Any Little League Coaches Out There?

[Dutch]

I volunteered to be an assistant coach with Little League for 11-12 year olds. Of course, overseas, volunteering means many things to different people, and I have been given a team to coach!

So I'm looking for any and all help and advice that you may have for rookie coaches. I have only assisted coaches before today but I did try and pay attention to what they were doing with the team and have some ideas.

A couple of things to note.

I have two books that I purchased. One on coaching little league fielders and one on coaching batting (both books sponsored by Little League Baseball).

My kids (12 and 11) will both be on the team. I don't want any favoritism to be injected into this team, so I need to be cognizant of that. And I think I'm a pretty fair minded person, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Anyway, I was given 5 batting helmets, 3 bats, catcher gear, a scorebook and a box of balls and told "Due to a lack of coaches, you've been promoted to head coach, good luck."

Monday we do a skills assessment of all kids and will split up the teams according to that process (however that works). Then I have to "trade" for my kids to be on my team and we are off. There are seperate "skill assessments" for those with previous pitching and catching experience and I will be assigned players with either of those skills.

Then it's off to practice.

So anyway, any advice?????

[DeToxRox]

While it's not baseball, I help coach a JV hockey team as well as a pee-wee (12-13) team. I'd suggest asking the kids first and foremost if they've played baseball before, and then take those who have and find out what positions they've played. I don't know if I'd ask kids where they want to play because chances are they won't get that opportunity.

Then based on skills (maybe have all the kids try out each position and make notes of who looks comfortable where) plop them in and see how it goes.

The other thing is have a lot of kids who can throw the ball over the plate, no matter how fast. In little league you definetly need it.

[rkmsuf]

I would strongly urge that at practice one that you outline expectations to players and especially parents. Talk to the kids and then talk to the parents regarding their participation(keeping books, ect) and that you as coach are not a "babysitter". One thing I stress is that while I am a parent and deal with my own kid that we are dealing with 10-11 and 12 years olds and "meltdowns" can and will happen and that I as coach am here to coach. I require that someone be there at all times for each kid...no drop off service here.


The more you get everyone involved the better the experience will be. The physical process of coaching you'll get with experience.

[DeToxRox]

To add to RK, write down a set of rules and guidelines so EVERYONE is aware of what you expect. If a kid shows up late and has to sit 3 innings, make sure it's written down so the parents don't get all over you about it.

[DeToxRox]

One other thing .. try and find an assisstant coach you trust. If you don't know the parents on the team that well, you need to hope you find one who's out there for all the kids best interests and not just their own. That's a big problem in hockey where assisstant coaches are on the bench coaching up their own kids but no one else.

[rkmsuf]

To add to RK, write down a set of rules and guidelines so EVERYONE is aware of what you expect. If a kid shows up late and has to sit 3 innings, make sure it's written down so the parents don't get all over you about it.

yes, make everything very clear upfront and save yourself aggravation.

and you'll know what you have fairly quickly in terms of reliabilty and committment

as far as skillsets look for like said before pitchers(arms in general...you can teach the mechanics) and hitting/no fear at the plate.

you can coach them up in terms of technique in fielding. if you have no pitching it's going to be a long year most of the time.

[rkmsuf]

One other thing .. try and find an assisstant coach you trust. If you don't know the parents on the team that well, you need to hope you find one who's out there for all the kids best interests and not just their own. That's a big problem in hockey where assisstant coaches are on the bench coaching up their own kids but no one else.

excellent point. you really need three at a minimum. practices can tend to be groups and for games at least one person needs to keep the book and pitch counts.

[DeToxRox]

Also, not saying this is you by any means, but with kids that young, especially in Little League, remember you are teaching fundamentals before you teach winning. Once they learn the basics (as well as the game) that's when they learn to win.

[DeToxRox]

And as Head Coach you better work out the arm because you ought to be the one throwing the BP. Teach those punks a lesson if they crowd you.

[rkmsuf]

Also, not saying this is you by any means, but with kids that young, especially in Little League, remember you are teaching fundamentals before you teach winning. Once they learn the basics (as well as the game) that's when they learn to win.

actually as far as little league goes the 11 and 12 "Major" level is quite competitive

good point though in that the truely good coaches balance the winning and the learning aspect of the game. those are the coaches that have a positive impact on young ballplayers.

[rkmsuf]

From a technical point you need to find a kid that can catch. A kid that can reach 2B and somewhat fearless to block balls and catch well. Can't have the ball going to the back stop every other pitch.

First base your best catching guy and if you can a lousy arm. He only needs to catch mostly.

Obviously you best fielders at SS and 3B. Second you need a smart kid because they have to back up differently based on where the ball goes and get a lot of the cut offs. Same with short.

[Senator]

I am coaching a spring football select team. But, that is a story for another thread.

[Dutch]

Thanks, a lot of great info, some is reinforcement; but a good deal is news.

I don't *expect* this league to be quite as serious as some of the stateside leagues I've seen. But I still want to help prepare these kids for when they do return stateside.

So that being said, from a general priority, I would want my better players to be rewarded with playing where they are strongest. Inexperienced players will get the leftovers...there's always opportunity, so long as you are actually on the baseball field.

I want this to be fun and I don't care if we win, but at the same time I don't want this to be a long lesson in futility and frustration.

So I definately want to make the best use of my limited practice time.

Good point about parent/child expectations. I'll have to start drafting something up for that. I did have an assistant coach assigned to help me, he seems like a pretty good guy but has no experience either.

I will also look to recruit a co-worker or two that do not have kids on the team in hopes of getting some coaching experience.

As for your fielders, I always wondered if 2nd base was more important than 3rd base at that young age...more technical, I would think and still plenty of work...although obviously 3B is probably line drive city even at that age. Oh, and what good are good fielders if you're 1B can't catch what they throw? So I have some interesting decisions to make.

I should make a dynasty out of this. :)

[Dutch]

I am coaching a spring football select team. But, that is a story for another thread.

These kids paid $40 a pop to get into this league. Kind of steep, you think your league can hang with that? :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'll third the importance of having at least a couple of good assistants, even if they're "unofficial" or just quality parents to help with practice.

I learned very quickly that you can get a lot more done in a short period of time if you can do some breakouts during practice instead of having most of the time spent with everybody standing around waiting for the batter in the box to finally make contact (which was the majority of practice time back in the old days when I was a kid).

At this age group, a good catcher is usually very valuable, as are quality infielders. Having a natural leader at 2B can be helpful at this level at times, makes it easier for them to direct traffic for the outfielders which are often the weakest players on the roster (depending upon how deep the league is).

I imagine you'll also be a lot wiser after there's one game in the books, especially where batting orders are concerned. Turns out there's some practice hitters who are dead in the water when things start counting. If you run into that problem it'll likely be pretty obvious very quickly.

If the opportunity presents itself & is allowed within league rules (I've seen this come up occasionally) then I'm a proponent of doing at least some casual scouting of your opponents, especially the first time around the league. Knowing which teams can/can't be run against, which pitchers have control issues, and that sort of thing can provide a leg up from the first pitch.

And as what might be an odd remembrance from years ago in my playing days, make sure that your pitchers don't freak out when facing LHB's.
I suspect that's not as big a deal today as it was 15, 20, 30 years ago because I feel like they're more common but I distinctly remember a guy who dominated righties but struggled to find the plate against lefties because, as it turned out, he never saw one in practice since we didn't have a single lefty or switch-hitter on the team. It was so pronounced that I can remember teams flipping a natural righty around to the left side because it was pretty much a guaranteed base runner. In general, I've found average pitchers in this age group to still be pretty fragile mentally unless they're really dominant (and there's usually several of those in a league). Things like guys who get rattled badly if they slip & hit a batter, that sort of thing.

[Dutch]

I'm expecting to get a decent pitcher and a catcher based on how pitchers and catchers are divided from the talent pool and divided equally. I hope I'm not let down in that department.

[dj_morton]

Not sure if someone has already wrote this but...For the 1st few practices I would tell everyone to go to a position and have one or 2 batters...After every batter have the kids rotate to the next position...Helps you get a idea of who is good where..Just my 2 cents!

[Icy]

I can't give you any advice, but please, write a dynasty about this!

[Logan]

I'm not trying to tell you how to be a parent...but in your efforts to not show favoritism to your kids, make sure you're not being too tough on them at the same time. During my baseball days I saw a lot of coaches that ended up basically ignoring their kids when they needed help, in an effort to appear to not be giving them extra attention.

[Barkeep49]

Dutch I'm about to enter my 3rd year of coaching with that age group.

I HIGHLY recommend Making Little League Baseball More Fun for Kids (Vorhees) and Little League Baseball Guide to Correcting the 25 Most Common Mistakes (Monteleone). The two books you have (if they're what I think they are) are pretty decent as well.

I'd really encourage you to make sure that the emphasis is on development. You'd be surprised who could turn out good at certain positions, but you have to give them a few chances. By all means go all out for the playoffs, but until then it should be about fun and skill development.

Do you have experience working with kids? If not I'd check out some basic "how to coach kids" stuff (such as using the complement sandwich).

Make sure you really have a firm plan of what you want to do at practices.

Have clear standards, help your players achieve those standards, and don't be afraid of your standards.

There's a lot more I could say. I had a real rough season last season coaching, but still think it was a great experience. You can read about it here (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=48645).

If I can be of any help to you don't hesitate to PM.

[JediKooter]

Get the parents involved as much as possible during practices. Shagging balls, doing soft toss BP, stuff like that to keep the practices going and minimize the 'down time'. When I coached, it went much smoother when a parent or two were the ones running down errant balls or balls that got by the fielders, that way you don't have to stop practice, wait for the kid to run get the ball, throw it back, get back into position and then resume practice.

Not sure about the rules in your league, but, we had to rotate all the kids, so it's definitely a good idea to have a bench coach that keeps track of who has been in and who has not.

And my best advice...Have fun.

Good luck.

[Sweed]

I coached for 6 years as my son went through the leagues. I had a blast with the kids. We won our share of games but winning was not the priority for me.
I wanted the boys to have fun and learn the game.

Teach the boys to hit. Encourage them to swing the bat in your games. We literally played teams where a coach would be telling the kid at the plate "don't swing" and he meant at anything. He figured the kid couldn't hit and would have a better chance taking pitches hoping for a walk. God, I hated those guys. I'd think do your job coach and teach the kid to hit instead of making him feel like a fool. All these kids learned to do was to hate baseball.

I can honestly say I don't think I ever had a kid on my team that I couldn't teach to at least make contact. He may not get a hit and he may only foul a pitch off in a game but to some kids, in their minds, that makes them king of the world. Remember they came to me knowing they couldn't hit anything. The thing is I'm really not any kind of great hitting instructor. My experience taught me early though that if you can teach a kid to swing a level bat he will end up making contact. Most kids swing on time they just tend to loop the bat under the ball.

On my teams the thing I wanted from the boys was effort. I didn't care so much if they didn't catch the ball as long as they got to it. If they got to the ball they heard "good effort way to get to the ball. Don't worry you'll catch the next one." This always worked well for me as the kids tended to take the cue and help each other out. By the time we played a few games a good share of those misplayed balls were being caught.

Have fun with it, it's a great experience.

[JeeberD]

Awesome, have fun Dutch. I played ball over there when I was around that age, and always had a blast...

[Dutch]

Not sure if someone has already wrote this but...For the 1st few practices I would tell everyone to go to a position and have one or 2 batters...After every batter have the kids rotate to the next position...Helps you get a idea of who is good where..Just my 2 cents!

Since many of these kids will be green, that's a great idea. But batting during fielding practice will most likely fall to myself, my assistant, or a parent. I've sat around during practices where kids were at the plate and the outfielders were picking daisy's and the infielders were having wrestling matches while the pitcher and batter struggled.

I can't give you any advice, but please, write a dynasty about this!

I will probably do that, but with the hopes of getting more advice.

I'm not trying to tell you how to be a parent...but in your efforts to not show favoritism to your kids, make sure you're not being too tough on them at the same time. During my baseball days I saw a lot of coaches that ended up basically ignoring their kids when they needed help, in an effort to appear to not be giving them extra attention.

Good thought. I'm pretty tough on my kids when I don't think they are paying attention or not hustling. In the first parents meeting, I will also ask that nobody "coaches" their kid from the sidelines. I've seen nightmare scenario's there before.

Dutch I'm about to enter my 3rd year of coaching with that age group.

I HIGHLY recommend Making Little League Baseball More Fun for Kids (Vorhees) and Little League Baseball Guide to Correcting the 25 Most Common Mistakes (Monteleone). The two books you have (if they're what I think they are) are pretty decent as well.

I'd really encourage you to make sure that the emphasis is on development. You'd be surprised who could turn out good at certain positions, but you have to give them a few chances. By all means go all out for the playoffs, but until then it should be about fun and skill development.

Do you have experience working with kids? If not I'd check out some basic "how to coach kids" stuff (such as using the complement sandwich).

Make sure you really have a firm plan of what you want to do at practices.

Have clear standards, help your players achieve those standards, and don't be afraid of your standards.

There's a lot more I could say. I had a real rough season last season coaching, but still think it was a great experience. You can read about it here (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=48645).

If I can be of any help to you don't hesitate to PM.

I will probably have even more questions after the first practice or two. :) After seeing the book recommendations (and seeing they were 10 bucks each at Amazon, I ordered them both...thanks for the tip.)

Get the parents involved as much as possible during practices. Shagging balls, doing soft toss BP, stuff like that to keep the practices going and minimize the 'down time'. When I coached, it went much smoother when a parent or two were the ones running down errant balls or balls that got by the fielders, that way you don't have to stop practice, wait for the kid to run get the ball, throw it back, get back into position and then resume practice.

Not sure about the rules in your league, but, we had to rotate all the kids, so it's definitely a good idea to have a bench coach that keeps track of who has been in and who has not.

And my best advice...Have fun.

Good luck.

I have to find parents that can help, even at my first coaches meeting (where I was given the job) I was told to find parents to help. And optimizing the use of the field will be of paramount importance. There are so many leagues, so many teams, and only a handful of baseball fields...that we only get the field for 2 hours a week. We cannot afford to waste that precious time.

I coached for 6 years as my son went through the leagues. I had a blast with the kids. We won our share of games but winning was not the priority for me.
I wanted the boys to have fun and learn the game.

Teach the boys to hit. Encourage them to swing the bat in your games. We literally played teams where a coach would be telling the kid at the plate "don't swing" and he meant at anything. He figured the kid couldn't hit and would have a better chance taking pitches hoping for a walk. God, I hated those guys. I'd think do your job coach and teach the kid to hit instead of making him feel like a fool. All these kids learned to do was to hate baseball.

I can honestly say I don't think I ever had a kid on my team that I couldn't teach to at least make contact. He may not get a hit and he may only foul a pitch off in a game but to some kids, in their minds, that makes them king of the world. Remember they came to me knowing they couldn't hit anything. The thing is I'm really not any kind of great hitting instructor. My experience taught me early though that if you can teach a kid to swing a level bat he will end up making contact. Most kids swing on time they just tend to loop the bat under the ball.

On my teams the thing I wanted from the boys was effort. I didn't care so much if they didn't catch the ball as long as they got to it. If they got to the ball they heard "good effort way to get to the ball. Don't worry you'll catch the next one." This always worked well for me as the kids tended to take the cue and help each other out. By the time we played a few games a good share of those misplayed balls were being caught.

Have fun with it, it's a great experience.

You all rock. I will keep this in mind as well. The most fun a little leaguer probably wants to have is batting, getting the hit. I'll let them swing away and encourage that. Thanks for that.

Awesome, have fun Dutch. I played ball over there when I was around that age, and always had a blast...

Hopefully these kids will get a good experience out of this as well. We'll see!

[perez24]

You really need to have at least 4 pitchers if you're doing pitch counts. 3 will be your primary pitchers but least one, preferably more, will be needed to pitch during blowouts so that you don't waste your core pitchers (and pitch counts) in games that are for all intents and purposes over.

Yes I know it's never over til it's over and all that crap...but you know what I mean.

You can see who's serious about pitching by calling an extra practice or two just to work on pitching. Try to drag some wannabe catchers too.

I'm sure others might disagree with this statement, but those hitting sticks are real good at helping kids DEVELOP a hitch in their swings. But the kids love 'em.

I concur with the statements about multiple assistant coaches. Try to keep them away from their own kids, e.g. have a dad whose kid is an outfielder hit grounders to the infield. Practice can get very boring for the kids, which in turn leads to goofing off. Lots of coaches mean lots of drills going on, even if it's just long tossing in the outfield.

If you're not a good BP pitcher...DON'T DO IT. Let another parent who can do it better pitch while you watch and work with the hitter. This is where lots of assistants can come in handy.

Another rule my son's football coach had was that parent do not talk to any assistant coach about playing time or what position their kid is playing. They only talk to you. That way your assistants don't get caught in between you and the parent.

In your parent/coach meeting, I would recommend your telling the parents whether you are going to be (hardcore) competitive, recreational or somewhere in between. You also might want to tell them your philosophy on making lineups and position determinations. Your LL inevitably has some rules that don't jive with regular baseball, maybe as far as playing time or something like that, that they need to know. It'll avoid aggravation in the future. Also, tell them your expectations of parental behavior, which can range from whether they can just drop off kids to how they behave at the games.

[Dutch]

Looks like a lot of folks are pushing the initial ground rules with parents. I am nervous about parents who takes this very seriously. Hopefully they will be cool.

[perez24]

Looks like a lot of folks are pushing the initial ground rules with parents. I am nervous about parents who takes this very seriously. Hopefully they will be cool.

Most of them will probably just be happy that you are doing it instead of them. However, you will have at least 1 or 2 who want you to play to win at all costs (as long as their kid is starting). That's if that's what the league is set up to do, but can be problematic if it's not set up that way or if your philosophy is more in line with just having fun.

Another thing you might want to mention is the whole heckling umpires and other teams. I think it's pathetic when parents do that, but one year we played where if we had a complaint, the KID sat. Some leagues have rules to that effect as well.

Ultimately, you'll probably have a good time.

[JonInMiddleGA]

That's if that's what the league is set up to do, but can be problematic if it's not set up that way or if your philosophy is more in line with just having fun.

I think there might be a missing word here, because I read this as intended to say "That's okay if that's what the league is set up to do ...".
(not kicking you for what I think is a typo, just making sure what I'm about to say makes sense/is in the right context)

I think one of the things that's very important for the sake of the coach's sanity is mkaing sure that he's on the same page with the league on this subject ... or at working from something resembling the same book. A win-first coach in a non-competitive league is almost certain to be miserable. A let's-just-have-fun coach in a highly competitive league environment seems likely to either be miserable or make everyone around him unhappy, or both.

In my own dynasty thread from my one season coaching I had a somewhat strange (to me, at least) experience that some of you might recall. Long story short, league director wanted a non-competitive league but couldn't even get enough sign-ups to field two teams. He relented on that point, more than doubled the number of willing players & coaches, but then spent a good bit of his time trying to wedge those round pegs into his square holes. It ended up being miserable for nearly everyone involved because there were people working at very cross purposes.

I would strongly advise any prospective coach to be as sure as they can to avoid getting into that sort of situation, no matter where on the only-for-fun to just-win-baby scale you reside. Some differences with a few parents on that score might be inevitable, but where league philosophy/intent/design is concerned I think you should be able to figure it out pretty well in time to miss any avoidable upset.

[perez24]

Jon you did read the mystery word correctly!!!

Dutch, It cannot be stressed enough that your coaching philosophy is consistent with the league's philosophy...and that parents know it. For instance, I couldn't coach in a hardcore competitive league because I think youth sports is supposed to be fun and everybody who practices should play. So if/when my son gets to that level, I'll either have to just watch or toughen up. My son's sport right now is lacrosse, so I'm not qualified to coach a serious team...but that's a different story.

BTW, don't let these comments scare you. It's just that hitting grounders and pitching BP is the easy part. Managing parental expectations is the biggest part of the game, and setting ground rules early can make it a little easier.

Coaching can be a very rewarding time and there's nothing cooler than seeing your kid's face close up when he's standing on base after a good hit or when he catches his first pop up in a game.

Have fun.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Dutch, It cannot be stressed enough that your coaching philosophy is consistent with the league's philosophy...and that parents know it.

Worth noting that we seem to on just about as opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of approach to coaching but are in steady agreement on the importance of this.

BTW, don't let these comments scare you. It's just that hitting grounders and pitching BP is the easy part.

And the same level of agreement on this point as well apparently.

Managing parental expectations is the biggest part of the game, and setting ground rules early can make it a little easier.

Now on this one ;) ... I was actually blessed with a good group of parents overall, who were supportive & gave me maybe 1% as much grief as I expected/feared. That makes the whole thing a lot easier.

[Dutch]

The coaches in our league have to attend a "coaches clinic" which is basically watching a 1-hour instructional video and going over a lot of these issues.

Now, the head of the youth sports stressed "Fun" first, "Instruction" second, and "Winnig" last. Basically, he thinks this league is for the enjoyment of baseball and winning is only gravy.

But looking around the room, I saw a lot of coaches that looked like they fell in the full range spectrum of what's discussed here. I sensed some coaches were stressing "Fun", some "Instruction", and some "Winning".

So I already expect parents to fall into the same category.

FWIW, my strengths are in making it fun--keep the kids busy, I'm learning quickly how to teach, and have no idea if I have the make-up to make the team win.

The ultimate goal, as I will explain to the kids and the parents, is that I want the players to improve their ability to play together as a team, improve their individual skills, and most importantly, have enough fun that they will want to come back next year. I honestly will care less if we win one game. But I think, for some kids, not winning could make them not like playing. So I will hope we are prepared enough to win a game or two.

The trick is, I have no experience in this league, I have never seen the teams in this league play, and I have no prior coaching experience. So I could be in for rude surprise.

We'll see.

[perez24]

You can't control the other coaches, and you will run across coaches who run the gamut from JoninMiddleGA to me in terms of philosophy. Just let the parents know that you care/don't care about winning/fun/instruction and do your best. At the age that you're coaching, it's starting to evolve beyond the "let's have fun and let everybody pitch" stage, so winning is probably more important than the comissioner wants it to be.

If you start out the season getting blasted by every team and the parents start to complain, you can get them back together and tell them you will play to win more, but the implications could be that Johnny doesn't get to play shortstop or R.J. will pretty much get his one inning per game (if that's a rule) and spend the rest of the time watching his friends play. I've only had that conversation one time (for soccer), and they decided to keep having fun.

One more thing that I think Sweed mentioned, is to encourage the kids to swing the (@$#^@$# bat!!! There are worse things than striking out swinging, particularly if it helps build the pitch count, and it did seem to help keep the kids a little looser in the box.

[st.cronin]

Dutch, you're an nco, right? I think you could probably "convince" some e1-e4s to "assist" you with your coaching duties.

[Dutch]

If you start out the season getting blasted by every team and the parents start to complain, you can get them back together and tell them you will play to win more, but the implications could be that Johnny doesn't get to play shortstop or R.J. will pretty much get his one inning per game (if that's a rule) and spend the rest of the time watching his friends play. I've only had that conversation one time (for soccer), and they decided to keep having fun.


Noted.

[Dutch]

Dutch, you're an nco, right? I think you could probably "convince" some e1-e4s to "assist" you with your coaching duties.

That and my softball teammates. Hell, my assistant coach is a lt colonel from another squadron. We'll get whatever manpower we need. :D But I do want to start with those who would be most interested....the parents.

[Philliesfan980]

I'd highly recommend Tom Emanski's Defensive Drills videos. He has afterall, won the last 3 AACU National Championships, 1990,1991, and 1992.