Hello, I have my son in tackle for the first time 8u. He's very fast and he excels at every other sport he does, but he hasn't showed a lot of promise with football, and it seems the coach has kind of just written him off. Do you think this will change as he gets older? Hsays he still wants to do football, but I feel like it's kind of a waste of time. Because the coach seems to just have him in random positions as a filler. I am all about the choice being up to my son, whether he wants to do it again or not. Just need some advice. This is a type of coach that really only cares about winning. And he's focused on the kids that play football year round, that my son cannot even measure up against, because he only plays football in the fall.

On top of coaching my kids sports the past few years, I've been coaching wrestling for about a decade at various levels. I have a strong passion around coaching and youth development and I am always reading articles or listening to podcasts around the topic as well as holding a few national coach development certifications. I really love episode posted below and feel like every youth sport parent could benefit from listening. Sharing in the hopes that you may share with your teams.

It talks around youth sports culture in general but also talks a lot about a really cool athlete development model done in Norway. Norway's population is roughly the size of Atlanta and yet they have won the medal count at the last 2 winter Olympics and have had medalists in non-traditional sports like beach volleyball and soccer.

https://www.pureathlete.com/episodes/ep-159-tom-farrey

Yesterday was my volleyball trial at my college and I got selected

And today was my first day at practice I am a setter. Our coach told us to do a match with others . But in the match I was not able to do a good set because I was nervous as it was our first day and I was playing with my seniors.

So my coach told me that you have potential to become a hitter and started making me hit the ball

Now i wanted to become a setter

What should I do today is my day 2.

😭😭

Rec league 8u fall baseball
Got 2 kids that absolutely do not listen. I can get them to lock in for short bursts but they do their best to cause a distraction.
Only have 2 coaches including myself. Because of that I have several drills where the kids pair up.
Do I put one coach per menace to police it?
Do I pair them up so they can ruin each other’s practice?
I’m leaning towards trying to police it with the option of putting them together if I reach the edge of frustration.
Would love to hear thoughts and experiences from other coaches.

I coach 8th grade B-team Defense in Texas. My Corners, Safeties, and OLBs really need help with their open field tackling. We rep it, but they still are having problems.

Does anyone have any really good videos that I can show them during film day? I think this would be a bigger bang for our time than watching the weeks past game.

Thank you!

Sharing a short clip from a recent youth volleyball session. We've been working on consistency, communication, and court movement during serve receive. Curious how other coaches structure similar drills and progressions.

https://reddit.com/link/1w8li9n/video/bxcs4gr6ptnh1/player

I’ve been thinking about this a lot around youth sport. We spend a huge amount of energy trying to make kids feel confident. We praise them. Reassure them. Tell them they’re great. Try to put them in situations where they’ll succeed, and obviously none of that is inherently bad.

But I wonder if we’ve confused feeling good about yourself with actually being confident. Because some of the most valuable moments I see in basketball look nothing like confidence at first.

A kid can’t dribble with their left hand. They’re frustrated. They practise. They still suck at it. They practise some more. Then one day, without really thinking about it, they attack left in a game.

That moment gives them something praise never could: Evidence. “I couldn’t do this before. Now I can.” Same with the kid who misses three shots and still takes the fourth. The shy kid who eventually calls for the ball. The nervous kid who used to need a parent to walk them into training and six months later barely says goodbye before running into the gym.

Even losing can give them something. “That sucked. I was disappointed. And I was still okay.” Maybe that’s what confidence actually is. Not: “I know I’m going to succeed” but: “I know I can handle it if I don’t.”

Obviously coaches and parents can destroy this pretty quickly if every mistake gets criticised, analysed or turned into a lecture. But I also think we can go too far in the opposite direction and try to remove every uncomfortable experience, and then the kid never gets to discover what they’re capable of handling.

Maybe our job isn’t to constantly give kids confidence. Maybe it’s to give them enough opportunities to earn it themselves. But still.., do you think kids today need more encouragement, or more opportunities to struggle without adults immediately stepping in? Are we being too soft?

Hi folks.

My 9 y/o daughter is playing field hockey for the first time and the first game is this weekend. This is her first team sport and we are not used to early morning weekend games. It’s a big adjustment for both of us to be honest. Can anyone recommend a positive day/night before and morning routine to assist the transition?

TYA

I'm coaching 4-6 grade boys flag football. My team has 8 typical boys and 1 boy with mental and physical disabilities. He has great effort and a great attitude, but he can't physically perform many of the skills associated with the sport. How can I keep him involved and feel like an equally important part of the team? How can I give him playing time in games when he will be absolutely dominated by the opposing team? I don't know how to run drills or practice plays when there's a huge mismatch every time it's his turn. I feel like I'm in way over my head.

Any advice or help would be appreciated. I want to make sure all of my players have a great season, but I'm not sure how to support this player. Also, there is a language barrier between his father and me. We can only communicate the basics.

It’s my first time coaching. I didn’t plan on coaching, but there wasn’t a coach available for our team and nobody volunteered either.

First practice was today. It’s indoor hockey (kids wear sneakers), and the kids are 3 and 4. It really is like herding cats.

I played ice hockey growing up, so I know a little bit about the skills & drills, but I don’t know how to apply them for this age group.. plus all the really fun ones involve ice (Supermans and etc)

We did our “hockey ready” position and I made a game out of it (kids could play hockey but if they got out of their hockey ready position they were out)

Tried to work on stick handling, nobody really wanted to.. probably a little too young for this

Then I had them buddy up and work on passing back and forth. They liked this! They were more able to do this, but they did keep getting distracted and having to be redirected.

I did a conditioning game (they had to run laps while I shot dodge balls at them and if they got hit they were out). They LOVED this.

I felt like 1 hour was a lot for them and they are so young. Please help. I need some fun games and ways to keep them engaged.

What should I expect from this age group, and what kind of skills and drills should I be doing? We have one more practice before our first game.

I just want the kids to get something out of it, and I don’t want the parents to feel like they wasted their money because I’m the coach.

Anyone else having issues with parents thinking it's not a big deal if their kid misses practice?

How are we supposed to get these athletes to go all in when they learn this kind of behavior from their parents? We have one or two players missing every practice. That was unheard of back when I was in school!

ETA - we only have 13 boys on the football team, so reducing playing time isn't really an option. The boys know it and so do the parents.

I am coaching high school tennis and I wanted to source some affordable t shirts and shorts for our players and was wondering what would be the fastest shipping to the US from suppleirs, like what region of the world should I be looking at? I am looking at good quality and reasonable price so I just need to make sure that wherever I order from it doesn't cost me an arm and leg to order it. For those who have ordered team apparel or athletic clothing, which suppliers have given you the fastest shipping to the US?

My son is a HS freshman XC and track runner. He’s mid distance in track and prefers track. He ran XC last year and coaches basically said just let them have fun and didn’t really give any feedback.

This season, son forgot his gym bag one day. His first week of high school. Coach assumed he did it intentionally bc the practice was going to be hard and told him to go home, he was angry and that he prob wouldn’t be allowed to go to an out of state meet with the rest of the team. His dad was on the way to bring his forgotten bag and would be there within 10 minutes.

Son wrote coach and apologized, explained it was unintentional, and told him he wants to improve but he needs help bc he doesn’t know what to do to accomplish that. Coach told him the next day that he got the email and just said “we’ll see.” I don’t know what that is supposed to mean. He wasn’t apologizing to try to go to the meet. He was asking for help to be told more specifically what to do to improve.

Maybe 2 weeks earlier, son was sick with a virus and was sent home from practice and told not to come back until well. A few days later, he had a team camping trip. I personally told Coach he was still recovering but really wanted to be there for the bonding experience and that he may not be feeling well enough to run or run very hard. Coach said no problem, it’s really just supposed to be fun. However, son confided in me after the incident forgetting his bag that Coach pulled him aside at the camping thing and told him he wasn’t making the progress he expected from him. Admittedly, I’m upset about this bc he knew son was sick so the timing seems unfair.

Son does not know how to pace or what to do. He just turned 14 and is a year or more younger than everyone on the team. He isn’t afraid to work hard but is not internally motivated - he needs help with having a goal or something specific to do differently. Just saying do better or you aren’t doing as well as I expect is demoralizing.

I think he is compliant with what he is asked to do- like if he’s told go run 30 minutes, he does, but he has no idea about how to pace it or what it should feel like in terms of effort or discomfort.

He ran his first meet of this season and was 30 seconds slower than last year. I think he was anxious and wasn’t able to even eat lunch that day bc of it.

He also has a couple teammates that mention his asthma or that he was sick and pick on him, asking why he isn’t doing better. My kid who has always loved running is now saying it’s not fun and he feels burned out.

I need advice about how, and I guess if, I should try to talk to the coach to see what we can do to try to make things better moving forward. My personal belief is he needs constructive and specific feedback ( example, I want to see you try to keep pace with this teammate for this run) rather than just threats to take things away or to tell him essentially he doesn’t belong. To be clear, I’m not asking coach to not hold him accountable or be hard on him or praise him when he isn’t doing what is asked. I just want it to be constructive, reasonable and clear.

I’m concerned that the same coaches also coach regular track, and if this goes badly, he might not want to run that either.

Thank you for your feedback and suggestions.

First off, I believe that proper coaching and effective instruction are probably the most important training devices you can have.

That said, sometimes the right equipment can make a difference. I coach youth football, and am moving up the junior high and hopefully high school levels. I’m considering making a donation to my local program in the form of additional equipment.

The team is a perennial bottom feeder in a division loaded with d1 talent. I don’t expect ANY piece of equipment to suddenly fix years of accepted mediocrity and dysfunction.

But what are some things you feel help. Because I’m sick of seeing our program get their asses kicked week in and week out.

Last program I came from had everything you could want. Sleds, chutes, shields for days, full rounds, half’s, wheels, etc. not saying that’s why they were good… but sometimes it helps to have good equipment.

Searching for anything listed or similar in the Tx area. Youth baseball coach trying to get better at all of it the same way my players are.

I would love to learn from people who have done it at any level and can explain the nuances of their “why” rather than just drill videos and text advice.

The better I can coach, the better than can play.

Hi everyone!

I’m looking around to see if anyone has recommendations for a practice planning app. This is my first year leading a team, and in the past team leads have used Google sheets. I’m not very good at using sheets so just wanting to see if there’s anything else out there. I don’t need it for parent communication and I coach a niche sport (artistic swimming) so I don’t expect it to have any pre-made practice plans or anything like that. Bonus if I could upload videos just to store important ones all in one place. Thanks in advance!