As I have blogged about last week, I am an assistant coach for my daughter's softball team (ages 7-10). We had our second practice tonight. Its really funny to see the girls with pink helmet, bats, and even gloves. Even funnier is seeing the girls with nail polish on. The batting helmets are a riot, they have a hole in the back so the girls can put their hair through, if its long enough for a pony tail.
Coaching girls is a unique experience, they definitely aren't as tough as boys when it comes to the bumps and bangs that come with ball related sports. Earlier in the week, I was pitching to one of the girls, and I accidentally hit her on the hand. It took her about five seconds before she started crying. Of course it makes me feel bad, although it was unintentional, you still feel bad.
I think girls are easier to coach as they tend to listen more than the boys I have coached in the past. One habit that is hard to try to get them out of is listening to their parents try and coach them from the sidelines. I have always told the girls that when they are on the field that its okay to only listen to the coaches and not their parents. It tends to confuse them if they are being told different things. Its one thing that has annoyed me about coaching is some of the parents coaching from the sidelines.
My own personal rule is to coach when I coach, and be a parent when I am watching. If I see something that one of my own kid's is doing wrong or can be done differently, I will tell them afterwards, but ultimately I let them be coached by their coach.
Its going to be a fun season, I have a lot of girls with talent, and a few rookies, so it will be neat to see them develop into real players.
--gfo
No comments:
Post a Comment