RESOURCES

Tips for Coaches

Running a session:

• Arrive 15-20 minutes early to set up and greet early arrivals.
• Use name tags for your players until you know ALL the names. It shows you care and it’s easier to get the attention of a child if you can call them by name.
• Be positive and enthusiastic! Don’t be afraid to act silly or exaggerate movements – this helps children learn and be more comfortable. Laughter is contagious!
• Keep activities short and instructions even shorter. One or two instructions is all a child at this age can handle. At the end of every lesson be sure to include a Lead Up Game. These games provide players with an introduction to the game of softball that is fun and contains an element of competition. In many of the main activities you can include some competition (i.e. seeing who can make the most consecutive catches).
• If an activity is not engaging 80% of the players, move on to a new one. You can always go back to old favorites or any of the warm up activities. Adjust the lesson plans to suit your group by adding or subtracting activities as needed. Try to incorporate the players’ favorite activities more often to make sure they are having fun.

Praise: It is the best motivator! Players will try very hard to get the coach to mention them. Praise proper behavior – it works better than disciplining bad behavior. Possible behavior expectations that a coach may wish to establish are:

• After the coach’s explanation, wait for the “GO” signal from the coach before starting the activity. An idea to encourage the children to listen more carefully is to replace the word “GO” with a more creative cue such as “Play Ball!” or “Swing Away!”
• Use the word “FREEZE” to stop an activity
• Establish responsibilities for the players to set-up and put away equipment
• Insist that players place and do not throw the equipment when putting it away
• Work with players from the beginning of the season to instill safety awareness while on the field (i.e. don’t throw unless your partner is looking, and always check around you before you swing the bat).

Cheering and communicating with teammates during drills and games should be encouraged by the coach and instilled into the athletes at a very young age. Try creating a team cheer for your group and using it
week to week to begin and end your session!

Parents: It will be important to promote the Learn to Play softball philosophy to parents, as some may be skeptical at first. It will help to refer to the activities as legitimately as possible and to avoid the phrase “we just practice”. Remember the emphasis of the Learn to Play softball program is to have FUN! Children may take part in activities that do not look relevant to softball but are supporting their overall and long-term development. In the Learn to Play softball Program, the games and fun activities played week to week will teach your child to move, throw, catch, hit, and run properly – all skills they need to develop prior to being able to play a full game of softball.

Group Selection: When it is time to select teams avoid assigning captains to pick the teams. This method was commonly used in the past but is discouraged because it can cause irreparable damage to the self esteem of the child picked last. There are many alternate ways for assigning teams that are positive for all players involved.

Some examples include:

• Number players at the beginning of the season from 1-12. This will allow coaches to call out players numbers to assign groups easily.
• Have players pair off into partners, then have the pairs join another pair or another two pairs to make larger groups as needed.
• To select teams, have players pick a partner (without telling them you are choosing teams). Have one partner stand on one line and the other partner stand on another line, now you have two teams.
• Have the children line up from tallest to shortest, every second child steps forward to make two teams.
• Have everyone cross their arms across their chest. Amazingly, it almost always works out to about 50% cross right over left, and the other 50% cross left over right. Split teams accordingly.
• In a hat/bag have an even number of red and black checkers, have each player pick one checker from the hat/bag. Have players split into a red team and a black team, based on what colour of checker they picked.

At the beginning of the season be sure to establish a rule that lets players know that it is NOT acceptable to say no to a teammate that wants to be their partner.

Pitching: Pitching is not introduced until the U8 lesson plans. If you are introducing pitching, be flexible with the time you spend on it. It is a complex skill and it may take time for the players to understand. Be creative with pitching activities (i.e. using targets on the backstop, stepping on a marked line, etc.). If players are confused switching back and forth from underhand (pitching) to overhand throwing, wait until later in the season to introduce pitching. This will allow players to establish their overhand throwing skills. You can also approach your Local Association to see if they run a Canpitch program. Having a Canpitch instructor come to a Learn to Play softball session is a great way to introduce the proper pitching progression to young athletes.