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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A note on “dad coaches”

I was one, and I also helped with board/admin with the rec soccer league and rec baseball league.   I could do it, because my kids played and my wife helped.  And, because, volunteering is part of what we do.  Others volunteer doing other things, church, arts, whatever.   My kids participated in lots of activities that we provided little beyond money and carpools.  It’s a trade.

It took a couple year’s experience before I learned the basics.  These would be:

1.  No rec coach is going to teach your kid skills.  There is no time.  Take a 10 year old baseball team.  There will be 14-16 players on it.  They will have 3-4 practices of 1-2 hours each before the games start.  They will have warmup time before each game and they will bat about 3 times each game.  In the preseason practices, your kid, maybe, will get time to see 25 pitches a practice.  Hopefully he can get 6 or 7 times hitting from a tee to work on his swing form.  That’s it.

In other words - if you want your kid to learn to hit you need to spend the 100 hours minimum that it will take to get him comfortable at the plate.  I don’t have the time.  And, any extra time I do find will be working with my kid.

Want your kid to get more practice time?  Volunteer to help.  You get to the field at 4 with your kid, pull the tarps, rake the infield and lay down the chalk.  Then you can have 15-20 min to throw to your kid, or work on his fielding.  It all helps.

Do coaches favor their own kids for stuff?  Sure.  It’s a trade off.  My kid has to come home from school, get into his uniform right away, and be ready to go to get to the field by 4:30 for the 6:00 game.  When we get there, we will get the field ready, and warm up.  Hopefully, there is time to work on something for a few minutes before others arrive.  Often there is not.  We play the game.  Afterwords, my kid helps take the field, lay the tarps, and pick up trash so it’s good to go the next day.

Want your kid to bat in the first 6-7 in the order and play a couple of innings in the infield?  Volunteer.  Be the guy who is first to the field and last to leave one game a week.

That’s just coaching.  Folks also do league administration.  Get involved.  Teams need to be formed.  Tryouts need fields or gyms.  Fields have to be prepared.  Equipment needs to be gone through and replaced/repaired so every team has gear.   Schedules need to be made.  Umpires need to be found, trained and paid.  There’s lots to do.  What are you doing to make sure it all runs smoothly?

[/quote]

This is great advice; many of us raise our hands and do whatever we can to pitch in.  However, even our club programs are run by dads.  My kid did a ton of extra training to develop skills, and the team dads complained that he's skilled but not a team player, even though he had the second most assists on the team that year.  He was never chosen for special teams, even though his stats have always been good.  All but one of the kids that get the most playing time had a dad on the bench or on the board of the club.  He was never invited to off-season tournament teams with the group of local kids.  And before jumping to conclusions, I am not a difficult parent.  I get my kid to practice early and don't complain or gossip with other parents.  It's nice to be able to vent here because I don't do it otherwise.  We were never on the inside, and my kid was vulnerable to his playing time being compromised because he didn't have a strong dad to stand up for him along the way. We found opportunities along the way so he could continue to develop, and eventually, we found teams that were less influenced by the dad squad.  [/quote]

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