Coaching Your Own Kid

How hard is it? Do you find yourself being harder on your own kid than others? How often do other players parents make comments about he only plays because you're the coach? Did your kid play at a different school than you coach?

I ask because my wife and i just had our first child and its been on my mind a bunch about whether or not to coach him. I don't know this to be factual, but you would think if your kid is always with dad at the ballpark he's going to develop into somewhat of a ballplayer. how could they not.

Just wondering

 

Just being around the ballpark will help your son. Look at the former Glenn Coach Dale Ijames and his son Dustin. Everything that Dale knows has been passed down to his son Dustin. Just being able to sit and watch then giving hints or tips on how to do things correctly will help. So its a great thing to coach your son. But you need to treat him like every other player on the team. No favortism.

 

I can only speak in terms of my own experience. I did not coach my son after he turned 12. I felt that I had already taught him the fundamentals and it was time for him to learn from a different voice.

Besides, you still get a lot of feedback and developing on the ride home from games and the backyard talks.

I just felt that it was not fair to the son to have his dad continue to coach him...plus, most boys reach an age when they start to tune out their dads anyway. I can remember countless of times I told him something, then have his current coach say the same thing and he discusses it with you like it's the first he has ever heard it.

Actually, I remember one summer coaching another team against his. That was terrific!!!....because we beat them every time. For that one summer, the bragging rights at home was...well...it was beautiful!!!!:notworthy

 

Coach you own kid - especially if you're a high school coach because you will miss so many t-ball, coach pitch and Little League games your son will be playing in because of your own schedule. Just be sure to treat him like every other player - especially when he screws up. An outsider should be able to come to your practices and not know which player belongs to you. The hardest part is knowing that your son will have to be better than perfect to keep the murmuring to a minimum. But who cares what the other parents think? Rest assured if you weren't coaching your son they'd find something else wrong with you!

 

knowing your kid will have to be perfect to keep down the murmuring was exactly what i was thinking. you almost can't treat your own kid like everyone else. it seems you almost have to harder on them than others so people can't say you're coddling them. baseball like life isn't fair sometimes i guess

so how about this question...what if a skill or technique your kid learns from his little league coach is for lack of a better word, wrong. i realize and i respect any man who gives up his time to be a community coach. i also realize that some of them may not be the most knowledgable, but rather the most available. have any of you hs coaches run into that?

looks like i'm going to have to give up coaching hs so i can always be at t-ball and little league games

 

I'd bet a coke!

Coach,
I'll bet you a coke that you absolutely CANNOT resist the urge to coach your son. And you should coach him.....................for lots of reasons. 1. you are very qualified. 2. he will want to learn the game and be with you. 3. he will need to learn the game properly. 4. no one else is likely to measure up.

don't worry about his talent level. just being your son will put him in the top grouping anyway. you'll know when to turn him over to me or someone else you'll grow to trust when its time. and by all means if you are fortunate enough to have him play for you in hs then by all means do it! the rest of the people can go fly a kite. that's what they'll do anyway. you and your family are the only ones that really matter when all is said and done and you shouldn't miss out on this because of that.

teaching him the right way early on will go a long way later. our area hs coaches know i taught mine right when they see him. they keep asking when they can get their hands on him. for now he's still mine.

i will tell you though that at practice and games you have to leave him alone or leave him to the care of the other coach your coaching with. you will want to over coach him and over compensate so just leave him alone. his feelings will be hurt much faster than if the "coaching" came from another coach/dad. at HOME is when he'll listen. we spend countless hours practicing and watching and sharing our love for the game that my father gave to me almost 40 years ago. he'll listen when it's just you and him and he'll (eventually) do the things you are showing him.

then, like braves said...........no matter how good you are he'll outgrow you and need someone else. that's almost happening to me but not quite yet.

will he love the game? duh! just throw the plastic bat and ball in his crib tonight and the rest will take care of itself! oh yeah, and give him a big hug for me too.

best of luck and God Bless your new son.

 

AMEN!!!!!

AMEN!!!! Couldn't have said it any better..........and never stop giving them a hug....even when that grow up!!!!!!!

 

I can't say anything about coaching a son because I'm only 20, but I did coach my younger brother a couple of summers ago...I always thought I was tougher on him because I expected more of him, but then again I didn't have to say too much because we talked about the game so much between each other we saw eye to eye most of the time......

As from the son's aspect of being coached by his dad....I was coached by my dad until i was 14....he then thought it was time for other people to coach me and not him anymore eventhough he was still a good coach. I always thought that I had to do well otherwise it was always a long ride home with him giving me pointers on what I should have done. But I will never regret a day that my dad coached me becuase I've coached with him now and our minds think so much a like its scary.....JMO tho

 

As the son of a coach, I can say that it's important to be as involved as possible with your progeny's athletic exploits (observer is correct that it's difficult to make time, but it's definitely worth it), but specifically coaching them can be a bad thing. When they're old enough for you to coach them, it's a very tricky balancing act. On one hand any appearance of playing favorites can make you lose control of the team, but some coaches go too far the opposite way and are really hard on their own kids precisely because they don't want to give the appearance of favoritism, and that's actually worse because it can completely ruin your familial relationships (not only with your kid, but the wife and other family members as well). Honestly I'd say it's better if you don't coach your kid, but sometimes that can't be avoided.