When you're coaching youth softball teams, the first thing you'll notice is the huge role player's parents play in the team. They're not a part of the team itself, but they can help make or break the team depending on their attitude.

The key here is knowing the common types of parents and learning how to deal with them. I'm not trying to stereotype parents here, but it helps a lot to recognize certain traits and curbing the bad ones. Realize, too, that some traits will overlap so, look out for them.

Let me show you some of the most common parent types here:

The Model Parent

This is the dream parent that softball coaches want to work with. They're the ones who understand when to step in and when to let coaches do their work. They're not pushy when they give suggestions. And when they do provide suggestions, they're suggestions and not commands.

Model parents may also display other common types of traits, but they're a lot easier to deal with.

The Competitive Parent

Competitive parents are great in the sense that they always try to motivate their kids to try harder and become better players. The only problem is when a parent becomes too competitive and becomes an obnoxious presence in the team.

They'll also try to provide you with regular advice on how to coach the team better. If they're not obnoxious, just try to be a little more patient as they give you their advice.

The ‘Living through Your Kids' Parent

Some parents couldn't seem to get over their past glory as a softball player. They typically talk to their kids starting with this line, "when I was your age."

Like competitive parents, they're the types who try to push their kids a little harder than most. But when they push their kids too hard, that's where the problem begins.

What you can do is to nicely tell them that their kid is working hard enough, and tell them if their kid reached a certain milestone or set a record for the team. This might help lessen the pressure they give to their kids.

The ‘Coach' Parent

Again, there will be parents who will think they can do a better job than you. And it's typical with the ‘coach' parent.

The good thing with this type of parent is that it's good if they can work with you. At least you'll have somebody to throw ideas around with. It only becomes problematic when they try to coach your team behind your back. So try as much as possible to get them on your side.

The Negative Parent

This is probably one of the worst parent types you have to deal with. It's the parent type who never sees anything good with how you coach, how your players play the game, etc.

You need to be able to deal with this kind of parent before he/she even wreaks havoc in the team.

Again, this isn't about stereotyping parents, but looking for signs that may set off trouble in the team. And the earlier you deal with them, the easier it will be for you to handle potential problems.

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