Strength Training For Youth Athletes | 50% Commission!

Strength Training For Youth Athletes | 50% Commission!
Earn A 50% Commission On Strength Training For Youth Athletes. Written By Baseball Coach Xan Barksdale And One Of The Premier Strength Coaches In The Country, Eric Hammer C.s.c.s. Only Product On CB Just For Youth Athletes!
Strength Training For Youth Athletes | 50% Commission!

Real World Taekwondo – White Belt To Black Belt Tkd Training Course
Learn The Complete Wtf Taekwondo Training System From A Former Great Britain Tkd Team Coach, Current Great Britain Tkd Team Coach And Current Tkd Commonwealth Games Medalist!
Real World Taekwondo – White Belt To Black Belt Tkd Training Course

Moving From Assistant to Head Coach in Youth Football

Article by Dave Cisar

Many youth football assistant coaches out there have aspirations of becoming a head coach. They want to run their own offense, defense, special teams and want to see how their methods will pan out, there is nothing wrong with that. I’ve had about 14 assistant coaches coach with me that went on to be head coaches. I encouraged them and mentored them and most good youth coaches will do the same if asked.

Many youth organizations have more people that want to be head coaches than they have head coaching positions, so the organization has to determine the best choice for the organization.

The first step in becoming a head coach is to be the best assistant coach the organization has ever seen and here is how you do it:

Be the very best at whatever task is given you, if you are in charge of something as mundane as water, make sure the water situation is the best it has ever been. Get personalized water bottles for every player and make sure your timeout water is the freshest and coolest the team has ever seen and get it out there in quantity and in a hurry, you get the idea.

Be loyal to the head coach’s schemes and practice methods. If he is running a spread offense with zone blocking rules, learn as much about those systems as you can. He is in charge and gets to run whatever he wants, no matter if the offense is a poor choice for your team. Do not criticize him or his systems publicly if forced to comment just say ” My job as an assistant coach is to implement what the head coach wants in the fashion he wants it done in”.

If you have scheme and technique suggestions, make those to the coach away from the practice and game fields. Present them in a non-aggressive, non-threatening way. If he disagrees with you and is firm on sticking with his methods, do not hold a grudge, aggressively teach his methods the best you can.

Be punctual, get to practice early, help set up and develop positive relationships with the kids and parents.

Offer to take whatever load from the head coach as possible. This could include bringing some of the blocking dummies to practice or scouting an upcoming opponent.

Ask him to take you along if he scouts teams to learn how he does it.

Ask the head coach what he uses to learn more about his system and ask to borrow it or buy it yourself.

Be beyond reproach from an ethical standard, even if other coaches smoke or drink in front of players, do not do so. Stay above petty frays in the coaching staff or team dynamic.

Be the very best sport and model exceptional sportsmanship to your players.

Be well dressed, well groomed and professional.

If your area of the team is having problems, ask the head coach for suggestions, be humble.

Be enthusiastic and friendly with opposing coaches and referees. If you attend other youth games, develop positive relationships with them.

Take initiative with small things and excel at it. Something as simple as making sure everyone on the kickoff team is on the field. Or even picking up all the trash on your sidelines after the game. Offer to make signage to make the field more special on game days, things like that.

Suggest fun team building drills like those in the book in chapter 4 for a day the team is starting to run out of gas. Suggest something unique that you are in charge of and run it. Make theses suggestions off the field and show the head coach why it is important and how it will help “his” team.

Break down film of your games and offer stats to the coach.

Bring in a donor or run a fundraising effort.

Do year end framed certificates or awards for the kids, the frames we use are just each and the certificates are free on the internet.

Let the head coach know you would like to be a head coach and ask him what areas he feels you need to improve upon to become a head coach. Ask him to recommend coaching materials or clinics you should attend.

Attend league board meetings and let them know of your interest and qualifications.

Finally, get recommendation letters from the head coach, other assistants and even parents of kids on your team.

Go to the coaches clinics in your area, sit up front, learn and become known, be part of the demos. The clinics are always looking for volunteer workers, volunteer.

If you do these things somehow, somewhere, people are going to be beating down your door to be a head football coach.

As someone that has “hired” 100’s of head coaches, I can assure you we look for the coach that has the best ability to lead and balance that against any liability you may have. Most youth organizations like to keep their risks as low as possible, so if you are not well organized, are a pain to deal with, have sportsmanship issues, this will often outweigh your coaching expertise.

To get more free football tips or get a free subscribtion to Dave’s newletter click here: Coaching Youth Football

About the Author

Dave is an accomplished author and youth football coach with an amazing 97% winning percentage in fall football using this system.

At The Youth Level – Teacher Or Coach?

Article by Ronn Wyckoff

I have written about this before, and I believe that every player needs and deserves a teaching-coach in the early years. Each skill needs to be broken down into building blocks, where the level of difficulty can be raised as the individual grasps and possesses the skill before moving on. A coach can make a big mistake thinking that all players are capable of grasping the same lesson at the same pace as every other player. It doesn’t happen in the classroom so why would we assume the playing floor is somehow different?

One of the big problems in youth programs is that qualified teachers are rare. Often, youth team coaches try very hard to do the best they can with limited knowledge. They may have little or no playing or teaching experience. Our most skilled coaches, who could possibly be the most effective teachers, come into the picture later on in a player’s career. By then, many incorrect habits have been set and coaches don’t have the time, personnel or perhaps the desire to back up and re-teach skills.

Too often, youth coaches are not thinking beyond the current season while trying to make winners of the players he/she has now. No thought is given to the players’ development for the future. When a coach thinks like this, it is selfish and coming from pure ego. The child is not important – only the coach’s vision of success. This kind of thinking hurts the children in the program and continues to give youth sports a black eye.

In my many years of coaching and directing youth sports, I was witness to these kinds of coaches. For this reason, I joined with many other coaches, parents, youth sport administrators and understanding individuals around the world to advocate that youth sports be for the youth – not for the adults.

Show me a basketball coach, parent or program administrator who believes that youngsters under the age of 11 should use a regulation ball or regulation rim height, or who advocates pressing defenses and zone defense at a young age and I’ll show you adults out of touch with reality. They do not understand anything about child psychology and are in a program like this for their own selfish motives. These adults are ego-driven, more concerned with winning than with child/player development.

Kids need to develop basketball skills, have fun and grow in the game, at the same time developing life skills that will serve them throughout their lives. They need role models who model good judgment, good behavior and are responsible adults.

The game of basketball is over-coached and under-taught. Not many coaches can really teach – especially at the youth level where teaching is crucial. We teaching-coaches have to be able to recognize even the smallest skill weakness and be able to break down the skill for the player to better understand and execute. Everything about successful teaching is about paying attention to the details!

This is what decided me to write my book and then to create my teaching DVD, both named, “Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching & Playing”. (http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/paperback) Everything I write about in my book and show in my 4-hour DVD is designed to teach a coach, player or parent of a player the details about how to teach and how to perform every individual skill in basketball.

Phil Jackson, in talking about the success of the Chicago Bulls, stated, “paying attention to basics is the key to success-passing, foot work, (floor) spacing.”

I have always said, that since I can’t play the piano, how can I teach someone to play the piano. It’s hard to teach something you can’t do yourself. Even if a coach can play the game at a decent skill level, can that person actually teach a young child from the beginning how to dribble, pass, shoot, etc.? So often, coaches run drills and expect kids to learn from the drills. First, however, the skill must be talked about, demonstrated and practiced. Then drills can be used to impress the skill into muscle memory and to allow the coach to observe and correct skill weaknesses.

We have as varied number of ways of teaching skills as we have coaches. We all borrow from other coaches, and that’s a good way to learn what to do, but we need to understand the “how”. There’s so much available for those wanting to grow as teachers of the game. There are websites by the thousands, books and videos. Watch games on TV and study the action instead of watching for entertainment value. Watch games being played locally. A keen observer can pick up a lot – both to try and not to try.

It’s important that a youth coach develop his/her own style, rather than trying to copy another coach. We don’t know what the talent level of the other coach’s players are, the amount of practice time they have, the number of baskets, assistant coaches, balls, and many other factors that can separate any two teams. The copy cat coach may be trying to copy things he/she doesn’t understand how to implement or is trying to do so with the wrong group of kids or under entirely different circumstances than the coach being copied.

By definition, teaching requires that learning is taking place. Just because we show something doesn’t mean it’s being learned. The identification and perfection of details in teaching fundamentals sets the teaching-coach above the average coach. Details, taught with repetition, and drilled to perfection, will allow the teacher to now begin to coach. Coaching is not teaching. We teach in practices and coach during games. Coaching is the manipulation of players versus the clock and the competition.

The teaching-coach’s greatest attribute may just be in making the little things work well which makes the big things work.

About the Author

Coach Ronn Wyckoff is an international spokesperson for youth sports being for the youth and the author/producer of 28 e-book and videos, including the 4-hr. instructional DVD, “Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing”. http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com

Find More Coaching Articles

Hide me
Learn how to kick-start your metabolism with the Fat Loss Jumpstart
 First Name  Email    
Show me