Coaching Kids For Dummies

by Rick Wolff

What could be easier or more fun than coaching youth sports? How complicated could it be―it’s all fun and games, right? Unfortunately, coaching kids isn’t that simple. If you’ve ever watched a youth league game, you know that all sorts of pressures, worries, concerns, and emotions come into play when your kid is out on the field. In fact, it’s not unusual to witness at least one ugly incident at a game where a coach or parent has gotten out of control. The good news is, as a coach, you can guarantee that kids have fun, get the physical and psychological boost they need, and want to play on your team next year. And now this book shows you how. Written by a nationally recognized sports-parenting expert, coach, and author who is also a former professional baseball player, Coaching Kids For Dummies shows you step by step how to make sports a positive experience for kids of all ages. Packed with practical advice for coaches and parents, it shows you how to: No matter what your prior experience with youth league sports―even if you weren’t in one yourself as a kid― Coaching Kids For Dummies coaches you in all the essentials. Topics you’ll explore include: Loaded with tested-in-the-trenches strategies for helping kids get the most out of sports, Coaching Kids For Dummies is every youth league coach’s survival guide.

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2000

Reviews

[Daniel Te · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a pretty insightful book into leadership and management, not just for kids, but for anyone. I always keep in mind the "praise sandwich" concept that the author introduces. I try to follow this model, but sometimes with the older people I work with, they can see past the praise and just want the criticism (I call that one the "insult salad").

[Taro Yamashita · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book did not tell me anything that I didn't already know. When the parents of some of my fencing students saw me with it, they asked me why I was reading it. "I don't think you need to read that; you're pretty good at coaching kids already," was a pretty common statement. I told them that I wanted, more than anything else, to make sure that I wasn't missing anything.

This book would not give the budding youth coach what they really need to get started; that information they'd get from just doing it and talking to their mentor/fellow coaches. In my case, I got a LOT of the stuff the book covers from my three years as a classroom teacher. If you can teach in a classroom, you can handle the non-sport-specific stuff of coaching. This book covers mostly the non-sport-specific stuff of coaching (necessarily).

In the end, reading this book assured me that I'm at least doing the basics correctly and that I'm not missing anything. However, it feels like being praised by an unqualified praiser.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of common sense advice but also some good pointers on prep for the first time coach. It was easy to read so I feel it was worth my time to review it as I am considering coaching my daughter's basketball team next season.