Fastpitch Parents

Here is something that comes up quite a bit. After all, your child’s coach has a huge impact on the type of experience your child (and you) have while playing fastpitch softball. I know, and maybe you do to (though I hope not) how rough it can be when your child doesn’t have a good coach. Now the term “good” doesn’t only refer to the coach’s ability to teach your child about softball, but also about how they handle certain coaching situations. If you’re looking for a few guidelines on evaluating coaches, here’s an article to help.

How To Evaluate Your Athlete’s Youth Sports Coach

By Dr. Patrick J. Cohn and Lisa E Cohn

In my 15 years as a sports parent, one of the most difficult challenges I ever faced was dealing with an abusive coach. My son was a 7th grader who loved basketball more than anything in the world, and his coach was a nightmare. He yelled at the boys, threw basketballs at them, and called them names.

None of the other parents of the team were willing to call up the coach and question his style. Why? They were afraid the coach would bench their sons or cut their playing time.

As a sports parent–especially if you’re a parent to an elementary or middle-school aged child–it’s your job to ensure your children are in good hands. Before you even sign your kids up for a team, it’s entirely appropriate and reasonable to interview the coach. You should ask potential coaches about their philosophy and how they handle playing time.

That’s not all you can do. If your young athletes are already part of a team, but don’t seem happy with the coach, you need to do some research. Is the coach always unhappy with your athlete’s performance, no matter how well she performs? Does the coach criticize your child constantly, or dwell on mistakes? Is your child withdrawn or quiet around the coach? If so, you need to take action.

You can begin by discussing your worries with the coach. Don’t yell at the coach, call him names or blame him. Simply state your concerns and see how he responds. When my son’s coach said, “I’m trying to ensure the boys are tough enough to play in high school and you need to stop babying them,” I wasn’t happy. It was time to find another coach.

If you can’t find another coach, it’s appropriate for you to consider coaching your own team.

Award winning parenting writer Lisa Cohn and Youth Sports Psychology expert Dr. Patrick J. Cohn are co-founders of “The Ultimate Sports Parent.” The Ultimate Sports Parent is devoted to helping sports parents and youth sports coaches improve confidence and success in young athletes. Pick up their free e-book, “Ten Tips to Improve Confidence and Success in Young Athletes” and free e-course by visiting youthsportspsychology.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Patrick_J._Cohn

Technorati Tags: fastpitch parent, parenting, sports parent, youth sports

Ah, this is something interesting the think about. We often think about the role of the coaches or the role of the parents, but what about the role of the players? Are you giving them guidelines each year? I personally don’t think the responsibilities of the player are emphasized enough. Even if the coach doesn’t do it, you as a parent can teach this to your child.

Here is a great article that outlines some of this.

The Role Of The Youth Athlete

By Joe Waters

Technorati Tags: fastpitch, young athletes, youth softball, youth sports

How much do you spend on softball for your daughter(s) each year? How much is too much?

I’m sure you’ve seen families that spend quite a bit of money on softball each year (even if you’re not one of them). But can there be a negative effect of all that spending on your children?

I recently came across and article that asked if priceless youth sports moments were worth the expense. What do you think? Do you think your money is well spent? Or are you one of those parents who feel the money will be well spent IF it takes your child to a certain point?

This article also brought up a side of this issue I’d never thought of before. It talks about how, in some cases, parents spending that much on their kids is a result of pushing their goals onto their children. Just something to think about and make sure you don’t fall into.

In addition to money, softball can take up lots of time. This brings up an interesting question as well: what’s tougher? Spending on the money on softball or the time? Which is tougher to come up with for you?

The father in the article said that “Wanting better for his three boys, he said he spends more than $4,000 a year on youth sports - giving his sons more than he ever had.”

Later, he goes on to say that he doesn’t think that amount of money is all that much considering the fact that he has 3 boys who play more than one sport. Now that I think about it, I could pretty easily spend quite a bit of money on my 3 girls, just for softball alone. What do you think? How much is too much?

If you’d like to read the article, CLICK HERE

Technorati Tags: youth softball softball parent, youth sports

If your child has aspirations of playing sports in college, teach them online ettiquette and good behavior NOW!

More and more colleges are having to deal with the online behavior of their student-athletes.  It’s just one more public arena where a student-athlete can be seen.  I remember being in college and having our coach tell us that we represent not only our team, but our school, and even the state.  He talked to us about carrying ourselves well in public places.

Nowadays with web 2.0 and social media or social networking, a student-athlete’s public identity is even tougher to control.  Facebook, myspace, and a myriad of other popular social networking sites provide yet another public avenue through which student-athletes can be seen.

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’ve heard someone say that some college actually look at potential student’s social media profiles and pages.  Why not?  It’s a public medium and gives insight into what kind of person you are.  I think colleges should have the right to use that as part of student evaluation if they so choose.  What do you think?

Whatever your opinion may be, I’d rather be safe than sorry.  If your child plans to attend college, I would start monitoring her social media profiles and pages and talk to her about her behavior is cyberspace as well as how it can affect her future.  The time to prevent possible fall out is now.  Get your child’s cyber-identities in check so you don’t have problems in the future.

Last month there was an article published about college student-athletes and social media/networking.  If you’d like to read the article, CLICK HERE.

Technorati Tags: athletes, facebook, myspace, social media, sports parenting, teen athletes, youth sports

I have actually met parents like this.  Parents who feel that their child will be irreversibly hurt by failure.  Parents who feel that their child must have lots of winning experiences to “know how to win” and “know how to be successful.”

But is that the best way?  Is winning and telling your child she’s the best all the time the ideal way to give your child good self esteem and give her the best chance at being successful?

This article doesn’t think so and neither do I.  When you give out too much praise, it becomes meaningless.  It has no value.  The other thing the article pointed out is that parents, for some reason, feel that their child will be irreparably harmed if they fail at anything.  But how are they supposed to learn if they don’t make mistakes?  One of the business lessons I learned this year is to make mistakes big and fast so that you can fix them.  Mistakes and failures are how we learn.  It’s how we get better.  Why do parents now think that taking that away from their kids is “best” for them?

This Fox News Article is a good one.  It has a bunch of good information and some good quotes.  I love reading good quotes and this article has a few for you. CLICK HERE to read the whole article.

Technorati Tags: children, failure, parenting, self esteem, sports parenting, sportsmanship, success