Being a youth sports coach means being a jack of all trades. All at once you are expected to be a counselor, friend, discipliner, teacher, and confidant. You are expected to know [tag]how to coach youth baseball[/tag], how to maintain control but respect your [tag]baseball[/tag] players and foster an environment of fun.
Fun generally comes from success, but you cannot focus too much on [tag]winning[/tag]. There is a delicate balance you must strike as a coach. We are going to show you what some of the most common [tag]coaching[/tag] [tag]mistakes[/tag] are and how to avoid them. Each tip will give you examples of what to do in certain situations, how to fix things when they have gone wrong, and how to avoid falling into the same error again. There are ways to prevent these mistakes from happening as well as tips for handling things in the moment. We know that coaching is difficult; we also know that your patience, dedication, and love for the sport will help you do it successfully!
Mistake #1 – Win, Win, Win
The point of sports is learning and having fun, but it is also about winning. Winning is a natural goal of all teams, but coaches who focus only on winning run the risk of demotivating their athletes. Youth sports are an outlet for children to learn, grow, and develop important interpersonal skills. None of these benefits are possible if you, the coach, put the focus only on winning.
Winning-focused coaching happens when a coach teaches his/her athletes to “win no matter the cost,” which includes injuries, penalties, or cheating. It also comes about when parents pay excessive amounts to involve their kids in sports and expect to see results. A winning-focused coach is also one who is very personally emotionally involved in the team and the sport. This type of coach is one who probably played the game as a youth as well and wants to make up for his/her own mistakes through the conduct of the current athletes. This is a recipe for disaster, because the coach is no longer focused on the athletes.