Coaching Youth Sports - Research Paper Example

COACHING YOUTHS SPORTS Introduction For most of the people around the world, Sports is an extremely important activity being an integral part of their every day life. Like most other activities, it also reflects some of the very significant needs and wants of human life. Out of various factors that drive a young athlete’s strong desire to indulge in sports are fun, joy, entertainment, health, competition, winning, parental and peer acceptance etc. Most developed economies spend millions of dollars in promoting sports, training the new comers to it and making people aware of the importance as well as over all benefits of sports activities. This piece of research paper addresses basic techniques in teaching of softball to young players and positive ways of identifying appropriate skills in individual players and explains how sports can develop physical skills as well as self esteem in young people. Coaching Techniques for Softball As Softball is a team sport, it requires using of specific evaluation tools and techniques that can also be used to assess the developments of the individual parts to make up the whole of the team (American Sport Education Program, p. 9). Improving basic physical skill is key element to success of any sport, and therefore, it is highly important that all the techniques and tactics that are planned to coach softball players must be useful to improve the physical skills of the players. Similarly, there are some non-physical skills like remembrance, mental capacity, communication skill, character training etc that are also important for effective performance in any sport and these are also to be considered while coaching is given to softball players. Evaluating the effective techniques for coaching softball requires understanding what are the essential physical skills required for softball. They are strength, speed, agility, flexibility and power (American Sport Education Program, p. 9). Techniques and tactics can be different from team to tem, from coach to coach, but all these techniques must be able to boost the above mentioned essential physical skills. Prior to starting physical training and coaching of physical skills, the trainers or coachers must convey messages regarding the importance of the coaching, motivate the athletes to improve in their present skills, try to make all the coaching techniques to be given to athletes are unbiased and constant and convey the feedback of the coaching to the, etc. In softball techniques, Hitting coaching is perhaps most important one. It involves quickness, strength and hand-eye coordination etc. While coaching to help players better hit, it must be carefully considered to make them comfortable in proper grip and stance as well (American Sport Education Program, p. 22- 24). Another important technique of coaching is stride, which is a controlled forward move in the direction of the pitcher in order to help the hitter transfer her weight while she swings. Coachers should also train how the players can effectively position their bat and how can they be angled well. Teaching the proper hand-position in bat is also highly important. In each and every step, through out every different move forward and along with different types of hitting, the coacher should teach different stance, hand position and better grip tactics to the players so that they can have gradual improvements in overall moving and other important parts of the softball game. A well structures and effective coaching of softball with different techniques must be well-planned, considering various programs like a) monitoring academic progress, b) arranging team program, c) creating goal chart, d) administering coaching, e) cooperating with team-players etc (Veroni and Brazier, p. 36). Ways to identify skills appropriate to individuals Players are individually different in terms of their age, gender and physical strength and therefore certain skills are more appropriate to some than some others. Different players need to improve different skills. Some skills are more appropriate to some people where as some other skills may not be so. Therefore, it is important that those who train and coach them must use some ways to identify skills that are appropriate to different individuals. Coaching activities must be planned in a way that they focus on chronological ages of the players before addressing the functional ages. A player with physical disability should be afforded a chance to learn and play in a modified softball game and he should not be offered a wheelchair obstacle course etc. A common argument is that when trainers develop age-appropriate skills among the players, it would be helpful for them to enhance self-esteem as they would see what others in their similar age are doing (Kasser, p. 8). A coaching that has been well-planned and developed through a thought-process would more likely to be an effective way to provide age-appropriate coaching. Various age groups must be identified so that coachers can make all players in to few groups and each group can be targeted with their age-appropriate skills. For instance, players can be groped in to 10- 12 age group, 13- 14 age group, 16 – 18 and 19- 20 age groups. Which specific physical skills each group lacks also needs to be identified. One or two groups may be very good in hitting, but they may need to improve positioning, bat positioning and stance etc. So, accordingly, each different group should be given different age-appropriate skill coaching. Lench explained some positive ways to foster age-appropriate skill developments among players. He argued that children under the age of twelve may not be emotionally, mentally and cognitively ready to compete as adults compete. It is because they have not developed a mature understanding of the seriousness of competition. In this case, competition skill needs to be enhanced among such players. Likewise, players should not be pushed to do something which they are not ready to do developmentally. Methods to develop physical skills and self-esteem through sports One of the major benefits of sports is that it can develop and foster physical skills and it gives self-esteem to the players. Coaching must be players-centered and it is the very basic methodology to develop physical skills in players. Sports and physical activities have strong social and psychological relation. There are many instructional goals like leadership, team cohesion, fair playing and cooperation that are very useful to automatically improve the physical skills of the players as well. Though there are many positive ways to develop physical skills among players, a developmentally appropriate coaching system should be able to begin with fundamental skills, building to transitional skills and by providing all the players with an opportunity to learn ontogenetic skills. For many players, coaching in softball or in any other game would be the only possible way to improve their physical skills and therefore they should be given greater considerations. Most players, no matter which specific game they are involved in, feel self esteem with their Sports. Self-esteem is a feeling that one feels self-worth in a specific matter that he is competent in. People feel self-esteem in education, health, physical fitness, wealth, family setup, and sports etc. When one feels that he is competent in a particular sports, he feels self-esteem in it. In sports research, self esteem is considered as holding oneself in high regard, high standard and high feeling. Many of the researchers have pointed out that sports contents many physical improvement and skills development that positively influence one’s feeling of self. Sports can enhance self-esteem only if he becomes good competent in it, mainly through effective training and coaching etc. Coaching can develop his physical skills and he becomes competent in playing with others that contributing a feeling of self-esteem. As Griffin (p. 26) noted, Sports contributes positively to self-esteem is quite conventional wisdom and it is not widely discussed in literatures except few that have given different opinions regarding sports and its impact on self esteem. For instance, one author argued that football playing gives self-esteem in boys, not in girls. But, there is consensus that simply playing a game never contributes positively to the self esteem, but only when he becomes competent or expert in a particular game he feels esteem. When one becomes competent, he compares himself with others and he thus feels proud that he is competent as compared to many others. This mental feeling often increases his attributes to competition too. Conclusion This piece of research paper has detailed various coaching techniques and tactics that can be used to teach fundamental physical skills required for softball playing. Children especially between 8 to 11 of age most likely to require major skills like hitting, positioning, bat holding etc and coachers must plan the coaching program effective for them based on age-appropriate skill development. Different age groups require quite different skill-improvement and therefore trainers are to group players in to different groups and each of them to be targeted with specific skill-development training. Through coaching and training in sports, players improve in physical skills and this helps them become competent in a particular sport and as a result they feel self-esteem in Sports. References American Sport Education Program, Coaching Softball Technical and Tactical Skills, Illustrated edition, Human Kinetics, 2009 Griffin, R S, Sports in the lives of children and adolescents: success on the field and in life, Illustrated edition, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998 Kasser, SL, Inclusive games, Illustrated edition, Human Kinetics, 1995 Lench, BL, Good Youth Sports Coaches Set Realistic, Age Appropriate Expectations Understands child development and are child-centered, Retrieved from http://www.momsteam.com/team-parents/coaching/general/good-youth-sports-coaches-set-realistic-age-appropriate-expectations Veroni, KJ & Brazier, R, Coaching fastpitch softball successfully, Illustrated second edition, Human Kinetics, 2006 Read More