I am not the type of coach who yells and screams a lot. Even when I coached football, I didn’t scream all the time. I feel that if coaches yell as part of a day-to-day coaching style, they are less effective when there comes a time to actually get a point across. If you talk to your players as though they are young adults, they act like young adults. If you yell at them like they are incompetent, they will reciprocate that attitude back to you.

It is always a good practice to pull an individual player aside to criticize him or her. When I criticize a player in front of the group, I address my comments toward the action and not the individual player. For example: Suzi just made a bad throw and, as a result, dropped her glove and kicked it. I have corrected this action in the past both ways. If I pull Suzi aside, I explain to her that is not the attitude I want her to portray. If I correct this action in a group, I speak in general terms and tell the team that this action is unacceptable and does not represent either the player or her team in the way I would like.

When coaching boys and girls, there are times that open criticism is needed. If it benefits the team, but does not hurt the child, then criticize as a group. If it is a personal criticism that is directed at an individual without a benefit to the team, then correct the action one on one.

MIKE CHASSON: These are generalizations, and there are many exceptions to each of the following observations. What I have seen in over 30 years of coaching is that women will generally work harder and be willing to deal with pain more than men. Women are more concerned with trying to please the coach, while men usually don’t care as much. Women also will tend to be less questioning of the coach, where men want a reason for everything. Women are more concerned about what their teammates think of them than men. Women worry more about everything being fair and everyone being treated the same than men. Men are usually more individualistic; women are more team oriented.

BLAIZE GATTI is the head coach of the Horizon High School varsity softball team. He has coached softball, football and other sports in the Valley for more than 25 years. In 2006, Gatti was named Desert Region Coach of the Year and guided Horizon to the Desert Region title and the semi-finals of the state championships. Gatti is also the head coach of the Arizona Hotshots Gold 18-and-under club team. He and his wife, Pam, have two daughters: Lindsay, 21, and Christie, 19, both of whom played softball at Horizon.

MIKE CHASSON is the head coach of the ASU male and female swimming teams and the president and director of Sun Devil Aquatics. Before coming to ASU in 1998, Chasson was the head men’s swimming coach at Harvard University for seven years and the assistant women’s swim coach at Stanford University for three years. Over the past 33 years, Chasson has coached dozens of male and female Olympic swimmers. Chasson and his wife, Jill, a local attorney and member of the 1992 Olympic swimming team, are the parents of Alex, 6, and Caroline, 4.