Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach: Lesson #4 Plan, Plan, Plan

For a youth baseball coach, one cannot emphasize enough the importance of a little bit of planning prior to a game or practice; it makes all of the difference for a smooth running event. Advanced planning for practices makes the time fly for the players. Good planning also makes it more fun; the players are kept busy and are not bored. Baseball practices are notorious for one coach and one player going through a drill, while the rest of the team looks on in boredom. Game planning keeps players from being short changed on playing time and overlooked for the positions they might want to play. It also speeds up a game; coaches no longer have to gather the team outside the dugout to divvy up the positions every time they take the field.

During practices, don’t be shy – draft as many dads and moms as you can to be assistant coaches, then put them to work. Give each assistant a drill and teach them the way you would like it taught. Break the team up into groups that will visit each drill station. Keep the stations busy and keep the players moving between stations. Typically coaches will see plenty of parents standing around watching your players practice. But, there are drills even the most inexperienced mom or dad can run. And face it, the parents are probably bored also by just sitting around watching.

In addition to your practice parents, you will need two full time assistant coaches. The three of you will have distinct and special roles: one coach will be the hitting coach, one coach will be the pitching coach, and the third coach will be in charge of teaching team defense, base running, and defensive scenarios. It is very rare a coach does not have two parents capable of filling those roles. As the head coach, assign each assistant to the duty he or she is most comfortable with, and take on the remaining duty, yourself.

To help keep games organized and running smoothly, splurge for two dry erase boards (8.5 X 11) to hang in the dugout. One board will have defensive positions for the upcoming inning and the other board will have the batting order, substitutions, and the score, by inning. It is hard to overstate how much this helps keep things organized and running smoothly. It gets rid of the delays that occur when coaches change the defense. It also gets rid of the confusion regarding the player that batted last. Just make a mark next to the next batter and the confusion is alleviated when your team returns to the dugout to bat.

I believe that the head coach belongs in the dugout. That’s the only way he or she can truly control the game. Teach your assistants how you want them to coach first and third base. Delegate and put some faith in some of your parents; they won’t let you down and on the flip-side, the more your parents are involved in practices, the less complaining you will hear from the crowd at actual games.

We will cover game and practice planning in more detail in upcoming lessons.

Upcoming lessons will include detailed planning for practices and games, choosing the right glove and bat, fielding, base running, philosophy, and a myriad of baseball subjects. Baseball Armory sponsors Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory is an online store that contains quality Akadema baseball and softball gear. Akadema produces high quality baseball and softball equipment, including infield and outfield gloves, catcher’s mitts, metal and wood bats, cleats, turf shoes, youth batting gloves, sunglasses, apparel, equipment bags, glove care products, and miscellaneous baseball and softball accessories.

Lessons from a Youth Baseball Coach: Lesson #3 Practices are for Teaching Mechanics – Games are for Having Fun

Hitting a baseball is considered by many as the most difficult skill in sports. It’s brutal because even the most successful baseball player, fails most of the time. That’s why it is important to let the kids play and allow the game be fun. During games, there might be opportunities to teach the mental aspects of the game. Mechanics, though, should be taught and corrected at practice (unless, of course, there are safety concerns). We’ll cover pre-game, soft-toss, and cage work, which should be considered an extension of practice, in future lessons. When game time rolls around, let the players concentrate on what they have learned and try to put them in a position to succeed. Praise them on attitude, hustle, “keeping their head in the game”, and determination. Don’t dwell on the mistakes. Help the players get past the mistakes; help the players have a “short memory”. Most mistakes in baseball are obvious to the players and the fans. As a coach, make a mental note of the mistakes and work on the solutions in practice. Every player knows when they have made an error or struck-out. Pitchers don’t need to be told to throw strikes. Every pitcher wants to throw strikes; that’s what they are trying to do on every pitch.

Baseball relies heavily on something called muscle memory. The more mechanics are practiced, the more they become second nature. They become part of the player’s muscle memory. Baseball players use repetition to hone their mechanics. Things happen so fast in baseball, a player will revert back to whatever mechanics are set in their muscle memory. That is why it is important to save mechanics for practice and fun for the games. The absolutely worst time to be coaching mechanics is when a player is up to bat during a game. At that point, muscle memory is going to take over. If a coach or a parent tries to correct mechanics, it only distracts the player and ruins their concentration. I have had to control many a parent that tried to change mechanics while their son or daughter was at the plate during a game. I only try to communicate positive expressions while a player is at the plate. My favorite expression is “it only takes one”. It means that out of a possibility of six, or more, pitches, it only takes one pitch to make contact and get a hit.

Players punish themselves plenty after making a mistake at the plate or on the field. It is the coach’s job to keep a positive attitude. It is a coach’s job to let them know that mistakes happen in baseball and all players have to have a short memory. Coaches need to understand that baseball is very much a game of momentum. Good hitting and good fielding are contagious; mistakes are also contagious. The more a player dwells on past mistakes, the more they will be affected on future plays. It is essential to let the players play and have fun; if players play not to make a mistake, then mistakes will happen and the fun will disappear.

Upcoming lessons will include planning, choosing the right glove and bat, fielding, base running, philosophy, and a myriad of baseball subjects. Baseball Armory sponsors Baseball Armory – “The Baseball Blog”. Baseball Armory is an online store that contains quality Akadema baseball and softball gear. Akadema produces high quality baseball and softball equipment, including infield and outfield gloves, catcher’s mitts, metal and wood bats, cleats, turf shoes, batting gloves, sunglasses, apparel, equipment bags, glove care products, and miscellaneous baseball and softball accessories.