Just giving an opinion/observation from my experience. I played rec league hockey for 20 years before I got involved with coaching (my kid was in the program so of course I'm going to get involved). The first year was very low level (he was 7) but he was good enough that he was asked to participate in a travel game. I had been his head coach for that first year but this travel game had other guys coaching that I knew but not well. To say my mind was blown is hardly enough to demonstrate how out of my element I really was. I thought I knew hockey because I played it...I was clueless. Hell, one of the guys that was coaching had been drafted by the NHL. That one incident proved to me that I needed training in a horrible way. And what I learned in the USA Hockey program was quite frankly unbelievable. Yes, a coaching plan for each practice is a must. The whole idea is to keep the kids motivated during the entire practice. A kid that's sitting is a bored kid. Now I don't know jack about baseball but in hockey we had an offensive coach, a defensive coach and a goalie coach. We would each run particular drills for those groups and the second half would be entire team practice. There was never an idle second. You do make an interesting point about coaches ego vs players fun. Not sure what level your at, but our kids were past the point of it being fun...this was serious business and all they wanted to do was win. Winning was fun. I think that may take some of the coaches ego part out of it. For the travel hockey my son played I was the defensive coach and goalie coach, but for the high school that I coached I was the co-head coach. Thankfully for all those years I never encountered an ego issue among the adults, and I think that's because we were so focused on just winning.
This is recreational league. Half the girls are not from the serious/competitive travel team. I'm all for a practice plan, no one was sitting on the bench or anything. On the travel team, I just help out, as I know it's above my Dad Grade. This rec one was supposed to be more for just getting some reps in for the travel players, and for the new players and players that don't play travel to have fun and play with their friends, or so I thought. I just volunteered as Head Coach because no one else did. The others were either too busy coaching other things, or didn't want the responsibility of head coach. So I stepped up, and though I would be surrounded by folks wanting to help, not folks wanting to run everything without the responsibility of all the admin work involved. They should have been the Head Coach, if this was attitude, and I was more than happy helping or spectating. No good deed goes unpunished, so I know this is the absolute last time I head coach anything.
I get what you're saying and can totally respect your position. I stuck around because my kid was really good and I didn't want anyone else to screw with him. On top of that he loved every second of it and no one could come close to pushing him harder than he pushed himself. I won't BS and I've never admitted this before but I did have pro aspirations for him (in my own mind). Then out of nowhere after his college career was over he said well, that's it dad, I had a blast. He had a tryout with the Jacksonville Iceman minor league team that probably would have been a lock since he trained with one of the coaches but he said nah, I'm done.
From a different perspective, I grew up playing team sports, soccer, baseball since I was 4 years old, around the 6th grade realized team sports were not as fun of surfing, wakeboarding, BMX skating, motorcycles, fishing
Friend of mine who I played old man league with and coaches HS boys called me last night. "Hey Dave, can you grab your gear and come up to the field, coaches versus upperclassmen scrimmage! We need a face off guy." "Scott, I'm old and you got big old corn feds up there and I'm no face off guy. I was barely a passable short stick D player." "Just come up, there's beer in it for you." "Okay, give me a few minutes and I'll come watch, maybe help out a bit." Don't ever answer your phone.
I realized early that my son was not a organized team sports kid. So I never forced it past the 1st grade. Right now he's into skateboarding, and riding motorcycles in the front along with his sister. They are twins, but very different.
I didn't know you played growing up. I thought you got into the sport bc your daughter was into it. Are you originally from NoVa? Where did you play HS? College?
i am an elem school teacher - yes i see this every day!!! apply it to school, sports etc...work ethic and persistence is hard to come by for many.
@BigBird, dude sounds like he might be helpful, but I don't know if it'll be worth it in the long run. Gut instinct says lose him fast. Or maybe you have a heart to heart with him, tell him he can plan practice for a week, then see where the energy level is. The better defined the roles are among the coaching staff, the better. Everybody needs to be crystal clear about what everybody does. However, if dude tells a player not to listen to you again, he needs to go. You should def make all that clear in the heart to heart.
Yeah, played some club back in HS (there were no HS teams where I grew up), then some club the first year of kollege and then got a bit more serious. Played D1 way back in the day when it was not as serious. I always joke that I was the world's smallest D middie (short and long stick) ever in D1. Nope, out of PA, I'm just here in NoVa until I can escape. My kid found it totally on her own and we never pushed her towards it. The only crap we had around the house was one of my old sticks.
Be careful...I'm going through PT and steroid injections into my spine from playing in an exhibition game at Christmas. Next move is spinal surgery if the pain and tingling doesn't go away.
I was one of those "not really into team (or pretty much any) sports" kids. My dad had other rules. I ended up running track and cross country in HS, and being a bit better than mediocre.
Oh, I'm hurting and used up all the ice, ben gay and all the ibuprofen in the house but had some fun. We won ~ 70 to 80% of the face offs and were able to fast pass up the field (instead of trying to run it). I'm done playing even old man league and was smart enough to not wear cleats (torque on the knees and tendons) and when my back started to hurt, changed to standing neutral grip and then to using the pole. lol!
All good. I took a stick to the face on my first shift, and ended up with a bone chip in my spinal column at the C3/4. Doc said it was probably there for ages but the hit pushed it. For a month I could hardly use my right arm and I had tingling in my arm and hand that never went away. After months of PT and two epidurals all the pain is gone but the tingling persists. I'm fine now but the damn tingling is just annoying. I mean come on...doesn't every 60 year old go around getting whacked in the head with a hockey stick! By the way, we won 8-1, so it was totally worth it And I coached all three of these kids since they were 8 years old. It was one of my greatest pleasures to play with them again 20+ years later. [/url]
I grew up doing exactly what bigbird is talking about, played aau and rec league for more practice/fun, I'd fire the know it all coach, there's really no reason for conflict in that setting and if his kid is so good she'd be playing travel ball and not worried about rec league and he'd be coaching.
