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                                   Mabelvale Youth Association  -  Mabelvale, Ar

                           

 

 

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Coaching Pre-teens

 

Ten Tips to Being a Good Sports Parent

Perhaps you have heard some horror stories about the overbearing parents and coaches. A good baseball or softball experience for your child begins with us: the parents of each player. It is up to each of us to make being a youth more enjoyable, and to make baseball or softball season a greater learning experience for the kids. After all, no matter how much we enjoy it too, this is for the kids.

The Board of Directors would like to share 10 thoughts on how to make this a better learning experience for you, too. We believe that these ideas will help to make the next few months more fun for your children, more enjoyable for you, and a heck of a lot easier on those people who volunteer their time and skills.

We hope these ideas can help!!

  1. Work with your child. There really is little more satisfying than going out at least a few evenings a week and playing ball with your kids. This gives them quality time, and helps your child improve his/her skills (and, trust me, the better your child can play, the more she/he will enjoy the Baseball or Softball experience!). Some day, your child will look back fondly on the spring evenings spent playing catch with mom and/or dad.

  2. Get involved with Little Oaks. The program is run on a volunteer basis, and we can use all the help we can get. Anything you can do will help all the kids, from helping out at registration or tryouts, to scorekeeping or field preparation, to umpiring. If your child sees that Baseball or Softball is that important to you, he/she will learn that it is important to the kids, too. Amongst the board members are those that have helped out contributing with field prep, scheduling, scorekeeping, umpiring, equipment and uniform management, snack bar operations, and fund raising. Everyone can find a place to help.

  3. Show up for the games AND the practices. In today’s busy world it is sometimes hard to juggle schedules, but this is your child! We’ve seen many who never tried to excel at baseball, and invariably these kids were dropped off at practices and picked up afterwards, without the parent(s) ever watching a single practice. It’s only a couple of times a week, a couple of months out of the year! The most irritating are the parents who don’t ever watch practice (and, therefore, never understand the coaches philosophy), but will question (yell!) a coaches decision during the game. Most people wouldn’t dare to not show up for work and still tell the boss what’s wrong with the company, but they will turn around and do just that with their child’s’ coach.

  4. Don't create pressure. Just about every father dreams of his son becoming a major league star, but they are only children and deserve to enjoy the game as children. Don’t expect more than they can deliver. Give positive encouragement, and be there when they need you. Besides, often a child in early years will lack certain skills, and blossom later on.

  5. Respect the rules. This is one of the most important things the kids should be learning. If you don’t agree with an umpires call, keep it to yourself. If there is a team rule that bothers you, well, it’s their team...not yours. If you think there is a serious problem, take it up with the coach or a League official on your own time, not your child’s’. Rule of thumb: during practice or games, don’t speak unless spoken to (except, of course, to cheer on ALL the kids).

  6. Have Fun! This should be a positive experience for everyone: kids, coaches, support staff, and parents. Winning is nice, but losing is inevitable. Being a star is fun, but being a bench player is just as important.

  7. Losing is a normal result of competition—help your child learn to accept it. No one likes to lose, but the nature of a team sport is that one team always loses. Teach your child that he/she didn’t lose, the team lost. And they lost to a team that just happened to play better that day. There is always next time, and the important thing is to learn from the defeats. One of life’s most interesting truisms is that we learn more in failure than in success. Its okay to analyze why your team lost, and how they can do better next time. It’s never okay to place blame!

  8. Different coaches have different philosophies. Some believe in having players play all the positions. Some want players to become good at one. Some coaches place more emphasis on winning (and we can tell you, from experience, that players and parents tend to have more fun when they are winning). It is IMPORTANT to remember that your child’s coach is not being paid, he is working for the love of the game and the kids. Let him be the coach! Don’t argue in front of the kids and criticize in the background if you think your child is being treated unfairly. As parents, it is natural to be very protective, but most coaches aren’t discriminating. If you think there is a problem, discuss it with the coach AWAY from the ball field; chances are that you will see his point of view. The important thing is not to make an issue in front of the players; along with baseball or softball, they are learning to work as a team and to respect authority and experience...work not to ruin this teaching.

  9. As a coach don’t get focused on winning as being the only way to have fun. If you can’t enjoy the game without winning you are missing out on some of the best things about coaching. One of the most rewarding experiences possible is to take a player with little baseball skill, no confidence in himself, and help him develop over the course of the season to the point he looks forward to his turns at bat because he knows he can succeed. That player who came to practice with his head hanging, now stands tall with pride and a big smile on his face. Take the opportunity to enjoy your child’s’ childhood, and to teach some important life lessons!

  10. The program only gets better if you volunteer. We can’t stress this enough: VOLUNTEER...we need you. One of the biggest irritants we see is those who will not give their time, but are quick to criticize. If you can’t be part of the solution, don’t be part of the problem. If you think that something needs to be changed, get involved so that you can change it.

 

Click Here - Coaching Pre-Teens

He stands at the plate with his heart pounding fast.
The bases are loaded; the die has been cast.
Mom and Dad can not help him. He stands all alone.
A hit at this moment would send the team home.
The ball meets the plate. He swings and he misses.
There's a groan from the crowd. Some boos and some hisses.
A thoughtless voice cries, "Strike out the Bum."
Tears fill his eyes; the game's no longer fun.
So open your heart and give him a break.
For it's moments like this, a man you can make.
Keep this in mind when you hear someone forget.
He's just a little boy...and not a man...yet.

Youth baseball and softball are competitive sports and it is easy for us coaches and parents to get caught up in the excitement of the game. Sometimes we forget that we're dealing with children and that it's the examples we set as adults that help shape a child's future. We ask that everyone remember that it's just a game

 

 

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Last modified: April 04, 2005