Youth Baseball Coaching Techniques That Work

By Marty Schupak   

I love and appreciate great coaches in all sports and at all levels. I love to make notes of coaches who think outside the box and take chances. I remember years ago the baseball manager Billy Martin put a game under protest because the pitcher took one extra pitch to warm-up between innings. He was probably the only one in the ballpark who was counting. I remember when they first put in the rule in major league baseball about pitchers going to their mouth in a game the pitch would be called a "ball." The manager Leo Durocher at the time ordered his pitcher to go to his mouth four times when he wanted to intentionally walk a batter. There was a basketball game years ago that Paul Westphal, a player at the time had called a time out knowing his team had none left to purposely get a technical foul. His team was down by one point with one second on the clock and the illegal time out would grant the opposition a free foul shot which they made but it gave Westphal's team, the Phoenix Suns, the ball at half court. So instead of his team trying to get a full court length 80 foot shot in for the win, they buried an 18 foot shot after getting the ball out at half court to send the game into another overtime period.

In all my years coaching youth sports, I have always tried to be flexible and have an open mind learning coaching and motivational techniques from other coaches. It doesn't matter the sport, I am always observing these other coaches and how they speak to their players. I watch football coaches yelling at individual players and make note of how close the coach's face is to the player's. I watch youth coaches and see how they speak to young players getting down on one knee just to be at the same eye level to make a point. The littlest things go the longest way. I learnt long ago that when speaking to my players outside, I make sure I am the one facing the sun. If the kids are facing the sun, chances are they will cover their eyes and maybe half will get the point you are trying to get across. Here are some other tidbits I've learned.

I am one of those people who have a hard time remembering names. Hearing your own name heard is one of the best ways to gain one's attention. At the beginning of each season I struggle just to learn everyone's name as soon as I could. To me it is a little bit of work but well worth it. Also I make sure I tell my players that I am not good at names and to be patient if I call someone the wrong name. This is especially true if I have a brother of a former player. As coaches we must take the time to learn player's names as soon as possible. And once we learn their names, we must learn and be familiar with their parent's name or how they want to be addressed.

A number of years ago I use to give out what I called a Tenth Player Award. The award would have nothing to do with batting averages or pitching performance. The award would be given to the player who exemplified sportsmanship, cheering on their teammates and helping coaches with the equipment. I was sure to make this trophy the largest one given out to any individual even if we won the league championship. This worked great! It motivated the players to be good teammates. It also made for an easier time for the coaches when the players would help with the equipment. If you decide to try this, make sure you are able to give the award to more than one player if there is a tie. I remember one year I had a special team. We won only about half our games but what a great enthusiastic bunch of kids we had on one team. At the end of the season, we coaches decided to give all twelve players a Tenth Player Award trophy. The coaches chipped in but with the size of the trophies we got, it set us beck a few dollars.

Another technique would be to give out extra swings for batting practice. I learned that in youth baseball, the players live for batting practice. So why not reward good deeds with extra swings? If we finished a game and I needed help with the equipment bag and John and Mark are the only ones putting the equipment away, I will yell out.

" John and Mark will get one extra swing each during batting practice tomorrow for helping with the equipment."

I make sure I say it loud enough so the whole team hears me. A lot of times after I say it, a number of other players will also help with the equipment.

Make sure when you do this, you don't say,"Whoever helps with the equipment gets an extra swing at batting practice." You want to be somewhat stingy with the extra swings and only announce it after someone is helping. This adds value to the swings you are giving out and players will help out not knowing if they will get extra swings or not. This works great and when the players take batting practice, the first thing I ask them when they get into the batter's box is, "How many swings do I owe you?" The player might say seven. I'll say we'll use two of those. I put my players on the honor system. This has even carried over from season to season when we are at our first practice of the year, a young veteran will make sure to tell me, "Coach, you owe me six extra swings from last year."

I make sure to make good on those extra swings. When kids are determined to remember something that will benefit them, it stays with them.

As youth coaches many times we will take some of the personality and techniques from the coaches we had as youngsters and in school. The best advice I can give is to take bits and pieces from other coaches but you have to develop your own coaching personality. If you end up coaching over a long period of time you will learn what works to motivate your players and what works when you want to have a little fun.

Just make sure you realize that what might work for one group of kids may not work the following year. Be enthusiastic and be flexible to make changes as a coach! And whatever anyone may else tell you, you are a role model!

Marty Schupak, President of the Youth Sports Club, has coached youth sports for 22 years and has run more than 1,500 youth sports practices. He is the creator of 22 sports instructional videos including the best selling "Hitting Drills & Techniques" and "The 59 Minute Baseball Practice." He is also author of the popular ebook, "Baseball Coaching: A Guide For The Youth Coach And Parent" and the best selling book "Youth Baseball Drills." For samples of his videos, go to http://www.YouthSportsClub.com. Contact him at YouthSportsClub@aol.com.

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How to Overcome Your Fear of Being Hit by a Baseball

By Jim Bain   

I'll never forget the look of frustration on the young coach's face when he approached me at my team practice. Being the type of coach which becomes totally engrossed in the minuteness of every play, every player's action and re-action on the playing field, I'd have normally delayed talking to him until after practice, but he looked desperate.

He introduced himself as a brand new coach of an Atom I team, the first year of hitting live pitching, and was having an issue trying to teach 2 of his players to hit. The issue was they would not stay in the batters box and try to hit, for as soon as the ball was released, they'd Bail Out backwards out of the box, turn their heads towards the backstop or look down at the ground and not even see the ball.
"I've tried everything I know to do," he said "any suggestions?"

I gazed up at the blue sky, as if seeking Divine intervention, rubbed my chin in deep thought, then asked him a question.

"Have you tried the Hit Them With The Pitch Drill?"

"What do you mean," he asked, looking at me as if were an ogre "actually throwing at them?"

"Yea, kinda," I said. Then continued to explain a drill which I had used through the years which had worked 99% of the time, nothing in baseball is 100%.

Obviously, unless there's an undetected underlying problem, the reason kids bail out of the batters box is they're afraid of getting hit by the baseball, which would hurt.

It's ironic, something we regard as a cowardly act, in the reality of basic human survival instinct, is a lot smarter than standing there in harm's way tempting fate. Therefore, we as coaches must approach this problem as a Reconditioning of a normal instinct issue, not a cowardly or timid act. So how do we accomplish this?

Hit Them With The Pitch Drill.

1. Be sure to inform the parents of what you intend to do in order to avoid any problem with an over protective Mother, or Father for that matter.

2. Get a bucket of tennis balls, 12 to 24 in order to not waste time retrieving them, as you will not use a catcher.

3. Make sure the player has his proper safety equipment, helmet, shoes tied, etc. in place. Talk to him, off by himself as to not embarrass him in front of his peers, in a calm voice. Tell him you understand his issue, Not Fear, about being hit with ball, but you're going to show him it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as he thinks.

4. Throw the first couple of tennis balls down the middle of the plate. There's always the slim chance the coach pitching may encourage him to stay in the box, but don't hold your breath.

5. Assuming the player begins bailing out, start throwing the ball behind him, intentionally trying to hit him, which is the main purpose of the drill.

6. Calmly explain, time & time again if necessary, the basics of staying in the box and watching the ball. The point here is to drive home the fact, backing out is Not keeping him from getting hit with the ball, and staying in and keeping an eye on the ball may be the better option.

7. Don't concern yourself with hitting the ball. The intended goal of this drill is to keep the player in the batters box.

This drill will accomplish numerous things:

A. It'll convince the player he must watch the ball, because bailing out and tucking his head was not preventing him from getting hit.

B. Because you're using tennis balls, being hit will not hurt as badly as he may imagine, which helps reduce the fear of being hit. You never want to totally eliminate the fear of the ball, as there will be times to get out of the way.

C. It won't take long to condition the mind and body, staying in and hitting is the normal course of business.

You may.... Probably... will have to perform this drill several times before its completely successful, although I have had kids which were hitting by the end of the drill.

Jim Bain, former Minor league baseball player, who since retiring has dedicated his life to teaching baseball to youth, shares his advice on baseball coaching baseball drills on his exciting info packed website: http://www.learn-youth-baseball-coaching.com

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Coaching Tips For The Big Game

By Jim Bain   

Emotions and sports is a perfect illustration of the familiar proverbial fit of the hand into the glove, representing a perfect alliance or interacting which is beneficial for both. However, when the fit begins to wobble, one side beginning to outweigh the other, it often ends in catastrophic results. How do you maintain balance?

Let's back up a moment and explain the concept of balance between the sport and the emotions created by the sport. For instance, the school's baseball team will play for, it's first ever, StateChampionship and you have the inside track of being chosen the starting pitcher.
Regardless of a player's age, this type of scenario will create waves of raging emotions, from ecstasy to scared to death, all in the same moment, all very normal and human like. It's how we handle the scenario which dictates our well being.

For example, if we allow the swirling, at times chaotic, events associated with a huge sports event to negatively affect our concentration, sleep, work habits or focus, we have allowed the emotional side of the equation to outweigh the game, or it could be argued the game has resulted in forcing an imbalance in emotion vs. game. In any event, regardless of cause, the equation is not balanced and the results are " loss of focus, fatigue resulting from emotional highs and lows and an increasing amount of self doubt, either real or imagined."

Unbridled or misdirected emotional and mental highs have the direct affect on the body and mind as actually playing the game. If you can imagine the physical and emotional drain on the body by playing a critical "Win or go Home" game every day prior to the Championship game day, you begin to realize the damage which can be done.

This exact scenario, because it deals with human behavior, affects Professional athletes as well as young players, so why should we try to reinvent the wheel when the Pros have spent tons of cash to address the problem.

Step One: It's no secret to your players or fans this is a huge upcoming game with severe consequences one way or the other, so don't try to act like it's no big deal or no different than any other game. It is!

The important issue to stress is the elements which got you to the Championship game, hitting, pitching and fielding, are the exact elements which will win you the game. Therefore practices, although intense, must remain normal. You may tweak the practice, put importance on fielding bunts due to your opponent's tendency to capitalize on that tactic, but other than that, normal BP and etc.
Your team must feel they already possess the skills to defeat their opponent, which as always needs fine tuning, but don't risk planting any doubt that perhaps they are weak in an area. Don't openly put special importance on your relief pitcher putting self-doubt into your starter. "Normal" is the word of the week.

Step Two: Although professional sports have dealt with the issue of media exposure, this is relatively a new distraction for amateur sports, but the explosion in media avenues, from normal sports media of television and newspapers to You Tube, the Internet and etc., has created a concern.

Bad mouth taunting through Twitter, texting or a Blog can create an emotional whirlwind within the team, and can destroy an entire years work of instilling emotional control. Warn the team of the possibility of such an attack by their opponents or their fans and issue orders to:

A. Report them to you...
B. Ignore the taunts and don't retaliate, explaining that is the best method for frustrating the other side...ignore them.
These two tips may seem insignificant in the overall scheme of things, but don't underestimate their importance. Professional teams have Closed Practices, Designated Media Exposure Time, Team Rules and Curfews which are designed to keep the team on an even keel.

Why teach a player to field or hit like a professional and not how to handle stress like a professional?

Jim Bain, former Minor league baseball player and member of "Baseball Coaches of America" shares his advice on baseball coaching baseball drills on his exciting info packed website: http://www.learn-youth-baseball-coaching.com

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Pointers For Communicating

By Jim Bain   

When we think of communicating, we normally think of verbal communication, however there are many forms of communication we utilize on a daily basis, and some we do a very poor job of implementing.

Other than the traditional friendly face to face conversation, where communication resembles babbling, mixed with hand and face gestures with no accompanying structure or purpose other than entertainment, Communication within a larger audience must have a structure to succeed.

Pointer Number One: Structure

In an organizational or business environment a two-way structured system of communication is essential for success. It must be established who is in ultimate command, but there must be a positive avenue for replying back up the communication ladder to the "Boss" without fear of retribution.
The manager of a baseball team is the "Boss" on the playing field. There must be a structure for him to communicate to his coaches how or what he wants his players to perform. This is accomplished in a pre-determined set of signals, either physical or verbal, which the manager indicates to his coach.
Very structured, manager to coach through established signals. However, the coach requires an avenue to reply to the manager. For instance, the manager may call for the runner on first base to attempt to steal second base, but the coach saw the runner twist his ankle getting back to first base on the last pitch which would greatly hinder his chances of a successful steal.

Being better informed than the manager, the coach must have an avenue to rebuke the called steal, most likely with pre-determined signals, without repercussions from the manager. Obviously this requires trust within the organization, believing everyone has the same goal, success of the team.
The business world should adopt many of the principles which guide baseball teams, which would result in more successfully operated companies. I have personally witnessed the Facility Engineer, imitating pulling his hair out while holding a phone conversation with a vice-president in management, who in spite of his impression of himself, was quite ignorant of the particular subject being discussed.

This is an everyday scenario in the business world and reflects a lack of trust and understanding which baseball takes for granted.

Pointer Two: Flexibility

Any command communication structure must retain a certain amount of flexibility, which can be very difficult to determine to what extent this flexibility goes.

For instance, a manager on a professional baseball team may have designated Pitcher A to begin the weekend series, but the pitching coach notices the Pitcher has developed a nauseas stomach during warm ups which would prevent him from pitching effectively. Time is of the essence in this particular situation, so there must be enough flexibility in the communication system for the pitching coach to make an instant decision to get Pitcher B up and throwing before asking the manager's permission.

This built-in flexibility in the communication structure allowed Pitcher B the opportunity to adequately warm up and mentally compose himself before the manager even knew the problem.
Again, business would bode well to take baseball's lead in flexible communication. For example, 40 years ago GM (General Motors) had such a rigid, uncompromising communication system within their engineering department, it greatly contributed to GM's troubles and near collapse.

If an engineering design flaw, such as a hole drilled off center by a machine in the former assembly area and was creating major problems, but was easily and quickly rectifiable, had to be communicated and approved by the engineering department Vice-President before corrective action could be taken. An in-house production issue, which should have taken perhaps 4 to 5 hours to correct, required an 8 month communication scenario and then it may be denied for lack of information.

The ability to properly Communicate is a basic human need which when performed by 2 or 3 people face to face, is normally not a problem. However, when the need to Properly Communicate expands into a larger arena there must be structure with built in flexibility in order for it to succeed.

Jim Bain, former Minor league baseball player and member of "Baseball Coaches of America" shares his advice on baseball coaching baseball drills on his exciting info packed website: http://www.learn-youth-baseball-coaching.com

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