You’ve played baseball for many years and made your All-Star team, high-school team and maybe even were college bound.
You know the fundamentals, have tons of passion for the game and now you’ve decided to give back to the kids and volunteer to coach your son or daughters Little League baseball team.
First off, Kudos to you!
Little League and kids in general depend on coaches to develop their skill, teamwork abilities and all of life’s lessons that can be learned on the diamond.
In order to be most successful I’ve put together a list of the top 6 tips that both new and experienced Managers and Coaches should focus their efforts to best ensure a positive experience for your season and players.
#1 Focus & Hustle
A Head Coach I worked with a few years ago had a good philosophy that he brought over from his son’s football team where he was the Coach.
Focus & Hustle.
This standard was introduced at the beginning of season player and parent meeting and was the sole “rule” by which players were held accountable.
It works because it’s fairly easy concept that young players can understand while at the same time makes it easy on Coaches to know when the right time to address under performance.
A Little League player is less likely to get emotional and feel “small” if you’re addressing a lack of focus & hustle instead of “You need to make that play, that’s routine” comments.
Example 1: It’s ok if shortstop boots a ball if he was down & ready, (focus) charged and squared up on the ball (hustle) but just happened to hit off his glove.
It’s NOT ok if he wasn’t in a ready position, half-way got in front of the ball and bent over instead of getting his butt low to the ground before receiving the ball.
Young kids sometimes most of the time have a hard time comprehending that baseball is a game where you’ll constantly fail so this concept works well addressing what every player can 100% control.
#2 Team Mom
It took me about 5-6 seasons before I finally had a grasp on how I could most benefit from a team Mom to eliminate most of the “undesirable” tasks that distracted my time and energy away from doing what I enjoyed the most; Coaching!
Some responsibilities include:
- Contact Info – Parents phone & email addresses
- Uniforms – Sizes, number picking and uniform pickup
- Parent Volunteer Schedule – Concession, scoreboard & snack/drinks
- Team Communication – Sends official notices about schedule changes
- Payments – Can collect $ for dues, fundraisers and uniforms
- Organize Events – End of year party, fundraiser or volunteer effort.
You might even get lucky and have one that knows or is willing to learn how to keep your score book during the game!
Pick a team Mom ( or Dad) that has time, patience and you work well with and you’ll have more time to spend with the kids.
#3 Productive Practices
It sounds cliche but I feel sick to my stomach when I see other practices where there’s 1 coach hitting infield and outfield to all 9-12 kids who only get 8-10 reps each in a 30-45 minute session!
It’s your fault, not there’s come game day when they haven’t had enough reps to feel confident they’ll make a play or had enough reps to build good habits and unwind others.
The name of the game is to break kids up into smaller groups to run practice drills while using 3-4 coaches or parent volunteers to help you execute those stations and drills (for at least 1/2 the practice).
Pitches and catchers needs drills or a light bullpen at least 2x a week.
Have stations leading up to live BP (tee work, soft-toss etc ).
Young players prefer to stay busy and lose interest quickly if they’re not getting frequent action.
Keep em’ busy!
Have a plan for practice BEFORE you arrive at the field. If possible, send a summary to your other assistants so you’re all on the same page before you hit the diamond.
#4 Solid Coaching Staff
You’ll need at least 3 (including yourself) for games but it’s best to have 4-5 in total for practices so you can run multiple stations and drills.
You’ll always find a few parents who don’t mind getting some exercise and helping out as needed outside of your main assistant coach(es).
Some might be hesitant because they feel like they’ll need to fully commit or they don’t know enough about baseball so make sure to discuss your needs directly with them.
In fact, the best assistants I’ve worked with had limited baseball knowledge who just wanted to help out. I would get my methods across without any conflicting theories.
In either case, make sure you make finding some help a priority as soon as you have your roster so you can make the best use of practices from day 1.
If you fell like you know baseball well enough, choose help from parents who are good role models for kids and seem to get along with both players and coaches.
#5 Realistic Expectations
Errors will be made, pitchers won’t be able to throw strikes sometimes and you’ll wonder why your team can’t string a few hits together to produce a run or two after endless rounds of practice drills and live BP.
A good coach keeps his composure during these moments, attempts to rally the troops and makes it enjoyable, even when players aren’t performing at a level you know they’re capable of.
You can find drills and methods everywhere, which are important but you also have a great opportunity to you focus on personal character, integrity, being a good student, the negative effects of smoking and drugs.
Remember, 99.9% of your players will make a living doing something other than playing baseball. Most won’t play organized ball after their last Little League game.
It can be hard to not prioritize “winning” on the diamond for competitive nature Coaches, I understand but realize you also have a great opportunity to be a positive influence and role-model that can impact a kids life during and long after their time with you.
#6 Fun & Competitive
Every kid is out on the field for a different reason.
Some are out there to get better and be the best ball player they can be.
Others are out there solely because Mom & Dad want them doing something other than playing video games inside all day.
One thing is for sure, if the kids are having fun then you’ll most often get max effort and force the underlying fundamental you’re trying to push.
Running some competitive drills where everyone can somewhat evenly compete is a great way to enforce fundamentals and have tons of fun at the same time!
A few examples:
- During warm-ups we’ll play “21” where each player will throw back and forth and get points based on where they “hit” their throwing partner. Head = 3 points, core of body = 2 points, glove side = 1 point.
- Another warm-up game we throw to a partner and back up every two throws. If the ball gets past a player, that group is out.
- For a batting practice drill Coach will pitch and determine if the players contact is worthy of a hit (player doesn’t run though). Each player gets 3 outs and do a few rounds till one is standing.
In all 3 examples I’ll remind the kids of the fundamentals or concepts they need to be successful and the rest takes care of itself because most all kids are competitive by nature!
Even the ones that seem shy or timid most often get their competitive juices flowing when put in the right situation and everyone seems to have a ton of fun in doing so!
If your players are having as much fun as they would on the playground 50% of the time they’re playing baseball then you’ll ensure they’re staying engage, looking forward to practices and have their attention for those areas of practice that might not be as fun.