Toughest Sport to Teach/Coach a Child

• se-alum

  

  Was talking about this the other day with some friends, and I think it's Baseball/Softball. I've coached Baseball, Football, and Basketball and it seems like it's tougher for them to pick up the ins and outs of Baseball. What do you think?
• Commander of Awesome

  

  skateboarding
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  Curling
• Wally

  ccrunner609;1402171 wrote:Team sports wise it has to be something where the players have plays to run and timing is key amongst all the players.

  You mean like turning a double play? Or suicide squeeze defense? Or how about a rundown on the basepaths?
• Fly4Fun

  

  I'm going to take the easy answer and say any sport a kid isn't interested in. I've only coached soccer and swimming. And the main thing that I've seen that is if a kid isn't interested (their parents make them go), then it is just slow progress. It's like the saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."
  
  But as far as if they are interested, which is the hardest? I'll just be an advocate for swimming. Practice itself has a strong tendency to be boring if the coach doesn't keep things changing up and come up with many different sets of and ways to work on the same skills. A lot of coaches have a tendency to fall into the comfort of particular sets and drills and then practice gets repetitive and you lose kids.
  
  But beyond that you are dealing with a sport that doesn't involve direct competition in the sense of one person versus another. A swimmer can only control what they do, not what others do (unlike sports like football, basketball, soccer, etc). And because of that, a persons progress depends on how much they can push themselves.
  
  And a final reason why it is tough is because of the whole breath holding issue. Many people (let alone kids) struggle with the mental aspect of holding your breath. When under water people tend to panic and think they need oxygen before their body really does. And part of being a great swimmer is having great breath control and learning to limit your breaths specifically at key points (in and out of turns and finishes).
  
  I do agree with CCrunner without any first hand knowledge that I imagine something very technical (and potentially dangerous) like gymnastics would be hard to teach/coach.
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  Wally;1402173 wrote:You mean like turning a double play? Or suicide squeeze defense? Or how about a rundown on the basepaths?

  lol how you compare any of those to a passing play in football. Baseball is the easiest sport to learn.
• Hb31187

  

  Wally;1402173 wrote:You mean like turning a double play? Or suicide squeeze defense? Or how about a rundown on the basepaths?

  since double plays are so prevalent in youth league baseball ( aside from the very few LLWS type teams)
• justincredible

  

  Wrestling.
• Raw Dawgin' it

  

  Golf is fucking hard.
• se-alum

  

  Raw Dawgin' it;1402177 wrote:lol how you compare any of those to a passing play in football. Baseball is the easiest sport to learn.

  Teaching a kid a passing play isn't difficult at all.
• Hb31187

  

  I think the basics of golf would be very very easy to coach. Being good at them however...thats a different story
• Belly35

  

  Pole Vaulting :laugh:
• se-alum

  

  Raw Dawgin' it;1402182 wrote:Golf is fucking hard.

  I could probably agree with this. Never coached golf of course, but I imagine it wouldn't be much fun trying to teach a kid.
• like_that

  

  Wrestling.
• xKoToVxSyNdRoMe

  

  I've coached shot put and discus for a little while and it is pretty hard to teach kids. A ton of technical things to it, progress takes a while, and some concepts are really hard for kids to grasp.
  
  I'm guessing the other field events like pole vault would be hard as well. Not going to argue these are the absolute hardest things to coach and I'll probably get blasted for mentioning anything track related but it can be challenging.
• Sonofanump

  Winter Biathlon, Ice Hockey, Gymnastics.
  
  I disagree on wresting, baseball, curling, golf, football, I think it would be relatively easy to coach those mentioned sports.
• Crimson streak

  

  Pole vaulting actually isn't to hard to learn. We were trying to get extra points in our conference meet and a buddy of mine learned it 2 weeks before the conference meet and placed 4th lol we were all shocked
• OSH

  

  Modern pentathlon.
• redstreak one

  

  xKoToVxSyNdRoMe;1402205 wrote:I've coached shot put and discus for a little while and it is pretty hard to teach kids. A ton of technical things to it, progress takes a while, and some concepts are really hard for kids to grasp.
  
  I'm guessing the other field events like pole vault would be hard as well. Not going to argue these are the absolute hardest things to coach and I'll probably get blasted for mentioning anything track related but it can be challenging.

  No grief from me, I have coached varsity shot and disc, and am now coaching jr hi track with my wife and I handle the shot and disc. It is a tough thing to teach a kid to throw the shot and disc. It correlates with no other sport, the shot motion and the release of the disc takes time.
  
  I had a young lady last year that just couldnt grasp the concept of centrifugal force holding the disc and she woudl hold it vertical causing the disc to flip in the air. She still threw it 60 plus feet. I worked and worked and couldnt get her to trust in physics, so I finally said, can you palm it? She tried and she could and she ended up winning our league meet as a 7th grader with a throw of 85 feet! lol Once she felt how it should be released, it clicked and she was able to throw without palming it, but I was at my wits end trying to figure out how to fix it.
  
  I only played baseball for 4 years, and feel confident in coaching young kids baseball. Matter of fact I will be coaching my sons B ball team this summer. I have coached football from 3rd grade to varsity and basketball same thing and the shot and disc is the hardest, IMO.
• justincredible

  

  Sonofanump;1402217 wrote:Winter Biathlon, Ice Hockey, Gymnastics.
  
  I disagree on wresting, baseball, curling, golf, football, I think it would be relatively easy to coach those mentioned sports.

  I coach youth wrestling and depending on the kid it can be ridiculously frustrating. The really young one's have no idea what they are doing and just roll around on the mat hugging each other for the most part.
• Crimson and Gray Hair

  

  I don't know about coaching kids, but try explaining the intricacies of baseball to an adult from another country who knows nothing of the sport (or a wife for that matter - been there, done that ...and done that...and done that... and still doing that... and still not getting real far!!!).
  "When we played it was Four fouls and you're out"
• karen lotz

  

  Baseball is either the easiest or most difficult to teach, depending on the use of designated hitters. If the DH is used, it's nearly impossible to teach the basics of the game because of all the extra time devoted to strategy. No DH and coaches can pretty much fill out the lineup card and then eat sun flower seeds for the hours.
• se-alum

  

  karen lotz;1402241 wrote:Baseball is either the easiest or most difficult to teach, depending on the use of designated hitters. If the DH is used, it's nearly impossible to teach the basics of the game because of all the extra time devoted to strategy. No DH and coaches can pretty much fill out the lineup card and then eat sun flower seeds for the hours.

  I see what you did there.
• Sonofanump

  justincredible;1402237 wrote:I coach youth wrestling and depending on the kid it can be ridiculously frustrating. The really young one's have no idea what they are doing and just roll around on the mat hugging each other for the most part.

  Sure, but compare and contrast to ice hockey coaching. At that level just tell them to shoot for the leg coach!
• Crimson and Gray Hair

  

  se-alum;1402244 wrote:I see what you did there.

  Kinda' bass ackwards don't ya think?