Tips from Our Extraordinary
Youth Baseball Coaches
Excerpts from “Collective Coaching Wisdom for Youth Baseball”

Tip #1
Talk with parents about player safety.
(Topic Category: Organizing Your Team--Communicating With Parents) 
 

This tip was provided from our hometown hero coach Gilbert Lopez
of Round Rock Youth Baseball in Round Rock, Texas.

This tip is especially important for coaches of young players. Gilbert Lopez suggests that coaches use the pre-season parent meeting to cover some issues on player safety. He explains that you get a lot of parents who want their young child to begin immediately playing the key field positions like pitcher, first base, second base, third base, and so on. But Gilbert reminds us that putting inexperienced or immature players into these key positions can be an unsafe coaching decision. He calls these types of players “sand angels.” “Dealing with T-ballers, you see a lot of what we call ‘sand angels’ … you know, those are the kids that play in the dirt or sand or grass. They’re not paying attention to what is going on with the game … they’re just in their own little world. Normally, when I have sand angels on my team, I position them in the outfield. Then I make sure to let the parents know why they are out there. I can’t put a player in a position where he or she might get hurt by a runner or a fast-moving ball because of not paying attention. I’ve seen kids get hit in the face and I’ve seen kids get hit in the head because they weren’t paying attention to what was going on. I wouldn’t want that to happen to any of my kids.” At the parent meeting, Gilbert makes it clear that he is not going to put players in positions where he thinks they will be unsafe. Instead, he puts each player into a position that he thinks they can handle. When he can teach them to pay attention and to watch the baseball everywhere it goes, he’ll move them into the infield and give them more of that kind of playing time.

Tip #2
Coach “mental attitude” all the time.
(Topic Category: Coaching During Games -- Motivating and Encouraging Players)

This tip was provided from our hometown hero coach Brig Sorber
of Okemos Baseball/Softball Club in Okemos, Michigan.

The skill that Coach Brig Sorber works on the most isn’t base running or throwing or hitting… it’s mental attitude. He believes that mental attitude is something you can coach with even the most physically challenged player. “When they get to the plate, I just tell my players, ‘That’s YOUR plate, buddy. The pitcher isn’t doing you any favors. He’s trying to strike you out.’ I just try to get them mentally prepared and ready to focus on what they’re doing. If you can get players really mentally focused and get their teammates behind them, cheering them on, it’s just amazing what a challenged kid can do.”

Tip #3
Prepare field assignments and batting order
the night before the game.
(Topic Category: Coaching During Games -- Setting Lineups and Field Rotations)

The key to preparing a good batting lineup and field rotation is a little time spent before you head to the field to play a game. Coach Dennis Dunn suggests preparing these things the night before a game. To help him organize his thoughts, he uses a lineup sheet that lists his team’s players in one column and their fielding assignment by inning in rows across the top. This way he is sure to get a good rotation of players at various positions. During the season, he also prepares some quick notes about the previous game – what his team did right and what they struggled with. These notes come in handy for his pre-game talk with the players the next day. Lloyd Rue also analyzes the results of his team’s last game to help him prepare field assignments. “It’s best for the kids when I sit down and look at the results of the last game and think about where I need to place players for the next game, whatever my scheme or philosophy is. If I don’t do that, then I tend to fall into a rut and have somebody playing in the same position all the time.”

Tip #4
Hold short practices that keep the kids moving.
(Topic Category: Conducting Practice -- Practice Routines)

Tip #5
Reward excellent plays during a game with a team “cap slap.”
(Topic Category: Making It Fun -- Motivating and Encouraging Creatively)

Coach Rod Hudson uses the “cap slap” as a way to recognize an excellent play by a team member. During a game, if a player makes a spectacular catch, executes a brilliant double play, hits a grand slam, or shows some other great skill, that player can look forward to a “cap slap” by all his teammates at the end of the inning. A perfectly executed “cap slap” occurs when the entire team, plus the coaches, surround a player as he comes off the field, all take off their baseball caps, and use them to simultaneously slap the honored player on his head a couple of times.

Tip #6
Keep players "up" in tough situations.
(Topic Category: Coaching During Games--Motivating and Encouraging Players) 

This tip was provided from our hometown hero coach Jay Hinson
of Cheraw Dixie Youth Baseball in Cheraw, South Carolina.

When games or seasons get tough and the players start getting down, Coach Jay Hinson switches his coaching strategy to an “inning” philosophy. Instead of working to win an entire game, he tells his players to concentrate on having great innings, one inning at a time. That seems to make a game less overwhelming for them than to think about doing well for a whole game. Coach Hinson used this philosophy one season where his team’s game record half way through the season was at three wins and six losses. He switched his coaching strategy, encouraging his players to “win” innings, and his team ended up winning the last six games of that season.

Tip #7
Find a catch phrase to remind a batter
what to do at home plate.
(Topic Category: Conducting Practice--Specific Fundamentals Work) 

This tip was provided from our hometown hero coach Steve Wagner
of DeMotte Little League in DeMotte, Indiana.

Steve Wagner knows that all players are different when it comes to developing hitting skills, and each one needs to be reminded of different things when they’re up at bat. For example, one player might need a reminder to cock his bat, while another might need a reminder to get his weight back or bend his back leg. But Coach Wagner also knows that players tend to get nervous during games and don’t always remember all the things that they have been taught about hitting in practice. Coach Wagner uses a simple but effective method for giving his players reminders when they step up to home plate. Steve watches his players very carefully during practice and figures out a short catch phrase for each player that will remind him of some correction he needs to make whenever he hits. Then Steve uses this phrase as the player steps up to home plate. “It’s just catch phrases … for each player, it’s a two- or three-word reminder that only he and the coach both understand, but that cues the player to remember what they have been taught in practice. Something you can quickly yell from the base coach’s box like, ‘down and back’ or ‘push it back’ … those kinds of things.” Coach Wagner says you can even have a little fun with the phrases you develop. Make up a funny saying just between you and the player that will remind him to correct the problem behavior.