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COACHES' CORNER - How We Try To Make Coaching Easy For You!

Our goal is to make being a coach with MVLAGS as easy and rewarding as possible. We have spent time to try to find & develop easy to use resources explaining the game of softball, plus provide pre-season and in-season coaching tools such as coaching clinics, coaching "office hours", and a weekly newsletter.

 

Do you want age-specific practice plans ready to go? We have that!

 

Do you want great resources to build your own unique plan? We have that!

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Are you super nervous about coaching, know nothing about softball, but are willing to try? We can help!

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The following section each contain various content to help you get started (or continue) as coach with MVLAGS. As always, please feel free to reach out to president@mvlags.org or vp@mvlags.org for more info!

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Resources to Get You Started Coaching with MVLAGS:

  1. How To Coaching Videos and documents:

  2. 11 Tips for First Time Coaches from Positive Coaching Alliance

  3. MVLAGS Coaches Guide - A more detailed roadmap for the seasons with tips on getting started as well as proper hitting and fielding technique

  4. READY-TO-GO PRACTICE PLANS! Age specific practice plans with videos: 6U | 8U | 10U | 12U/14U - feel free to copy, borrow, or create your own. Additionally, an assessment & generic Excel based practice plan doc can be found here.​

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Coaching Skill Clinics 

MVLAGS is planning a variety of clinics for players and coaches before and during the spring season. The emphasis of the clinics will be on coaching the coaches - supporting our coaches with the basic knowledge, drills and techniques to implement sound practices and raise the level of play for all ages.  We will hold a few clinics run by external organizations with softball expertise to share with our players and coaches.  

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Coaches are encouraged to attend any or all clinics to learn from experienced coaches who lead the clinic(s):

  • Date TBD - Coaching Clinics with Coach Brittney Jacobson at Shoreline Field at [tbd time]

  • Date TBD - Coaching Clinic with Cutting Edge Softball at Shoreline Field [tbd time]

 

Every Saturday Pre-Game "Coaching Office Hours" - Come Ask Questions / Learn New Skills

Starting with the 2023 season, MVLAGS will be offering "Coaching Office Hours" every Saturday morning from 8:30am-9:30am at Stevenson (American Girl Field). This is a new idea aimed at providing a place & time where coaches can come together and ask questions about the practice plans, how to do certain drills or skills, yell at Brian and Mark for something you don't like, etc. We are hoping that coaches will find the day/time convenient as they are already headed to the field for games on Saturday mornings (as opposed to a separate day/time). We are shifting the start time for our Saturday games to 10am (previously 9am) to help make room for this. Each coach is welcome to come to as many of these office hours as they want to.

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Free Weekly In-Season Coaching Newsletter to Your Inbox

Starting with the 2023 season, MVLAGS is sponsoring a weekly coaching newsletter to be delivered to all our coaches from Coach Brittney Jacobson. Each newsletter will have tips and tricks for that week's practices as well as links to new drills, etc to help give you useful info and content to take to your practices.

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Required Certification for All Coaches (California, USA Softball, and/or USA)

  • We know this is a lot so thank you in advance.

  • MVLAGS operates under USA Softball, which requires various certification to enable our league to have insurance. All coaches must complete a background check, ACE coaching certification, and SafeSport certification. Additionally the State of California requires two additional certification for all youth coaches: bi-annual concussion and cardiac arrest training. 

    • ​ACE, SafeSport, and background checks are all done through USA Softball website. Completing these certifications typically takes between 3-5 hours in total

    • ​Cardiac & concussion training are done through online resources and typically take ~1 hour in total

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Awesome Additional Internet Softball Coaching Resources

Planning Practices

There is a clear correlation between team improvement and practice organization.  This is true regardless of the experience of the staff.  That is, a very experienced coaching staff which does not plan practices may not witness as much skill improvement as a less experienced staff that puts an emphasis on practice planning.  Probably the most important factor is dividing the team members into groups, so that each player has a higher ratio of activity (to inactivity).  If different staff members are teaching different skills at separate stations, the groups of players can be cycled through the stations with less downtime and with more variety.  Keep the players interested, engaged, and consistently moving!

 

In considering a practice, there should be:

  1. A PURPOSE - What you're trying to accomplish.  Such as, what are the different skills you want to impart during this practice (or this week or this season)?

  2. A PLAN - The approach to accomplishing the purpose.  Such as, what drills will be used during the practice?

  3. THE DETAILS - Which staff members will lead which drill?  How can player inactivity be minimized?  What space and what equipment are required for each drill station?  How much time should be devoted to the drills.

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Air Quality guidance for coaches when AQI is high:

  • AQI 0-100: practices and games continue within this range

  • AQI 100-150: Practices and games will most likely continue. Physical exertion should be reduced.  Coaches and families can use their best judgment based on individual players' sensitivity. 

  • AQI 150+: Practices and games will be canceled for all ages.

As always: Coaches and families can use their best judgment based on individual players' sensitivity. 

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Need some help planning practice plans?

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