How To Pick Things Up Where You Left Them Off With Your Youth Sports Team

It may seem like it’s been forever since you last seen your sports team. The holiday season has a way of putting a pause on just about everything. If you’re a youth sports coach and are getting back into the swing of things, here are 5 tips to help you with the transition.

How to pick things up where you left them off with your youth sports team

• Embrace the refresh! The first practice back after a brief hiatus can almost always guarantee lots of energy. The kids are energized, the parents are happy the kids are off of their hands, and the coach has used the time to also refresh. The first practice back, lean on the energy. Focus the session on previously taught concepts and use the time to get the muscle memory working again.

 

• Re-organize your priorities. It may have been a week or so since you checked your TeamSnap chat or emails, so use the time back to get caught up on all the season talk. Get back into the habit of checking the chats regularly, updating the practice and game schedule with any changes, and alerting the team with any tournaments coming up. It’s important to finish the winter season and start the spring season off on the right foot.

 

• Plan ahead. Even though you may be the kind of coach who can run the session on the fly, after a week off it’s helpful to write out what you want to accomplish in practices and games in the upcoming weeks. Check out who’s attending the sessions and plan from there. It’ll be way easier to jump back into a busy schedule with a planned out week!

 

• Re-establish goals with the team. To help get the team back on the same page, don’t be afraid to revisit goals set at the beginning of the season. Talk to your players about how they are doing and where they see the progress. This can be an informal conversation at the beginning of practice, at the end of practice, or over a team meal!

 

• Set reminders! Setting reminders not only for yourself, but the teams’ families is incredibly helpful after some time off. Parents likely will have forgot about an upcoming game or tournament over a long weekend, so remind everyone about the events! You can set assign people tasks and push notifications out to the entire team. This will also help you feel organized and at ease knowing everyone’s on the same page.