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Coaches Corner by Coach John Sanders
Coaching is a privilege. Your kids deserve your best effort.
Once you get to Major A and Dixie Boys A, you will, for the most part, get coaches who have coached before, sometimes for many years, and by and large do an excellent job. Below the Major A level, in T-Ball, Coaches Pitch, Farm League, and Minors there is, from my observation, great disparity in the quality of coaches. Some are really good. And some, well, I don't mean to hurt anybody's feelings or step on any toes here, while I think all of these coaches (usually Dads) mean well, the simple fact of the matter is that many of them could use some help! There is a big difference between having played baseball (and knowing a lot about the game) and being able to teach baseball to kids. Those are two entirely different things. I've been coaching since my son was in T-Ball. I'm a much better coach now than I was when I started. I expect in another ten years, I'll be an even better coach. I had a couple of advantages that many beginning youth league coaches don't have. 1) My dad was a high school coach. So, I grew up around coaching as a kid. 2) One of the really good Major A coaches, Mike Parker, took me under his wing and taught me a lot of what I know about coaching youth league baseball.. What follows are some suggestions for those coaches who would like to be better youth league coaches.
Read books on coaching youth league baseball
Some of the books that have found there way to my bookcase over the years include:
Watch video tapes on coaching baseball
Some videos that I can personally recommend are:
I order just about all my books and videos from USA Coaches Clinics at 1-800-COACH -13 and Sykos at 1-800-932-2534. Get in touch with them and get them to send you a free catalog.
Attend baseball clinics
The best way to learn anything is to hang out with people who know more about it than you do. Four clinics that I can personally recommend are:
Before the start of the season, make a list of what you want to teach during the pre-season and during the regular season. Then, once you know how many pre-season practices you've got, schedule your practice time to cover the things that you want to teach. Remember -- Frequent review is very important for the youth league player. I have a Technical Skills Checklist that I get down at the start of every season to plan my practices by for the upcoming pre-season and into the regular season. Click Here to Go To Technical Skills Checklist.
Spend time watching the practices of a youth league team with a good coach. Baseball practice is more than hitting infield/outfield and batting practice. You can learn a lot by watching a well-run practice. All the Major A coaches at Seven Oaks Park are friends of mine and I think they're all good. But if you're looking for someone to emulate, you won't go wrong watching Mike Newell (Columbia Home Improvement), Joe Zayicek (Doctor's Care), Randy Lee (Mathias Sandwich Shop), or Frank Bacon (Dutch Fork Optimist).
Watch a lot of`youth league games. Teams that are well-coached in practice do the little things in ball games to win. They can execute the bunt play, or bunt defense, or hit the cut-off man, or pull off a double steal. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If you see a team do something that seems to be working better than what you're doing -- Copy it!
When the all-star tournaments start in July, get out and watch how they practice and play. Major A all-stars begin practice July 1 and the games begin about a week later. If you haven't watched any Dixie Youth all-star games, do yourself a favor and see some this summer. Some of these teams are so well-coached, it's scary.
