Should Pop Warner Eliminate Tackling for Kids Under 14?
One of the trickle-down effects from all the discussion about preventing concussions is that the Ivy League is now limiting full-hitting practices to just two days a week starting this fall (the NCAA allows 5 full days of full contact). Clearly this is being done to prevent concussions. But now comes word that the Brown … Continue reading
Term Limits For Youth League Coaches?
By Doug Abrams When I was president of a youth hockey association about fifteen years ago, a small group of parents proposed amending the bylaws to impose term limits on board members and head coaches. Two one-year terms for board members and two years for volunteer head coaches. Up and out, unless a head coach … Continue reading
Hair style and tattoos…personal freedom of expression? Or does a coach have the right to set down rules?
Pretty interesting discussion this AM on the show. It stemmed from a situation from Tennessee where a high school football player showed up at spring camp sporting a mohawk. His coach took one look, and said in effect, “You can either keep your mohawk, and not be on the team…or get your hair cut properly, … Continue reading
Case of Patch (18-Year-Old Killed by Ball Hit Off Aluminum Bat) vs. Louisville Slugger Affirmed by Montana Supreme Court
By Steve Kallas On July 25, 2003, 18-year-old Brandon Patch was pitching in an American Legion game in Montana when a ball hit off a Louisville Slugger aluminum bat hit him in the head. Brandon Patch would die a few hours later. After attempting (unsuccessfully) to get a law passed banning the use of aluminum … Continue reading
How Pressure to Win Can Tempt Youth Coaches to Create Benchwarmers – and How Coaches Can Resist the Temptation
By Doug Abrams Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo says that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose. His point is that inspiring words may come easy on the stump because words alone carry no immediate consequences. But realism controls once newly elected officeholders must make decisions that actually affect people’s lives. When youth-league … Continue reading
Kallas: Alas, even BBCOR bats are being tampered with…
Steve Kallas was kind enough to sub for me on my show this weekend, and his guests included former major league pitcher Ron Darling and former minor league catcher Dan Gray who now runs a couple of very successful baseball and softball instructional clinics (Pro Swing in Mt Kisco, NY and also in Port Chester, … Continue reading
What Youth League Coaches Don’t Know – And What Coaches and Parents Can Do About It
By Doug Abrams When I was president of mid-Missouri’s youth hockey program about ten years ago, a visibly upset parent called me aside one night to say that her son was being bullied by a couple of teammates, both at the home rink and on road trips. Nothing physical, but teasing had continued for a … Continue reading
The Dilemma of Coaching One’s Own Kid
Annette Reiter was a top-flight HS and college basketball player, and after graduating from school, she maintained her passion for the game by coaching HS and AAU girls’ teams. She’s now an assistant coach at Rowan University. But like many coaches, she grappled with the dilemma of whether she should coach her own daughters in … Continue reading
Why Youth Leagues Should Encourage Older Players to Help Coach Younger Teams – and How to Do It
By Doug Abrams When I tell friends that I began coaching in 1967, they usually guess that I am a bit older than I really am. That year, I coached a Little League baseball team in the Central Nassau Athletic Association in East Meadow, Long Island. The following year, I also coached a youth hockey … Continue reading
The Lingering Worries about Entitlement in Youth Sports
A caller this AM on my WFAN radio show said that, as far as he’s concerned, the parents who go through all the effort of setting up a travel team SHOULD be allowed a certain amount of entitlement when it comes to deciding who makes the team, who is named an All-Star, and so on. … Continue reading
Doug Abrams
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
Ask Coach Wolff 