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Well I had a couple of kids who participated in youth sports, 1 ended up being a D1 scholarship athlete, the other was strictly a rec player. I saw a LOT during the journey.

A lot of parents thought their little darling was bound to be a pro someday, they yelled at their kids, coaches, umpires we al. I saw very good coaches and awful coaches.

Couple of rules to live by:

Youth sports should be FUN not a job, if the coach is a jerk let your child leave the team.

I saw great youth coaches, they would teach the fundamentals properly and in a positive manner. Example when a child make an error, instead of haranguing to child he would (patiently) explain how to make the play correctly, he was teaching them how to succeed not blaming them for failing. It happened he was coaching his child’s summer team he also won 5 state championships at the HS he coached at, it was clear in the way he handled the kids why he was successful.

HAd another coach who wanted his daughter to be a star and relive his HS ‘glory days, one time the children had attended a school activity at an amusement park they kids weren’t ready to play that evening, the kids made a big effort to get to the game so the team wouldn’t have to forfeit, the coach was screaming at the kids for embarrassing him. My child was the best player on this team by a pretty wide margin, she finished the season and never went back to that team.

If your child is competitive they will self criticize, they care about their performance, no need for a poor coach to bully a kid and make them feel worse.