Press Releases
August 25, 2004 - 10 Cardinal Rules for Extraordinary Youth Baseball Coaching
For Immediate Release ...
Derwood, MD - Every spring and fall, thousands of parents in communities all over America step up to the plate and volunteer to be a baseball coach for their child's team. Many are offered some basic league-sponsored training on how to teach the mechanics of baseball, but very few receive advice on developing a coaching style that promotes excellence, pride, fun, excitement, and teamwork.
"A good youth coach develops his or her own coaching style by mixing together a set of skills and ideas that will create the best overall experience for the players. Extraordinary coaches each tend to form a magic mix that's slightly different, but they also follow a common set of rules when working with kids," say David Ham and Janice Sibley, co-authors of "Collective Coaching Wisdom for Youth Baseball," a new book offering practical tips, time- and kid-tested drills, and inspiring real-life stories from dozens of extraordinary community coaches across America.
Those who've mastered the challenging art of coaching kids offer these tried and proven rules:
1. Meet with players' parents before the season starts. Listen to their concerns, share your philosophy and expectations, and ask for their assistance.
2. Learn the rules of the game. Read the rulebook and the guidelines from your specific league or organization to make sure you are teaching the game correctly. Many leagues modify standard rules regarding stealing, leading off, pitching limitations, and substitutions.
3. Try to use ideas and information from as many sources as possible in order to be a better coach. Read other coaching books, attend coaching clinics, and be open to new ideas that could help you coach more effectively.
4. Show up with a plan! Try to involve all kids in all facets of a planned practice. Standing in right field for an hour while everyone else hits is no fun for any player. Whenever possible, run several drills or skill stations concurrently to keep all players involved and interested.
5. Applaud effort and attitude more than performance. Physical errors will happen. If a player has a great attitude and tries hard to make a play, praise him, whether he makes the play or not. For every ten times you speak to your players, nine of them should be praise and applause based on effort and attitude.
6. Encourage any and all kinds of positive teamsmanship between players, from high fives to rally caps and any other form of positive team comradery.
7. You have an obligation to develop the weaker players on your team at least as much (if not more) than the stronger ones. It will pay big dividends by the end of the season for those players and for the team.
8. Do not allow players to criticize teammates, umpires, or opposing players - ever!
9. After every practice and every game, try to find something positive to say about the efforts of several kids, making sure to include each and every player as many times as possible throughout the season. If you put game summaries in the local newspaper, remember to include weaker players and emphasize all aspects of the game, not just home runs.
10. Do anything you can think of to make baseball fun. Remember, these are kids. At this level, learning the game and having fun are always more important and age appropriate than winning games.
For more word-of-mouth tips and advice from the extraordinary youth baseball coaches featured in "Collective Coaching Wisdom for Youth Baseball" visit http://www.crmpublishers.com.