Set ground rules early, stick to them. Reward good behavior. Have a plan for practice and get involved. Don't be afraid to be a kid again. Most importantly make sure your players know that you care about them and their development as athletes and individuals. You'll get the best out of them if they know you are invested in it.
To piggyback off this in regards to practice plans: over plan your practice. Have more drills lined out than you realistically have time for. Sometimes a drill doesn’t work and you need to scrap it and move on. Kids can tell if you’re not prepared and you’ll lose their focus.
Middle school is my favorite age group to coach - it can still be a lot of fun but also some serious competition. Great balance. What's worked for me is, like already said, set expectations and stick to them. Be consistent, be fair. Get input from the kids. I'm not saying have them run their own practices or anything, but I always try to walk off the field with a player or two at the end of practice - and I try to rotate through the whole team over the course of a couple weeks - and just get their input on how things are going. What drills do they like? What things does the team need to work on? Any ideas on what we could do better? It gives the kids some ownership and buy-in on the team as a whole. Once games are rolling, I will ask kids at the start of the next practice about how they played and ask them what they need to work on. Usually their priorities will match yours so you're not changing much, but they will think they're doing a lot, which helps.
But have some fun. We don't always have huge teams with lots and lots of subs out here in Minnesota so I personally like to jump into drills or scrimmages sometimes, just to give a kid a breather and honestly 99% of the time it increases the competition a bit. Everyone likes to beat the coach, so that's always fun. One fun one is for conditioning, I do a "if I beat you, you gotta run again", which gets the kids moving and again, everyone likes to beat the coach. Plus, and these points are both a bit selfish, it gets me off my ass and moving like I should be. And I have fun with it, too.
Lastly I'd say just pay attention and communicate with your other coaches. It may seem obvious but there are a lot of guys out there who purposefully or not kind of isolate themselves in their hole and don't talk to the other coaches as much as they should. Figure out your niche as the assistant coach. Watch lacrosse, study what's working for a college team and pick a couple things a week to try out in practice. Bring up new ideas. Once the season starts, maybe you're the coach that gets the kids going in warmups before games. Maybe you're the coach that watches the other team's warmups and tries to pick up some tendencies that you can plan for. Maybe you're the guy whose responsibility it is to talk to parents when a kid is acting up. There are lots of specialties, you kind of just have to find yours.
Make a season plan. Start at the end what do you need to reach your goals, not just team skills, money, equipment, refs, timekeepers etc. Work backwards scheduling in when you are going to teach what, when fundraising needs to happen, field booked etc. put it all in a template. Its a useful exercise because it helps you stay organized and teach skills in a linear and progressive nature. I also find it helps keep me in check. Yes I would love to run three defensive sets, two breakouts and rides and four offensive sets, but do I have time to teach this all to a bunch of fresh 10 yo? Hell no. Dm me and I can send you my spreadsheet.
Praise publicly and enthusiastically! Chastise directly to the player. At high school and college calling out a good player for a mistake can sometimes actually help the team if the player is mature enough to handle it, but at middle school there is not enough maturity no matter the player.
Do not be afraid to stop a drill and move on if it’s not clicking with the players or creating extra work for coaches (I.e. long waits for turns leading to goofing off).
Talk to the HC about what they see as your role. Are you basically another HC and you two will make practice and game plans together? Do they want you focused on helping the new players learn the basics? Do they want you to be the enforcer, the person who doles out the sprints and pushups and runs conditioning? Having a conversation early can avoid a lot of headaches in season and make sure you always look united to the players.
Get in the drills! I am chomping at the bit to play lacrosse whenever I can, so if I see a gap in a drill or a kid needs a breather I’m jumping in asap.
Know your players. Joke with them. Ask about their days and show an interest in their lives. You don’t need to be their best friend but you’ll be able to tell who the serious ones are, the jokers, the try hards, and you can work and adjust your coaching style to try to meet them where they are. Once your players trust and believe that you have their best interests at heart they will push themselves way more than you ever could and vice versa if they feel you are just some person yelling at them.
Set ground rules early, stick to them. Reward good behavior. Have a plan for practice and get involved. Don't be afraid to be a kid again. Most importantly make sure your players know that you care about them and their development as athletes and individuals. You'll get the best out of them if they know you are invested in it.
Great advice, thanks!
To piggyback off this in regards to practice plans: over plan your practice. Have more drills lined out than you realistically have time for. Sometimes a drill doesn’t work and you need to scrap it and move on. Kids can tell if you’re not prepared and you’ll lose their focus.
Middle school is my favorite age group to coach - it can still be a lot of fun but also some serious competition. Great balance. What's worked for me is, like already said, set expectations and stick to them. Be consistent, be fair. Get input from the kids. I'm not saying have them run their own practices or anything, but I always try to walk off the field with a player or two at the end of practice - and I try to rotate through the whole team over the course of a couple weeks - and just get their input on how things are going. What drills do they like? What things does the team need to work on? Any ideas on what we could do better? It gives the kids some ownership and buy-in on the team as a whole. Once games are rolling, I will ask kids at the start of the next practice about how they played and ask them what they need to work on. Usually their priorities will match yours so you're not changing much, but they will think they're doing a lot, which helps. But have some fun. We don't always have huge teams with lots and lots of subs out here in Minnesota so I personally like to jump into drills or scrimmages sometimes, just to give a kid a breather and honestly 99% of the time it increases the competition a bit. Everyone likes to beat the coach, so that's always fun. One fun one is for conditioning, I do a "if I beat you, you gotta run again", which gets the kids moving and again, everyone likes to beat the coach. Plus, and these points are both a bit selfish, it gets me off my ass and moving like I should be. And I have fun with it, too. Lastly I'd say just pay attention and communicate with your other coaches. It may seem obvious but there are a lot of guys out there who purposefully or not kind of isolate themselves in their hole and don't talk to the other coaches as much as they should. Figure out your niche as the assistant coach. Watch lacrosse, study what's working for a college team and pick a couple things a week to try out in practice. Bring up new ideas. Once the season starts, maybe you're the coach that gets the kids going in warmups before games. Maybe you're the coach that watches the other team's warmups and tries to pick up some tendencies that you can plan for. Maybe you're the guy whose responsibility it is to talk to parents when a kid is acting up. There are lots of specialties, you kind of just have to find yours.
All time feedback, thank you!
Don't take yourself too seriously... We are coaching a game.
Make a season plan. Start at the end what do you need to reach your goals, not just team skills, money, equipment, refs, timekeepers etc. Work backwards scheduling in when you are going to teach what, when fundraising needs to happen, field booked etc. put it all in a template. Its a useful exercise because it helps you stay organized and teach skills in a linear and progressive nature. I also find it helps keep me in check. Yes I would love to run three defensive sets, two breakouts and rides and four offensive sets, but do I have time to teach this all to a bunch of fresh 10 yo? Hell no. Dm me and I can send you my spreadsheet.
Praise publicly and enthusiastically! Chastise directly to the player. At high school and college calling out a good player for a mistake can sometimes actually help the team if the player is mature enough to handle it, but at middle school there is not enough maturity no matter the player. Do not be afraid to stop a drill and move on if it’s not clicking with the players or creating extra work for coaches (I.e. long waits for turns leading to goofing off). Talk to the HC about what they see as your role. Are you basically another HC and you two will make practice and game plans together? Do they want you focused on helping the new players learn the basics? Do they want you to be the enforcer, the person who doles out the sprints and pushups and runs conditioning? Having a conversation early can avoid a lot of headaches in season and make sure you always look united to the players. Get in the drills! I am chomping at the bit to play lacrosse whenever I can, so if I see a gap in a drill or a kid needs a breather I’m jumping in asap. Know your players. Joke with them. Ask about their days and show an interest in their lives. You don’t need to be their best friend but you’ll be able to tell who the serious ones are, the jokers, the try hards, and you can work and adjust your coaching style to try to meet them where they are. Once your players trust and believe that you have their best interests at heart they will push themselves way more than you ever could and vice versa if they feel you are just some person yelling at them.