LTAD, & SDS Youth Coach Certification

Being a youth sports coach is one of the most rewarding and challenging pursuits we can have in life. We want to help children enjoy and learn in an organized fashion. Watching them smile, move and execute what we teach gratifying and honorable. Often time parents will praise us for a job well done. But, while this does happen unfortunately far too often parents criticize either to our faces (rarely) or to others (often). We see the joy everyone has when our team wins. So we will try our best to make everyone happy with our efforts. Winning is the mark of a Coach that everyone wants to play for, right?The truth is whether you are a Parent or a Sports coach we all have great intentions. We want the best for the children, and we put our best effort in what we do. While very few youth sports coaches get paid, primarily those "Specialization Pros" who may make a living off coaching kids, the vast majority volunteer their time. Most in fact 85% are parents of a child on the team. Many see these people as, "Angels of service". And of course the toughest most unappreciated job on the planet is that of a parent. No pay and lots of pain, but there are bless moments too. In fact all these adults will have blessed moments and will have touched the heart and minds of many they teach. But while we are trying to do our best, the effort alone doesn't assure that the best is what is being given to the children.According a number of long term credible research studies (they will be featured in this course) well over 30% of children will not play the same sport again. About 70% will quit playing all organized sports after a few seasons which typically happens between age 11 & 13. The reason why they quit have everything to do in the way we run youth sports and they way we coach kids. Bottom line is that most kids don't what to play for the coach they had and after they have experienced a few misguided coaches they assume all coaches (which is mostly true) will coach in the sam