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Anyone out there coach a kids team?


stgaz
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So I coach an under 15 Aussie Rules team and love it. I coached my boys in the u8s, 9s and 10s and then spent a few years off. I was coaxed back for the u14s last year and we are now getting ready for season 2015 which starts next week.

 

It has it's moments though.Those kids can be a real handful! How do you keep control during training? Mostly they are good, but sometimes they're wild! But watching them put it all together on game day can be extremely rewarding.

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I have coached hockey and soccer in the past at very young ages. I was head coach of my kid's school swim team for 8 years and I also help coach my 14 year old son's rep baseball team. Yes it is very rewarding and that is what keeps us coming back. But, you touch on the negatives. Kids can easily get out of hand and not listen. And even worse......parents :eyeroll: My best advice for both the kids and their parents is to lay down the rules at the beginning of the season. You can even get the parents to sign off on a code of behavior and get the player to sign as well. If they know from day one what is expected, it is a lot easier to police during the season.
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That's a lot of coaching -well done! I know how many hours that represents. Apart from the face to face time, I also find myself thinking about the team, training drills and the weekends game in most of my waking hours! My wife is all for it, but I suspect she rolls her eyes a bit when I start pondering where I might play a particular kid next week!

 

We had training last night and it was great. Sometimes I think I get too involved in the actual training itself but I can't help it!

 

I've been fairly lucky on the parents front, but I've seen enough examples of ugly parents to make me wary.

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Yes most people don't know that the majority of the time and effort that goes into coaching is done "behind the scenes", in the prep and planning. We had an issue on the swim team a few years back - a parent actually threatened to beat me up! After that year we made it crystal clear about what we expected and what was not tolerated. The parents have been pretty good ever since.
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I've coached kids ice hockey for over 10 years. Since my youngest was 3 all the way up to high school.

 

The little guys are the best in my opinion. Sponges and absolutely love pleasing you. Every time we start a new drill or station from day one I have them take a knee on the ice. After a few weeks they take pride in getting there and being the first to take a knee. Awesome to see and it keeps them focused.

 

Best advice I could ever give is reward effort, not accomplishments. If you reward goals, points or talent they can get complacent if they are the best on your team and just stop trying if they are the worst. If you reward effort they will never stop giving it to you whether they are the best or worst on your team. It creates an equal playing field and keeps egos in check.

 

Best of all? It teaches them that hard work is what gets praise and kids love praise. Won't take long before they are excited just to work hard, praise or not.

 

Good luck to you all.

Edited by KennyLee
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Best advice I could ever give is reward effort, not accomplishments. If you reward goals, points or talent they can get complacent if they are the best on your team and just stop trying if they are the worst. If you reward effort they will never stop giving it to you whether they are the best or worst on your team. It creates an equal playing field and keeps egos in check.

 

Best of all? It teaches them that hard work is what gets praise and kids love praise. Won't take long before they are excited just to work hard, praise or not.

 

Good luck to you all.

Well put, KJ!
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Coached kids soccer for many years and find that you have to be extremely organized. Make each set of drills short so that they don't last a long time and get them bored.. Keep them in small groups so they don't have a lot of time standing around. Kennylee brings up a good point in rewarding playing time with how they do at practice.

 

I have found that 14 years of age is probably the toughest age group to deal with. I have a few friends who teach high school and they all agree that grade 9 (14 years old) is the toughest for behavior problems.

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I figure a way to get them to behave is to try and encourage positive peer pressure. I tell them if they want to achieve anything, to really enjoy their footy, that they need to apply themselves and that discipline has to come from them, not me.

 

At least I'm giving that a go! We'll see.

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Not a coach per se but I have been teaching kids martial arts for 7 years,
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You make a good point. There are definitely different levels of maturity. I may just talk to a couple of the "senior", more mature team members and get them to control the others.
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You make a good point. There are definitely different levels of maturity. I may just talk to a couple of the "senior", more mature team members and get them to control the others.

 

And maturity is definitely the key! You don't want a couple of hot-heads running around telling the others what to do - that wouldn't end well! But if the respected ones are frowning on certain behaviour, it does have an effect.

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Today my daughter's hockey season got underway. The assistant coach couldn't make it, so I ran the defensive shifts, which included her. She played great. So much faster than I ever was. I don't like parents who appear to favor their kids over other players, so it was a relief when the head coach told me to make sure that every time the other team's best forward started a shift, to make a change to make sure my daughter was out there. It was the right move, but I would not have made it on my own.
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Today my daughter's hockey season got underway. The assistant coach couldn't make it, so I ran the defensive shifts, which included her. She played great. So much faster than I ever was. I don't like parents who appear to favor their kids over other players, so it was a relief when the head coach told me to make sure that every time the other team's best forward started a shift, to make a change to make sure my daughter was out there. It was the right move, but I would not have made it on my own.

Sounds like you both had a good game! Nice when that happens. :)

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Today my daughter's hockey season got underway. The assistant coach couldn't make it, so I ran the defensive shifts, which included her. She played great. So much faster than I ever was. I don't like parents who appear to favor their kids over other players, so it was a relief when the head coach told me to make sure that every time the other team's best forward started a shift, to make a change to make sure my daughter was out there. It was the right move, but I would not have made it on my own.

Sounds like you both had a good game! Nice when that happens. :)

 

It's so much fun to watch her. She's such a good skater. She is a suffocating defensive player. :hockey:

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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.
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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.
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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.

What is it judo?

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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.

What is it judo?

Mostly wado kai karate and ITF taekwondo. I also tried kyokushin karate, kung fu, aikido, and hapkido. Edited by Boots
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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.

What is it judo?

Mostly wado kai karate and ITF taekwondo. I also tried kyokushin karate, kung fu, aikido, and hapkido.

Are you any good? I did shukakai karate.

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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.

What is it judo?

Mostly wado kai karate and ITF taekwondo. I also tried kyokushin karate, kung fu, aikido, and hapkido.

Are you any good? I did shukakai karate.

I used to be. I haven't trained in a really long time.
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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.

What is it judo?

Mostly wado kai karate and ITF taekwondo. I also tried kyokushin karate, kung fu, aikido, and hapkido.

Are you any good? I did shukakai karate.

I used to be. I haven't trained in a really long time.

Do you need to train to stay fit? I'm just fit naturally. I'm one of those annoying people never go to the gym but stay in shape anyway. In fact I haven't been to a gym except the one at school back in 1978. That gym had floor to ceiling ropes, green canvas mats, wooden benches, a pommel horse, a wooden vaulting box and medicine balls. It was old school...

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I was gonna start a thread about the exact same topic and then I noticed yours. I used to play a lot of soccer before I did martial arts. Today on my commute home from work I considered coaching girls' soccer. It was a fleeting thought. I never do anything on the weekend. Not since I moved.

So you can beat me up with your martial arts eh? :smoke:

Yes, and I would really enjoy it, too.

What is it judo?

Mostly wado kai karate and ITF taekwondo. I also tried kyokushin karate, kung fu, aikido, and hapkido.

Are you any good? I did shukakai karate.

I used to be. I haven't trained in a really long time.

Do you need to train to stay fit? I'm just fit naturally. I'm one of those annoying people never go to the gym but stay in shape anyway. In fact I haven't been to a gym except the one at school back in 1978. That gym had floor to ceiling ropes, green canvas mats, wooden benches, a pommel horse, a wooden vaulting box and medicine balls. It was old school...

I have an active life and a high metabolism. I don't need to train.
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