All-Star New to Coaching - Any advice?

[htaylor]

Hi!
I recently got hired on as a coach for the all-star team I competed with for 5 years. I will be coaching either a tiny or mini team and am looking for any advice to keep them engaged, practice structure, drills, games, etc. Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated.

Thank You!!

 

[CoachHannah]

This is a couple months late, but for anyone else who may need it: I'm entering my fourth season of coaching (also for a program I had personally cheered for as an athlete) and coach the junior high program. However, because it is a school program, I also help out with the mascots (the equivalent of a tiny program) and the elementary program (equivalent to a mini team). A few of the huge things that help us, because trust me I get they can be a nightmare depending on the size of the team:

- making a game at the end the reward for focus (meaning as long as you get through what you have on the schedule to get through, they get to spend the last 10-15 playing a game)
- getting candy as a reward for good behavior (but be strict about it; if you give candy every time, it'll mean nothing, so like if your team struggles with not talking during practice, make the condition that in order to get candy, the team has to not talk when you're talking; they'll be sad the first few times they don't earn it, but you'll see pretty soon they'll encourage each other to stop talking, especially on mini teams where the kids are a little bit older)
- REALLY praise whatever they can do well, and be firm (not mean or harsh, just firm) when they make a mistake, or else they won't take the correction at all lol
- for structure, we tend to do a big group stretch (we pick two "leaders" each practice to lead stretches, who are chosen based on exemplary behavior the practice before; they absolutely covet this title haha), then jumps, then tumbling, then stunting, and the game goes last - however, it will obviously really depend on what your teams need to work on! We do this order because that's the order of how excited the kids get, with jumps being their least favorite and stunting being their top favorite.
- biggest advice is the more coaches you can get to help you, the better; again it depends on the size of the team, but they absolutely shouldn't leave you by yourself for a team of anything more than like 10

If you need specific drills for anything still, please reach back out, and good luck! Tinies/minis are a lot of work but so precious, they'll adore you and worm their way into your heart so fast!