15 Youth Coaching Tips for Success

Whether you always wanted to coach or you’ve had to step in due to a coaching shortage, you no doubt want to succeed. As a coach, your leadership will touch many kids and families with lessons that can last a lifetime. These youth coaching tips span different ages and sports — soccer, baseball, softball, basketball, football, volleyball and more.

1. For younger ages and rec leagues, give everyone a turn. At these stages in youth sports, it’s all about trying each position and getting an equal chance to learn the game.
2. For competitive sports, make it clear that play time may not be equal. For older children and more competitive leagues, you should be challenging individual players and the team as a whole to be their best. That  means playing the best goalie for longer
3. Make attendance expectations clear. With team sports, it’s important that everyone is present for the lessons learned in both games and practices. Use pre-season meetings and correspondence to send a clear message that players are expected to show up.
4. Be respectful of players, parents, and officials. The playing field is one place to always keep a good temperament and show mutual respect to everyone, including officials. The most important reason for this? To set a good example for the young players.
5. Don’t forget the fundamentals. It may be tempting, especially for older kids, to work on advanced techniques and moves, but sometimes focusing on the fundamental basic skills within a sport can produce the best results.
6. Make it fun. Even in the most competitive leagues, these are still kids we’re talking about. Lessons that are fun are much more likely to stick.
7. Keep learning yourself. Keeping up on your own skills such as ball handling can help you remember the challenges and be able to speak to solutions. There are many coaching videos online that can help you learn.
8. Keep yelling to a minimum. Try to reduce criticism and yelling as a coach and find more effective ways to change behaviors.
9. Find ways to help kids focus. Nobody wants to talk to a group of blank faces, or worse, a group chattering amongst themselves. When it comes time for kids to listen, figure out what works best to capture their attention.
10. Ask for help. You may be the team leader but it doesn’t mean you have to do it all. Ask a parent to help coordinate the snack and refreshment rotations, keep score, be a base coach or fill in when you’re absent.
11. Address conflict. It may be tempting to let players work things out or ignore rude comments from a parent, but the best strategy as a coach is to keep communication channels open and help them work through frustrations and conflicts.
12. Work on team building. Even in competitive leagues, kids can learn about more than just winning. Put together team building activities and you might be surprised that teamwork and winning go hand in hand.
13. Reward greatness. For recreational leagues, recognize the achievement of participation, and for more competitive leagues, there are a variety of youth sports awards you could present to recognize achievement.
14. Don’t expect immediate results. Great coaches know that their lessons are given and taken bit by bit, and that no major change will happen overnight. Be an inspiration to your athletes, but do so gradually.
15. Manage dues and communication the easy way. Collect fees, manage documents, membership information and online fundraising pages for your sports team or club with MoneyMinder, designed for small groups like sports teams.