Parent-Coach Relationship

The best way to ensure that all players get equal playing time is for the coach to set up a substitution grid and have an assistant coach or team parent keep track of the time with a stopwatch (or, in the case of baseball and softball, keep track of the innings played).

Women, particularly the mothers who volunteer, are often the backbone of what makes a youth sports team work smoothly.
Unfortunately, as with Dads, when it comes to their own child's sports
team, a mom's greatest strengths can become weaknesses that can cause
problems for her child and his/her coach.  A veteran sports moms offers five tips to moms on how to make their child's sports experience more enjoyable.

Good coaches appreciate being thanked at the end of the season if they have done a good job.

There are certain situations when going over a youth sports coach's head is necessary. When a parent has already talked to the coach about the problem without success or where the coach has acted in a way that is so egregious that it needs to be brought to the attention of higher authorities, it's time to go over his head. Here's some advice on how.

A good pre-season meeting provides a forum for parents to have their questions and concerns answered. Here are twenty questions parents should consider asking.

The most successful sports seasons are the ones that begin with a pre-season meeting of coaches, team moms, parents and players. A preseason meeting sets a positive tone for the season by opening the lines of communication early so everyone is on the same page and understands and agrees on what they expect from one another.

One of the players seemed to get special consideration. Ricky was a strong, natural athlete: big, fast and tall. Yet, despite the fact that he had never played travel soccer, missed all but two of the team's sixteen weekday practices!! due to other sport team commitments, he never came out of the game! Ever!

It doesn't matter what sport your child plays, his practices should be fun, instructive, and inclusive. Here are the tell-tale signs of a well-run practice...

Few of us have a clear idea of how to approach a tense situation in the coach-parent relationship to get the best results. Here are some not-so-obvious techniques that will help get your message across and get the coach working with you to find a solution...