Customer Reviews

Coaching Youth Softball: A Baffled Parent's Guide

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am not a parent but nonetheless, this book is excellent! This book gets right down to the heart of coaching. It tells you step by step how to teach someone how to throw, catch, pitch, hit and play every position. It also tells you what type of girl would be good for positions of pitchers and catchers which is important since most girls at this age have no experience in many positions. The drills have diagrams and there is glossary in the back to help with the terminology. There are not that many good softball coaching books (believe me I've looked), so grab this one!

This is an AMAZING book! Even if you have never coached, played, or even heard of softball, it helps you out. It breaks every aspect of the game down and puts it in simple terms so you can explain it to your team. It gives you practice advice and schedules as well as drills you can use for team members to improve, or establish, softball skills. It also gives you advice on how to become the best coach, dealing with gender issues and how to handle difficult parents. This book is a MUST for EVERY coach!

I bought this book when I agreed to coach my daughter's 10u softball team--and then panicked! I played softball for years but it is a lot different now. This book was my coaching Bible. It helped me with fundamentals and beginning to intermediate drills. I highly recommended it to any coaches or parents want to learn the basics of softball.

I have yet to coach a girls' softball team, but I am really interested in doing it. This book has some great advice on how to handle beginner players and their parents. The thing about this book that I found great was that it told you some characteristics to look for when selecting a pitcher, something that I would not have had a clue about doing. Highly recommended.

This book is very helpful to new coaches and seasoned coaches as well. I would recommend it, even if all that you need as a coach is some ideas for new drills.

"The Baffled Parent's Guide to Coaching Youth Softball" is written with the coach stepping on the field for the first time in mind. It covers such topics as establishing one's identity as coach, an overview of Softball's basics, planning the season, how to teach Softball's essential skills, how to conduct a practice, and dealing with parents and gender issues. It also includes a Drill Section that offers various drills for warm-ups, defensive fundamentals, and batting stations.

As much as I like Jacquie Joseph as an author, I was disappointed in this book overall. There is little here that is not covered by other books, and in fact most of the topics discussed are covered better in various other books. For example, there are only three paragraphs dedicated to the difference between coaching boys and girls and they only include generalities. Also, the chapter on dealing with parents is only two written pages long!

The final three chapters of the book are dedicated to basic warm up, defensive, and batting drills. Though the book is written with the beginner coach teaching beginning players as its audience, there are a sprinkling of intermediate and advanced drills that seem out of place in this book. Also, there is no Drill Finder Matrix to help a coach quickly find an appropriate drill, which is surprising to me because Jacquie Joseph has written a very good drill book that includes one of the best Drill Finders I have seen. Perhaps she did not include a Drill Finder because there are only a total of 28 warm up, 12 defensive, and 10 batting drills listed.

There are some positives to draw from "The Baffled Parent's Guide to Coaching Youth Softball". The "Softball in a Nutshell" chapter is a very good primer for the coach or parent who is completely unfamiliar with the sport. Also, each chapter has a Question and Answer section that includes some good information. It has a call-out box that ranks positions in the order of the skill required to play it, something I have not seen presented elsewhere.

Unfortunately, though, the information presented here is so basic and/or general overall that any coach will quickly outgrow the guidance after a couple of practices under his belt. I therefore would not recommend this book, even for a coach completely new to the game. There are better references out there for your library.

For a beginner, this book would be fantastic. If you've Managed for a season, though, all this book will do is confirm that you're doing the right thing (or not). Well written, and easy to understand, but elementary subjects.

This book is another great in the series of A Baffled Parent's Guide. These books are thorough and complete - a coach's bible, especially a new coach. The book covers everything from basics of the game to working with the children and dealing with the parents. I highly recommend books from this series.