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Message: [QUOTE="upstater, post: 3215188, member: 153"] What matters is in how a coach connects with his/her players. If we knew the precise formula, many more people could do it with more success. I think Dorrance's take is a good one but it may also apply to boys. Kids who have positive reinforcement from coaches tend to have more confidence (to play hard without caring as much about making mistakes) and so they play better. That's my belief. On the other hand, I've seen a youth level coach who was just brutal on his girls. He didn't say a lot on the bench, he let the girls play, but when he did say something, he was withering. "That goal is on you. You absolutely blew it!" He was like that a lot and made many a girl get emotional. Yet he had a fantastic relationship with the players, and they all played hard for him. We had another guy that was a college head coach who took over a team for a year, and he was much more constructive, instilling confidence, while also teaching them the proper ways to think about the game. He had very little rapport with them though as he was used to coaching 20 year old women. His advice to my daughter was to start counting connected passes on the field (she played central midfield). He wanted her production to be over 80% connected passes. She would come off the field at the half and he would ask what her count was. "I was 10 of 15." He'd say, "Is that good enough?" "No." You can imagine the result of playing scared this way. So, he never yelled, he never demeaned the girls, he was always constructive in teaching them the right ways, and the girls played scared and without confidence the whole season. Coaching is largely a mystery, IMO. What works for one man/woman might not work for another. And it's also much easier to coach once you have several championships under your belt. No one is going to call you a "Mumu" at that point. One would expect, anyway. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

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