Coaching Sports Needs Hands On Training by David Corey

Since being a little girl, my daughter has always excelled in athletics. On the co-ed community baseball team, she was the first female to get to play on first base. Running track and field, she also competed in volleyball. With her history, it was no surprise that she decided after her first year in college to make coaching sports her career. Knowing she was naturally talented in sports, I felt her decision was a good one, but she had never worked with kids before which might present a problem.

To give her hands-on experience coaching kids, applying or a summer job with the parks and recreation department in our town seemed like the perfect idea. Since the programs are open to 10 through 16 year olds, she would be able to determine how well she would do in coaching sports with a different age groups. After applying and interviewing, she found the main positions were filled but she could serve as a helper to the full time coaches. In order to be prepared to fill in for any of the coaches, she had to work with all of the offered sports in all of the age groups.

As soon as the second week, she was asked to fill in for two different coaches. By the second day of that, she had decided coaching sports was not for her after all. Here is a great hobby related website http://www.hobbiesforfun.com. Apparently, the kids did not seem to listen to her or stick to the rules of the game. Although she had never quit anything before, she was seriously considering not even going back the next day. Wanting her to follow through with her commitment, I helped her research articles about coaching young teens. Finding a couple of new techniques, she decided she would try them the next day.

Anxiously waiting to hear her report, I found her coming home almost crying. Although she had tried the new techniques, the kids acted even worse. She had already determined that the summer job had been a good idea so that she didn’t waste going to college to learn to coach sports. Even though I encouraged her to try other age groups that might be easier for her to coach, she decided to stick to playing the sports and let someone else do the coaching.