The Coach: Leadership for Excellence /The Successful Coach, an Exploration

Designed/Produced by Peregrine Press for Amateur Softball Association

Author: Dr. Peter S. Pierro

Blog #6 - The Players - Getting to Know Them

Coaching is simple. You get a bunch of young people together and give them a bat and ball. You give them a practice schedule and check on them once in a while and then you play games with other teams.

Good coaching is tough. It is complex. It demands study and thought and a commitment on your part. You may have been a fine player and know all the skills. That doesn't guarantee anything. I have seen many star athletes who bombed as coaches. What were they missing and what are the factors and knowledge you need to be an expert coach? Let's look at some possibilities.

 

The Essentials

In this section, I'm going to share with you information from a number of studies that have been done in attempting to find how children think, feel, and learn about games and sports. We go through a series of stages of learning as we grow from children into adults.

Stage 1 from birth to 12 years of age is based on personal experiences. Children learn by observing others, copying what they do, and testing out how it feels for themselves. They see the world in a rather self-centered way and the way they play reflects that view.

Observe the young basketball player who gets a pass, dribbles the ball until he is stopped, and then passes to another. That is, if he hasn't taken a shot. It is hard to coach him to pass, not because he doesn't know how, but because the game revolves around him.

After one of your games, you'll hear players say, "I went three for four" and you're angry because the team lost. And you will see your star player who is supposed to be playing shortstop, trying to catch a pop up down the first base line. Of course, trying to have someone in this stage lay down a sacrifice bunt is a real challenge. "You mean I'm supposed to make out on purpose?!!"

Teaching team play, such as the rundown, the relay to the plate, the pitcher backing up home plate, and the double play are very difficult and must be done strictly in a rote, memorizing fashion, for example, to Dave, the pitcher, "When a runner is trying to score and there's a play at the plate, you come back here in case the ball gets past George. No, you don't get in front of George and help him catch the ball."

Stage 2 is the teen age, junior high and senior high set. It focuses on being affiliated with a group. These young people identify themselves with the peer group, and the team becomes more important than their personal concerns. You will hear a player say, "I went 0 for 4 but we won!" and you will be impressed with her unselfishness.

Their emotions are very close to the surface. They are idealistic and learn through your example. They are dependent upon each other. Teamwork is easy to teach. Team goals are easy to set and personal goals can be set in regard to the team goals. With these conditions, it is easy to see why being cut from the squad is such a devastating experience.

Stages 3 and 4 are not usually reached by your young players. These stages have to do with individual critical judgment, to asking deep questions, to being confident of one's own identity, to having a personal set of values, and to seeing sports in the context of one's whole life. Say, Stage 3 and Stage 4 seem to be good places for a coach to come from.

Children's Attitudes

Children in their fantastically honest way are pretty clear about what sports are and how they would like them to be. Here are some results from research done with young softball players in Australia.

When given the incomplete sentence, 'The most important thing in sports is ...' the replies in this order were:

To play as well as you are able.

To have fun.

To be fair.

To beat your opponent.

In response to "What advice would you give to adults involved in children's sports? They replied in this order:

Don't yell so much.

Teach us more.

Let us be more involved.

Let us express ourselves more.

Don't have favorites.

Encourage us more.

They felt very strongly that all members of the team should have an equal opportunity to play.

It's more important for all members of the team to play than for the team to win.

Learning to play the game is more important than winning.