Any Coaches out there?

[Clone up North]

I’ve been coaching for 16 years (high school cross country) and I absolutely love the practice of coaching. I love watching the kids improve and gain confidence and pass along what they learn to the younger kids.

I also really appreciate the coaches that we currently have at ISU, we’re lucky to have these people. I’ve been so impressed with their demeanors and passion and perspective.

I’m wondering if any of you coach (your sport and level) and what you like/don’t like about it.

 

[ISUCyclones2015]

No but I’ve been with @CoachHines3 ’s mom. Does that count

 

[mb7299]

I coach boys/girls cross country at a small school currently. I agree with the watching kids get more confident and passionate about a sport is amazing. Downsides for school is very little community support either for me personally or with encouraging their own kids to run in the summer. I actually couldn't have kids run on gravel for two weeks as a parent went to the ad about how unsafe it is and made up a bunch of false statements about me. Ive been at other schools/communities that were great though and extremely rewarding.

 

[cycloner29]

I coached a few little league teams in baseball and youth tackle football.

1. Dealing with helicopter parents. Told them at the first practice that I volunteered for this. If they felt they could do a better job, they could coach.
2. I never got angry to the point of yelling any kind of obscenities to other coaches or umpires. They only thing people remember about you is being a hot head. I remember Ames-Gilbert rivalry with youth football. Wow! Gilbert coach back in the day was a real richard.
3. Always be supportive of the kids. Don't knock on them in front of others.
4. Have fun with the kids. We did silly games with the kids after practice or during practice just to create team building.

 

[CYCLNST8]

I was the umpire for a few Little League games back in the day and my dad was a coach. He would openly criticize some of my calls in front of everybody. I should have had him ejected.

 

[Antihawk240]

I’ve been coaching for 16 years (high school cross country) and I absolutely love the practice of coaching. I love watching the kids improve and gain confidence and pass along what they learn to the younger kids.

I also really appreciate the coaches that we currently have at ISU, we’re lucky to have these people. I’ve been so impressed with their demeanors and passion and perspective.

I’m wondering if any of you coach (your sport and level) and what you like/don’t like about it.

I am going on my 13th year of coaching high school Track and my 4th year of coaching Cross Country. When I started it was rough. We were bad. I would sit through a miserable cold night just waiting for the 1 event we were competitive in, get our gold medal and go home. I will say- granted my obviously biased opinion - we are now a regular top 10 in state track team and currently have the best cross country team in school history.

I ran track for Iowa State and Coach Lynn inspired me to become a coach. When I moved back to my home town I talked to him about how poor the team was and when the coach got fired Coach Lynn convinced me to apply for it.

I'll start with what I dislike about it. When I first started I got 40 kids out for track..... we were horrible. Now we have 21 kids out for track and successful. If we are conference champions and top 10 every year in state with 21 I can only imagine what we could do if I had 40 out! My point is kids no longer are willing to go out for track unless they are the best. They refuse to be the 5th fastest 200 runner on the team or 3rd fastest miler. If they are not THE guy they wont settle for being A guy and dont go out. Those types of kids are critical to building a championship team and they simply dont understand the TEAM aspect of Track and Field. Not to mention they don't go out because they want to focus on football or baseball. Track will make them better football and baseball players.

My favorite part is when I started coaching my kids were all in elementary school. I have coached them through their high school years and watching them become winners both individually and on a winning team while watching them being captains and lead was extremely rewarding.

Cross Country is an awesome team sport that most people never realize. The pure beauty of 7 kids who are above average 5Kers and can run together as a pack is one of the most fascinating things you can witness in high school athletics. I am blessed to have got lucky when the most athletic and best athlete in the school decided to go out for XC instead of football last year. Not only was that a blessing, but his athletic and talented classmates followed him. The group of kids simply wanted to win and they felt Cross Country provided a better path than football to win.

I have gotten older though! It is much more enjoyable coaching good kids than punks. The problem is the punks tend to be better athletes. But man alive, when you have that team of good and clean kids who can win- those years are absolutely golden. I just happen to be in my Golden years so I better love every minute of this.

 

[1SEIACLONE]

Before I retired I coached for about 25 of the 36 years I taught. Varsity football assistant for 4 years and then the head coach for another 7. Middle school football for 5 seasons, and both middle school boys and girls basketball for 22. Also did middle school track for another 10 years.

I liked being around the kids and getting to know them in a different light than the way they were in the classroom.
I stopped coaching for the last 7/8 years of my career, was getting burnt out on all the late nights, having to beg kids to go out for a sport like football.
I was told by a veteran teacher to give up on the varsity level and move down to the middle school level, less pressure and shorter seasons. He then said the schools is always going to struggle to get to .500 in football, and why put yourself through that. Took me 5 years to figure it out, but he was correct, and the school has only had 2 winning seasons since I left in 2010. Last year their varsity football won one game.

 

[Cy Hard]

How I picture all of you in here…

 

[BikeSkiClone]

Coached t-ball and 4-6 year old soccer, each for a season, college summers. Kids were cool and I wonder about them occasionally. They’d be 20-22ish these days. Parents were…the reason I’ll never do traditional sports league coaching again.

I have since coach alpine skiing and weightlifting for the Special Olympics. Highlight of my week, very rewarding.

 

[JP4CY]

How I picture all of you in here…
View attachment 153405

Why are those shorts so long and baggy?
Skies out/thighs out is how I roll.

 

[psycln11]

This is Cyclonefanatic, we're ALL coaches (& Refs)!!

 

[Cy Hard]

Why are those shorts so long and baggy?
Skies out/thighs out is how I roll.

They kept it modest for the movie. Besides they knew we’re all in for a major attitude adjustment. They noticed that other crowd we were running with.

 

[JM4CY]

I’ve been at it a few years with youth stuff. Kids today are so different. And I’m not THAT old. You have to figure out how they tick and how they are parented even if you really want to be effective.

Practice habits are everything. Putting that in their heads is a tough animal but the ones that get it are fun to watch develop.

 

[bizzle]

I coach high school basketball on the south side of Chicago. It's extremely, extremely fun. I teach and coach in a working class neighborhood, so a lot of the kids can't afford to watch much basketball and I would say the inexperience with knowledge of the game is the biggest struggle I have--kids doing things that they simply would not do if they watched more basketball. I wish League Pass were cheaper for kids!

 

[StPaulCyclone]

I’ve been coaching for 16 years (high school cross country) and I absolutely love the practice of coaching. I love watching the kids improve and gain confidence and pass along what they learn to the younger kids.

I also really appreciate the coaches that we currently have at ISU, we’re lucky to have these people. I’ve been so impressed with their demeanors and passion and perspective.

I’m wondering if any of you coach (your sport and level) and what you like/don’t like about it

there are tons on CF most saturdays in the fall and all winter.

”Retired“ youth coach. I really enjoyed it and have thought about going back to it. I’ll have to wait until retirement though.

 

[BCClone]

If you coach the girls Varsity basketball, the boys JV team is more than willing to help with teaching boxing out. During winter break the girls team was a little light and their coaches asked a few of us freshmen if we would practice against the girls. We seemed to keep missing our shots almost on purpose when the hot seniors were guarding us. Was a little rough running down court afterwards though.

 

[cyphoon]

I coached youth hockey for about 15 years, from toddlers up through high school. Most of it was rec league, but I did coach some travel hockey. I was most effective in the 7-12 year age group. Coaching kids younger than 6 was mostly a babysitting and shepherding operation.

High school was a challenge because if a kid didn't pick up the fundamentals from another coach when they were young, it is a bear to teach those when they are old and you only have one practice a week.

H

 

[BooneCy]

I love coaching. I have coached mostly club basketball and youth tackle football. I currently coach with Team Iowa youth tackle football. I wish I could Coach more school sports, but I am not a teacher, so schools are reluctant to give non-teachers a chance.

I love everything about coaching, and the parents really don’t bother me. I love focusing on the little footwork and decision making that makes someone a little better everyday.

 

[Lyon309Cy]

I coach 10-14yr old co-ed soccer, co-ed volleyball, boys and girls and coed basketball, and a coach pitch version of softball all at a very small private school. Most years almost all of the eligible kids in school play. I'm more proud of that than anything. I want sports to be approachable. Everyone should have a baseline understanding of how to kick, throw, catch, hit, shoot, and serve a ball. I love the competition as a measuring stick and motivation. I also hate that sometimes the competition aspect takes away from creating a good learning environment. Haven't really had any problems with kids or even parents. I have had some issues with some of the methods other coaches use, and I have an ongoing struggle to not react to some truly terrible officiating. The amount of time spent planning and the frequent traveling and late nights during basketball season have been a lot at times. Thinking about cutting back on a few, but we'll see. Love watching the kids grow, would hate to see the progress I've made with then slide.

 

[Javinegli]

I have coached football and basketball since college. Youth football has gotten too much of a hassle to coach now so I have been coaching more AAU basketball. The youth sports landscape changes pretty quickly but there are plenty of good programs around producing good local talent.