Coaches
Thank you for volunteering to coach in LGSL! After the player, you are our most important asset and our league would not be successful without you. As coaches, you determine the kind of experience our girls have with softball. LGSL is committed to the principles of Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) and expects you to be a Double-Goal Coach, who strives to win (one goal), while pursuing the more-important goal of teaching life lessons through sports. You are teaching more than the skills and strategies of fast pitch softball. The ability to gracefully deal with success and failure, the persistence to keep trying and the confidence that these young ladies learn from you is priceless.
It can be a daunting task to manage a youth softball team, but with some planning and preparation, you will be successful. To aid you in your efforts, LGSL has compiled some tips to help you along.
ADMINISTRATION
Make sure you have a folder or binder with the following information as necessary for your age group (or you can bookmark the LGSL Coaches eBinder on your tablet or Smartphone):
LGSL
COACHES eBINDER
http://leagueathletics.com/Page.asp?n=72862&org=leesburggirlssoftball.org
A. Administration
1. Board Contact List
2. Coaches Contact List
3. Rosters
4. Field Locations
5. Field Lining Instructions
Field Lining Diagram
B. Coaches Manual
1. LGSL Coaches Manual
2. LGSL Code of Sportsmanship
3. Tips for Beginner Coaches
4. 8 Sample Practice Plans
5. Fastpitch Coaches Toolkit
6. 8U Pitching Machine Settings
C. Rules
1. Loudoun County Softball Alliance
a. 6U
b. 8U
c. 10U
d. 12,14,Senior
D. PCA Resources
1. Coaches Toolkit
2. Parent Pledge
E. Safety Tips
1. Tip Sheet
2. CDC Concussion Clipboard
3. Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse & Neglect
4. CPR & Rescue Breathing
MANAGING THE TEAM
Communication – Make sure you establish a method of communication that works for you and the team (email, Facebook, twitter, team webpage, etc.) LGSL encourages you to use your team webpage feature on our League Athletics website to communicate your practice schedule, snack schedule, team announcements and email.
Set Goals – Have a team goal for the season as well as individual goals for each player. These goals will help guide your attitude, behaviors, practices, and game play. Goals should be kept simple at the younger age divisions while getting progressively more challenging as the player moves up in age division.
Have a Plan – Make sure you have a plan for every practice and for every game (as well as a back-up plan). Your plan should be in line with your goals and should remain flexible as the season progresses.
Safety - Cannot be left off your coaches check list. Emphasize and practice safety at all times. If there is an injury, make sure you know what to do and who to contact. The LGSL Coaches eBinder has a section covering safety information.
Knowledge of the Game – This will take time to acquire. Do your homework! We encourage you to get out to coaching clinics, read coaching books, watch videos and read articles on the internet on coaching softball. Also, take time to watch more advanced age levels play the game.
MANAGING PEOPLE
No matter how competitive we can get, this is just a game. No one’s life or livelihood is riding on what happens in a game or at practice. Your job is to teach the game and its elements to our players while building their confidence and self-esteem. The most valuable life lesson that our players should get out of the game is sportsmanship. Make sure you demonstrate the proper attitude and behaviors while coaching.
Players – While boys need to play well to feel good, girls need to feel good to play well. You must still teach skills and challenge your players, but also remember to fill their emotional tanks and help them bounce back from mistakes.
Parents - Parents can be your biggest source of help or your biggest headache. Enlist the help of your parents early by including them in practices when you need additional help, need a “team parent”, snack scheduler, or dugout monitor. They will appreciate contributing in any manner they can. Also ensure you communicate clearly and often to ensure there are no misunderstandings. Lastly, ensure your parents know and understand your team rules and LGSL’s expectations for parent behavior and be willing to correct their behavior if necessary.
Coaches – No coach can go it alone, so make sure you establish good relationships with your fellow coaches. Make sure you know the abilities of your coaches and utilize their expertise to help plan and run your season. Also ensure your coaches know and understand your team rules and LGSL’s expectations for coach behavior and be willing to correct their behavior if necessary.
Opponents – Ensure you, your coaches and your team treat your opponents with respect and conduct yourselves in a sportsman-like manner. Remember your PCA training…We’re teaching life lessons through sports
Officials – Ensure you, your coaches and your team treat the officials with respect at all times, even when you disagree with an official’s decision. Remember your PCA training…We’re teaching life lessons through sports
PRACTICES
Plan to arrive at your first practice, and every one thereafter, 10-15 minutes before the established start time. Many parents will arrive a little early, some late, but arriving just at the start time means you are not ready on time. This will cost you as you take 5 minutes to move the equipment to the field, another 5 to get everyone in for a discussion, and you will be off balance for the first half hour. The famous NFL coach Vince Lombardi said that you are not really on time unless you are on the field, ready to go at least fifteen minutes before practice begins. This applies to coaches themselves more than it does to players.
Effective Practices
Practices need to be broken down into segments. Each segment does not have to be a specific length but thinking of a 1 1/2 hour practice as consisting of three half hour pieces is probably a good idea. As you move on to more and more practices, you may feel pressure to teach more and more complex skills. Fight this pressure. Unless your kids are truly in the upper age groups, they really need the fundamental skills to be taught and reinforced over and over. Maybe you can modify the drills to make them more challenging or interesting but you must warm-up, stretch, throw, field ground balls and hit at every practice. Feel free to vary the mix but emphasize fundamentals. Avoid dedicating a practice to just hitting or to just fielding. This will bore the kids and the results may surprise you. Do all aspects of the game in practice with perhaps one drill emphasizing the team's weakest points. But don't work on these skills to the exclusion of all others.
Set Goals
Set a goal for each practice, whether it’s to improve a specific skill set for the team, work on general fitness, or work on special plays. At the end of the practice you should be able to say to yourself and the team you met the goals you wanted to achieve.
Stations
A coach should always include each player and minimize or remove the amount of time players are not engaged. Having twelve players in a line to receive ground balls means eleven players are standing around doing anything else except learning. Break up the practice into different stations with dedicated coaches working on specific tasks. For example with a team of 12 girls you should have at least 3 stations with 4 players each working on a specific task for X amount of time, and then rotate them around to each station. Each station must have at least one coach or parent working on a particular skill. This allows the head coach to delegate to other coaches, focus on specific areas, and provides a more effective use of the players time.
Create a Practice Plan.
Before every practice create a schedule or practice plan, similar to a teacher’s lesson plan. If properly planned out your practice will seem like minutes, however without a plan it will seem like an eternity and the players will be restless and bored. One of the hardest parts for you as a coach is to make sure you have done your drill homework ahead of time and can clearly explain each one to your players without wasting time. If you cannot explain how the drill works, you could also run the risk of players getting hurt.
The next page contains a sample practice plan. Keep in mind the age and skill levels of your team which will change the amount of times and types of drills, so use this as a guide:
Practice Plan -- Tuesday xx/xx/xxSkill: Beginner
Goal – Improve Offense & Defense
5:30 – 5:55 Base running – Conditioning
5:30 – 5:35 Review today’s concepts and goals
5:35 – 5:45 “Team Tag”
5:45 – 5:55 “3,2,1”
6:00 – 6:25 Throwing – Fielding
6:00 – 6:05 review drills objective and concept
6:05 – 6:15 Warm up throwing & “partner throws for time”
6:15 – 6:25 “Throw and Go”
6:30 – 6:55 Hitting, bunting, slapping
6:30 – 6:35 review drills concepts and objectives
6:35 – 6:55 Hitting Station(s)
Station # 1
· Soccerball hit off “T”
(use a soccerball slightly deflated, and place on the T, improves strength and follow through)
· Soccerball hit off bounce
(use a soccerball slightly deflated but still “bounceable” bounce and hit into the net)
Station # 2
· Pizza Throw
(you can use a Frisbee; have the batter hold the Frisbee in both hands in a batters stance – palm up – palms down, and “bat” done correctly the Frisbee should fly, teaches proper form and palm up/palm down stance )
· Popcorn hit
(use popcorn kernels, soft toss to the hitter – be sure to do this safely usually hitting into a hill)
6:55 – 7:00 wrap up
use this time to wrap up, review the practice and make any announcements to the team about upcoming practices or games.