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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve coached baseball for years both rec and travel and adapted practices for each as well as age.  [b]Biggest challenge by far has been getting volunteer help[/b] - not so much travel because folks are invested.  But in rec parents were always quick to be all over their kid for swing mechanics etc but couldn’t bother to volunteer for station help.  Or when they saw I was solo with 12 8-year-olds.  “I don’t know baseball that well” - did you see me lobbing balls underhand?  did you see me putting balls on tee for tee work?  It’s that simple and doesn’t take PhD in baseball to help…[/quote]

This, although I will note that everyone weighing in on Vienna Little League, which OP specifically referenced, made it sound like people were tripping over themselves to coach. Honestly, that would be awesome. Typically the only way to get parents to help is to have a bad enough coach that parents give up and step in.[/quote]

Yup, when I coached, I would just walk up to the folks sitting in the chair and ask "Do you mind lending a hand?"

If they said "I don't know baseball", they'd get a simple job like, place the ball on the tee and make sure the other kids don't get too close to the kid swinging[/quote]

I coached for many years…I never had anyone sitting around watching practice to even ask.  There were parents that agreed to help formally with the league and parents that opened the car door and were gone within 10 seconds.  Maybe you get a small group showing up near the very end of practice for pick up.

[/quote]

Really?  You never had a bunch of parents bring camping chairs and set up off in the distance to chat?

It literally has happened at every youth team I've been a part of (under 10, at least).  For soccer, football, baseball, softball[/quote]

Never…maybe this is urban LL vs suburban LL.  Parents may live just around the corner so it’s a 2 minute drive vs 15-30 minutes each way (so a parent may decide it’s easier to just stay vs driving home just to have to leave to pick up the kid soon after).

By 10 years old you have kids that were reasonably close walking to practice together with no parents.

I think it’s weird for parents to just hang around a practice and do nothing.  If I saw that I would also make them help in some way.[/quote]

FWIW, they don't usually "do nothing."  It's really not weird; they are usually socializing with other parents and enjoying a nice evening.  I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

And even better, when the kids were a little older and I would work on situations, I would recruit those parents to be baserunners, with the kids always loved.  [/quote]

Yeah…it’s weird.  Sorry, sitting around socializing is doing nothing.  I didn’t literally mean they just sit there staring into space.

So, yeah I will make them help if they are sitting there and see there is only 1 or 2 adults managing a whole team that they don’t volunteer to help…yet they are coming to watch the practice?  Why didn’t they volunteer to help if they were going to be there anyway?[/quote]

That's probably a good way to make sure the parents drop off and leave. Not everyone is good with kids, wants to be involved, knows how to play the sport, or wants to run around. You volunteered, why did you sign up if you didn't really want to be there? I'm sure some will lend a hand but "make them help" is weird and aggressive. [/quote]

That’s great for me…point being if you decided to come to just watch practice, that ain’t happening.  You will be drafted to help.

However,  this doesn’t occur in CapCity, NWLL, CapHILL etc when most kids can walk to practice with friends or parents live one minute away.  There is no social scene around practice unless the league decides to hand out free adult drinks.[/quote]

If you say so. I've been doing this for years and nobody has ever forced me to help. Luckily my kids are now past an age that this would ever come up, my oldest is a teen, my middle doesn't play in a sport at a park, and my youngest is a swimmer now. But I sat on many a park chair watching other kids, chatting to other parents, sometimes dropping off, but never conscripted into duty.[/quote]

I guess parents in DC have a life such that they don't just sit around watching practices.[/quote]

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