How many coaches is enough?

Consensus?

The well wasn't dry. Great input.

I hadn't really thought that much about it, but I seem to always wind up with 2 fairly knowledgeable and reliable available coaches of record and 2-4 less-knowledgeable or less-reliably-available assistant coaches(practice helpers.) I always try to get at least one parent from each family involved in doing SOMETHING whether its throwing soft toss, planning the end-of-season "geezer game," ordering trophies, etc. I always have one primary and 1-2 backup scorekeepers. Gotta find a slot for those good-looking mom's too.

It is imperative to meet with the coaches before hand to agree on what and how the different skills are to be taught. I tell my coaches I recognize there is usually more than one way to perform each skill. Then I tell them how I want it done and ask them if they have a better way. We arrive at a consensus to do it a certain way. I ask them to clear it with me first if later they discover another way for the kids to do something. The only instance where I had a problem with this was when I had to press a dad into service to run a batting tee station. The kids began to tell me almost immediately when he started telling them to do it differently from the way I had explained and demonstrated the drill at the beginning of practice.

There were some great ideas in this thread I intend to implement. I really like the idea of pitcher/pitcher, catcher/catcher and catcher/pitcher practices separate from each other and the position players. I think in preseason at least, I will try to separate them for the first few weeks before bringing them together for situations and scrimmages. Thanks, guys.