Youth Baseball Coaching Advice

[Coffee Warlord]

So, god help me. My son's 3rd/4th grade, non-competitive baseball league sent out an email, saying they had no coach for my son's team, and were begging for volunteers.

I basically responded with, "okay, if literally the choice comes down to no team at all, and me having to coach ... I'll do it." I was an impromptu assistant coach of his team last year (by virtue of me showing up to the first practice with a glove), and we're pretty sure a decent chunk of the same kids will be on the team, so at least I'd know some of the kids.

That said ... I'm pretty sure some people on here have coached youth baseball before. Assuming I *do* get stuck with this job, I'll take all the advice I can get.

edit: And to repeat, not a competitive league. Coach pitch, learning league.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Advice?

Well, I'm not sure how easy cyanide is to obtain these days however ... perhaps some dealer could make you a deal on an asp?

And you're gonna want to find a reliable liquor wholesaler.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Advice?

Well, I'm not sure how easy cyanide is to obtain these days however ... perhaps some dealer could make you a deal on an asp?

And you're gonna want to find a reliable liquor wholesaler.

I mean, I already figured I'd just watch Bad News Bears and that'd solve everything.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Okay, now that I got the obligatory response out of the way, my experience says that the satisfaction / frustration level will depend on nothing so much as the management of the league itself.

And if you find yourself on the bottom half of that situation then try to remember that you didn't make any of these messes, you're unlikely to solve any of them without a revolution, and that it's all just temporary, that you won't be stuck in the situation forever. It's only a season, that ends fairly quickly in the grand scheme of things.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

So, god help me. My son's 3rd/4th grade, non-competitive baseball league sent out an email, saying they had no coach for my son's team, and were begging for volunteers.

I basically responded with, "okay, if literally the choice comes down to no team at all, and me having to coach ... I'll do it." I was an impromptu assistant coach of his team last year (by virtue of me showing up to the first practice with a glove), and we're pretty sure a decent chunk of the same kids will be on the team, so at least I'd know some of the kids.

That said ... I'm pretty sure some people on here have coached youth baseball before. Assuming I *do* get stuck with this job, I'll take all the advice I can get.

edit: And to repeat, not a competitive league. Coach pitch, learning league.

Are you going to have coaching help?

[Coffee Warlord]

Good god I hope so.

[NobodyHere]

Don't molest the kids, society frowns upon that nowadays.

Otherwise you should be gold.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Good god I hope so.

Most dads with any baseball background at all will want to be an assistant. When I was coaching age group I never had a problem getting dad assistants, but what you can do really depends on how many you have. You don't really want to commit to more than 2 assistants unless you know the guys and know egos aren't going to be a problem and egos or favoritism can be a huge problem.

My recommendations:

Use your assistants to break off into stations. Each station should focus on 1 or no more than 2 things at each station. Johnny may have an awful throwing motion, but if your station is focusing on getting into a good fielding position then that's the focus. Work on his throwing at the right time or it can derail your entire station. Baseball skills tend to be like a kinetic chain anyway. As you work on issues and skills one by one other things you haven't worked on tend to straighten themselves out.

Have a practice plan. It doesn't have to be (and really shouldn't) be planned down to the minute, but create a list of drills and things to do. Assuming you have assistants keep in mind who you want running each station based on the coach's skills. You want to aim for about 15 to maybe 20 minutes per station with that age group. When I first started coaching I always tried to have a couple extra drills or things to do in case we ended up with some extra time. After a few practices you'll get a feel for things, though, and keeping things moving and on track will be easy.

Make note of skills that need work and plan accordingly. You may work on ground balls one day and it's a disaster. Rather than running your station long it's best to keep things moving and keep that in mind as something that needs continued work.

Try to avoid full team batting practice. The less kids standing around the more productive you'll be and the more fun the kids will have. I always felt my worst practices were 1 kid hitting and 9 or so standing in the field watching and shagging balls. Make it a station.

At that age every single kid is going to hate the outfield and no parent is going to want their kid playing the outfield. This particular item caused me more parent issues than everything else combined at that age group. Just giving you fair warning to plan ahead. Hopefully your experience there is better than mine.

As you get to know the kids and the kids are comfortable with practice don't be afraid to challenge them a bit with something you may feel is a little above them. Sometimes the kids will surprise you. I had kids at that age and I ran a simple double play drill for them despite the fact that there's zero chance to turn a double play at that age, but they enjoyed it and it did help with general infield communication and their feel for moving while in the infield rather than standing there like a statue if the ball isn't hit to them.

Find a team mom/parent/whatever. This is the most underrated role on the team. The person that organizes snacks and all that stuff you're going to want nothing to do with.

Assign a coach to track playing time. You're going to have a million things going through your head during a game. Decisions are much easier to make when you have someone that can tell you Joey only played 2 innings last game and hasn't played yet today so you should probably get him in for at least 3-4.

Those are things off the top of my head that really helped me. If you have any questions feel free to ask. If I think of anything else I'll pass it on.

[Atocep]

Couple of additional things:

Find a couple fun competition things to end practice on when you have some extra time. Gold glove is a classic that carries over to all age groups, but baserunning relays or really anything that can build skills and create some fun competition can be a great way to end practice.

Just as I hated full team batting practice I'd only use full team infield/outfield to build an understanding of where to be, when to be there, and where the ball goes. You can't avoid working on these things so you're going to have kids standing around as you do this, just keep in mind it's not the best way to work on fielding or throwing fundamentals. Leave those to small station drills and use the full innie/outie for what it does best.

You're going to feel overwhelmed and like things are moving faster than you can track. Trust your assistants and yourself. Things slow down as you get your own repetitions and it's never as bad as it feels.

[JPhillips]

My daughter played rec league softball for several years. Maybe her most fun season was when they didn't win a single game. She played a lot, learned skills, had fun with the other girls, and never felt inadequate or inferior.

I always felt like a good measuring stick for rec league coaches was whether or not the girls came back for another season.

[tarcone]

Not reading through the thread because I am jaded right now.

But be POSITIVE. MAKE IT FUN. GAMES AND MORE GAMES. TEACH FUNDAMENTALS AND ONLY FUNDAMENTALS. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE SCORE.

That is all.

[Flasch186]

Man Atocep hit it, also:

Login – Dugout Captain

Station work. Station Work.

Do not have the kids aim the ball at the back of their throw directly at Center field before starting forward. Break that habit on anyone by having them split the diff. b/w CF and 3rd. Aiming it directly back causes early pronation and combined with too tight a grip immediately begins the process towards an 'itis of the arm and you're going to have kids complaining about their arms right away.

If they're dropping their elbow you need to fix that. There's actually a good tool which while wonky works. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So using this briefly for a kids throw, wherein they try to bend their elbow, it allows them to bend it to the proper amount but no more which makes it impossible to drop their elbow. Have them do this 10 times just to show them how their elbow should lookfeel as it starts around their head and their eyes will light up.

This: Login – Dugout Captain

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Not reading through the thread because I am jaded right now.

But be POSITIVE. MAKE IT FUN. GAMES AND MORE GAMES. TEACH FUNDAMENTALS AND ONLY FUNDAMENTALS. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THE SCORE.

That is all.

I was good at that last year, when I was the official helper monkey.

The fly ball oreo competition was a big hit. Coach was hitting big long fly balls into the outfield. I had about 6 kids lined up taking turns trying to catch one. I told them if any of them caught one, I'd bring oreos to next practice. Those kids were on a mission. Oreo bribes work.

Fun I can do. Organizing and actually teaching, ya know, baseball skills? That'll be ... interesting.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

Fun I can do. Organizing and actually teaching, ya know, baseball skills? That'll be ... interesting.

I'm going to let you in on something ELSE I learned -- in two different stints coaching baseball, something close to 15-20 years apart: at this age level, I swear it's easier than it seems til you do it.

I ain't saying "easy" ... I'm saying "easiER".

I was not a great athlete. A devoted baseball kid, yeah. But a great player? Nope. And I was loooooong removed from playing the first time coaching,
much less the second go 'round that some of you old FOFC'ers lived through with me.

Yet, somehow, it comes to you. Maybe not with every skill with every kid, but it'll come. Just give yourself the breathing room to get into the rhythm of it, I believe you'll find that it isn't overwhelming.

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Just as I hated full team batting practice I'd only use full team infield/outfield to build an understanding of where to be, when to be there, and where the ball goes. You can't avoid working on these things so you're going to have kids standing around as you do this, just keep in mind it's not the best way to work on fielding or throwing fundamentals. Leave those to small station drills and use the full innie/outie for what it does best.

This is a very important point and took me a season or two to learn. The kids will probably try to talk you into doing live pitching with everyone else standing in the field. Mine often try. Don't listen to them.


I firmly believe in developmental leagues for younger kids that everyone needs to play some quality time in the infield in every game. It will make for some long innings, but I think it is important to reward kids for working hard in practice with meaningful time in the field.

[stevew]

You sure you’re up to pitching? That’s for the young men.

[molson]

Make sure to follow the teenage umpires back to their parents' car so you can yell at them more.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

This is a very important point and took me a season or two to learn. The kids will probably try to talk you into doing live pitching with everyone else standing in the field. Mine often try. Don't listen to them.

Agreed!

Station Work Station Work Station work

If players are milling about, kicking daisies because it seemed like a good idea to do XY or Z then you made a mistake and shift gears immediately.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by stevew

You sure you’re up to pitching? That’s for the young men.

No worries, it's our secret advantage. I'm a lefty, and last year at least, we had all right handed batters. Lefty-righty matchup! Sabermetrics for the win!

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by molson

Make sure to follow the teenage umpires back to their parents' car so you can yell at them more.

It's easy to find parent volunteers for this.

[IlliniCub]

If you don't get ejected at least 3 times this season you're not trying hard enough!