What is Your Baseball Coaching Approach?

Will you leave a legacy with your players that they will remember years later?

Do you remember the teacher that left a big impact on you? Most everyone did have one that really made a positive influence. You can look back years later and feel the positive virtues and attributes that helped shape the person you are today.

Do you have a youth sports coach that left a major impact on you today? Maybe and maybe not. High impact teachers with a positive baseball coaching approach are few and far between.

The Whole Baseball Coaching Approach Package

Few sports coaches have the whole package. What do I mean by the whole package? Well of course nobody is perfect. We all have flaws.

The baseball coaches with the whole package will have a good grasp of some basic coaching strategies and people skills. They may not be an expert in any particular area or the X’s and O’s but they are pretty good at several areas of teaching ability and leadership skills.

Baseball coaching is 15% sport knowledge and 85% people skills. Parents want their youth sports coaches to be positive role models for their children. Baseball parents are trusting you to do the right things.

Unfortunately most youth baseball coaches have never been trained in teaching methods or in baseball skills instruction.

So what do youth baseball coaches turn to the yelling, hollering and criticizing approach because that is all they are really good at.

They often fall short in being able to teach hitting, throwing, fielding, baserunning or pitching. They do not really know when to bunt, hit and run or call a pitchout.

So, they mask their shortcomings by yelling, hollering and criticizing their players. They often fall short in people skills because they feel if they do not win the pennant they are a failure. This is a negative baseball coaching approach that nobody wants to be remembered for.

Four Easy Steps for Your Baseball Coaching Approach

Baseball is hard. Baseball is difficult to play. Baseball takes a lot of time and effort to develop skills.

The trick is to mask all the hard and difficult part by making the practices competitive. When baseball practice becomes competitive then the players do even notice all the fielding, throwing, baseruninng and hitting that they are doing. And they are enjoying the game—they are having fun.

Create sandlot style pick up games. Use the competitive drills on our web site. Look up the three-team baseball practice plan template. Let the players scrimmage.

Keep the tempo fast and furious. Too much standing around will ruin the fun. One guy hitting and everyone shagging is not enough.

Too many drills kill skills. Scrimmage often. Keep the baseball practice plan in high gear. Use the 15 minute rapid fire drill every day.

2. Teach more than the game

Everyone wants to win. That is our nature to be competitive. It is fun to win. Winning is a blast. Losing is not a fun feeling and hurts our soles.

Having said that the best baseball coaching approach is to focus on more than the wins and losses. Stay away from putting too much emphasis on the outcomes of the games.

Focus more on playing the game well—or playing parts of the game well. If a teams plays the game well the wins usually take care of themselves.

Look for the good things that happen. Look for the little things, like backing up a base, running the bases hard and smart, battling a tough pitcher, getting out of jamb with a good play or someone chasing a foul ball or warming up the outfielders between innings without being asked.

Look for examples of good sportsmanship. Point out positive and negative examples.

Great teachers are able to shape their students into doing the behaviors they want them to do and remove the behaviors they do not want their students to do. If you want your players to pull for their teammates then you have to share with them the type of characteristics you are expecting and then praise them when it happens and wean them off the behaviors you do not want to see.

To shape your positive baseball coaching approach look for every opportunity to teach more than the game. Years later you may forget where you finished in the standings. It is hard to remember who won the World Series from year to year so the little things are the long lasting lessons that carry players later in life like how to be a good teammate.

3. Be a Good role model: Coaching is Not a License to Yell at Children

Loud does not mean you are a good coach. In fact some of the loudest coaches are the worst coaches. But they fool the parents.

The parents believe the lies by saying, “Did you hear the coach yelling out all those instructions and corrections. He really chewed out that player—boy he must really know what he talking about.”

Loud coaches that constantly hammer on players with critical tones should be red flagged! Parents should look out for overly loud coaches—a dead giveaway for an overly angry person.

Coaches: pull your player(s) aside between innings and discuss the situation out of the spotlight. Ask the player(s) what they were thinking? Use the situation as a teachable moment. Remove the baseball player(s) from the heat of the action out of the limelight and talk over the play in a respectful tone.

You never want to embarrass a baseball player on the baseball field.

Be a good role model. Your players don’t need to grow up and be yell and holler adults with critical tones to their children.

Build your baseball coaching approach using a positive coaching approach and a calm demeanor. No one likes to be around someone that flies off the hook at every little thing.

4. Treat Players with Respect

A few baseball coaching peers have asked me how I can be so positive, patient and calm with my players? Simply because I respect my players and the effort they put out.

I completely understand that the game of baseball is extremely difficult to play; therefore I don’t look to beat up my players by yelling and hollering at every little boo boo. Baseball is very difficult to play.

The problem with most coaches and parents is that the game looks easy to play from the sidelines, the dugout and the bleachers and on television. It looks easy—but is very difficult.

I know this. So I back off my players. I teach with a positive spirit knowing there is a lot of failure and frustration in baseball. I use praise to try to promote the type of energetic atmosphere on my ballculbs.

I try to eliminate the behaviors and attitudes that are not constructive for the players or the baseball team.

If you want your team to cheer for your team and lay off popping off to the other teams then you need to make sure the players know what is acceptable and what is not. Baseball players will test you just like students in school and your own children at home.

Let the players know the boundaries and how far they can go.

Mold them into the type of character, virtues, sportsmanship, competitiveness, honesty you want them to mirror. If you ride the umpires and blame and umps then chances are your players are going to follow suit. Shape your positive baseball coaching approach with a high level of respect for the effort your players put out.

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