Coaching Youth Softball - My Experience Coaching a 16U Team
Next week, we are officially starting our 2009 summer season with our first tournament.
I can tell you I am really excited and the girls are too.
It's my first season with this 16U team. Last time I coached at this level was almost 11 years ago.
I've spent the last decade working mostly with elite players at the college level, with the Canadian National Team and with elite 18U, 23U, and women's major teams.
So, it's quite a change for me.
It's different and can be challenging at times but I really do like it.
There is so much to teach these young ladies besides just the game of softball.
I have to teach them the game of life.
Almost on a daily basis, I will talk about…
- Emotional control
- Dealing with adversity
- Understanding the learning process
- Focusing on the controllables
- Dealing with stress
- Team work and respecting each other
- Leadership
- Being open-minded and coachable
- That talent alone isn't enough anymore
- Working hard and getting out of their comfort zone
- Etc.
It's challenging but rewarding at the same time.
It's incredible the changes you can see in these young ladies in only a couple of months.
And I am not only talking about changes in their skills and fitness level, I am talking significant improvements psychologically and in their maturity level.
That's what makes coaching a youth softball team such an enriching experience.
As a coach, you can definitely have a strong positive influence on the lives of your young athletes.
It's definitely not easy every day but at the end, I think it's totally worth it.
I have learned over the years that as a coach, you give a lot early but you receive a lot more much later.
Either months later or even years later. Athletes end up recognizing all you did for them but unfortunately, not right away!
However, they eventually do and that's gold for any coach who coaches for the right reasons.
What can I say… I do love it.
Who loves ya? 
Coach Marc
"Your softball Peak Performance Coach"
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Comments on Coaching Youth Softball - My Experience Coaching a 16U Team »
Coach Marc,
I was a 4 yr Varsity softball catcher in high school, attended 4 pitching clinics a year throughout high school, and was a red shirted Freshman in college before a career ending shoulder injury in 2001. My mom passed away in 2006 and after 5 yrs of no softball and no hopes of ever being back in the game, I buried my glove with her. The next summer, after coming to terms with my mom's death and leaving softball behind me, I was asked to step in as a pitching coach for a 10U fastpitch team. I jumped at the opportunity! I am at the start of the 2nd season and I am starting to see the changes you speak about. When the girls feel your love of the game and see your passion, they seem to play harder. Not only to improve their skills, but to make you, as a coach, proud of them. It's inspiring to see their progress, both on and off the field, and know that I had something to do with it. Coaching has changed my life and I would never give it up.
Play on!
Hi Jenn,
Thanks for sharing - It's a great testimonial to the power of getting involved and connecting. I did lose my dad 3 1/2 years ago and it took me a good 30 months after that to really get over it.
Coaching makes me feel "alive". It's real. It's human emotions on a daily basis.
I had a coach in high school that changed my life in every way possible. He helped me through more than just learning the game. He would stay late after school to help me with my homework, he helped me go through the college process when it came time to do that, and he even helped me get on a college softball team. He is in my eyes my hero in all meanings of the word. I dont know that with out his push and his guidence i would have even finished high school let alone now almost be done with college. and I am proud to say that I am following in his foot steps and now coaching myself. So to all the coaches out there know that you do effect your players life more than you will ever know.
You often find out the effect you had in the most interesting ways. Could be a call or an email asking you for a reference for a former player. Could be a random email saying hello, or a Facebook request to add you as a friend. Or it could be a former player or student who has started her coaching career, asking for a bit of advice.
Whatever it is, there's nothing like the feeling that you made a difference in a life. When it's all said and done, a coach's real trophies are the players he/she coached.