COACHES' BLOG

As veteran coaches know, coaching any youth sport is far more complicated than just teaching the game that you used to love to play yourself. It involves a lot more than just hitting fly balls, teaching kids how to field a ground ball and making out a line up card. Issues like bullying, ADHD, harassment and racism can occur in your dugout as much as anywhere else. In this section we will include a wide range of articles from columns and blogs that we hope will assist coaches in the development of their kids - on and off the baseball diamond. And of course this section will feature tips and methods for running great practices, implementing creative and fun drills, dealing with game situations and much more. 

Get The Most Of A Practice

1:06 pm

  Here is a video outlining a great practice plan mostly designed for Select and Rep level players. Have a look and I think you’ll see that it’s a great way to get the most out of a practice. Consider implementing this plan or simply use it as a guide to create your own.  

Read The Full Column

Practices Getting Boring?

1:41 pm

Hey Coach – I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s difficult to keep weekly practice from getting boring. Right? Are you looking to change up your practice plans to keep things fun for your players? The key is to prepare and to get creative! The best coaches in the world prep just like teachers do before covering a new topic in class.…

Read The Full Column

The Top 6 Biggest Mistakes Youth Baseball Coaches Make

1:27 pm

Posted by John Madden | Dec 11, 2017 | 0  After 29 years of being a coach’s wife and 22 years of being a sports mom, I’ve encountered hundreds of coaching styles. None of those styles comes anywhere close to being perfect. Every coach makes mistakes. Mistakes are not desirable of course, but they will happen. As a coach, your job is not to beat…

Read The Full Column

Great Hand-Eye Hitting Drills

1:39 pm

If you’re struggling to catch, field, or hit in baseball, then you may be lacking some hand-eye coordination. With these super easy to do hand-eye coordination drills, your fielding, catching, and hitting will get right back on track and you’ll start playing the way you know you should have. The best part about these hand-eye coordination drills is that you…

Read The Full Column

How Youth Baseball Players Can Deal With Nervousness

6:32 am

Over the years I’ve tried emphasize the importance of coaches helping players develop mentally to handle the pressure of playing baseball.  It’s difficult to hide on a baseball field and any advice to help make a player feel more confident and focused is important.   This month I’m happy to have a guest post from Craig Sigl owner of mentaltoughnesstrainer.com. How Youth…

Read The Full Column

Running A Fun And Effective Practice

11:33 am

By Cal Ripken, Jr. Hearing Billy’s story about his son’s experience in recreational baseball made me think of how painstaking practice can be for the youngest of players. Usually its the games which are the most fun and practice is typically where you have the strongest battle as a coach to keep kids from yawning. We’ve all seen it. You’re…

Read The Full Column

10 Standard Youth Coaching Mistakes (And Ways To Avoid Them!)

6:02 am

Mistake 1 – Too many kids are standing around with nothing to do. Solution – Set up small group stations with coaching supervision and instruction. When no help is available, coaches should stick with all-inclusive team drills and game play. For example, batting practice should have separate stations. Some players do batting tee work, others flip work and some live batting practice. Coaches should…

Read The Full Column

Assisting Your Young, Befuddled Baseball Player

6:45 am

As your season moves along, most of your players will learn new skills, make improvements, and have a lot of fun. However, some of your kids may not develop a comfort level with certain basics of the game, such as swinging the bat or sliding into a base. One of the real challenges of coaching a youth baseball team is…

Read The Full Column

How To Deal With Difficult Parents

8:09 am

Every season, coaches all over the world dedicate huge portions of their time to teaching other kids how to play a sport. They do this because they love the game. They do it because they love the kids. Most parents greatly appreciate your commitment to their kids, but there are always exceptions. Emotions can run high when it comes to…

Read The Full Column

Dealing With Bullying On Youth Sports Teams

9:09 am

Bullying is an epidemic in our society today. And it’s especially a problem in sports. A recent survey of 22,000 high school students across the U.S. found that 48 percent of the respondents had been targets of hazing–a form of bullying in which kids are humiliated or required to take part in dangerous activities. What Bullying Does Athletes who are…

Read The Full Column