How to Coach Youth Baseball:
By Not Measuring Success on Wins Only
>>The question: how to coach youth baseball? Absolutely covers a lot of ground. Using the ultimate goal of what is best for the players makes the answer much more easy to find. What approach do coaches and parents take in order to make youth baseball the best for the players? Players from professional baseball all the way to t- ball want to have an enjoyable experience playing baseball. They really do not want to be constantly hammered on by their coach for every boo-boo, error, strike out, or swing and miss.
What is best for the players?
What do Players want to get out of playing baseball?
When preparing to coach and asking the question How to coach youth baseball keep in mind the players perspective on playing youth baseball.1. Be a part of a team that jells together. Roots for each other, competes hard, picks each other up when others are frustrated. Shakes off defeats and bounces back in adversity. Is humble in victory. 2. Has Some Success Playing the game Well: Players want to contribute. They want to get some hits, throw some strikes and make some plays that help keep their team competitive. 3. Improve their Baseball Skills: Players want to see some improvement in their skills and knowledge of the game. 4. Looks forward to Practice: Players want to play baseball. Let the players use mini-competitions and Three-Team practice games in all baseball practice plans. 5. Respect: Players want affirmation for good things. Baseball is hard to play. Recognize players for the smallest of successes…e.g. taking a good aggressive baseball swing, picking up a down teammate, and backing up a base. 6. Not to be judged by their baseball skills: Many adults hand out praise and accolades on the players’ performance. If they hit a double or home run they get praised. If they strikeout or make an error they get reprimanded. Parents and coaches should look for stuff like effort levels, teamwork and playing aggressive to praise and not always 'is my kid on the All-Star team'. 7. Hopefully win more than we lose: Players want to be competitive playing against opponents. It is nice to win a league title but not at the expense of losing the items on this list.
Everybody Wants to Win
Youth baseball often wrongly mirrors major league baseball and college baseball. Pro and college players are at a very different world. Pros have to win or they will be fired. College players are playing for league titles, conference tournaments and playoffs. It is very much okay for youth baseball teams to want to play to win too. But not at the win-at-all-costs expensive price of not following what is best for players. The best practice in learning how to coach youth baseball is to keep the players needs at the top of the list. No one here is going to lose his or her job or get fired. We have to find other means to measure success instead of only how many wins we have.
Winning Is Not Always Pretty
Have you ever observed a baseball team that won every game, beat up everyone they played but the kids and parents were miserable? From the outside the amount of wins appears to show someone who knows how to coach youth baseball.Yes, we have coaches in youth baseball that have trophy shelves full of 1st place finishes. They won the t-ball league, moved up and won the 9-10 year old pennant. And on and on. But, they failed to follow what is best for the players. They hammered on the kids for any mistake. Coached with a win-at-all-costs mentality instead of trying to make sure players went away with life long satisfaction of being a good team player and being part of team that loved to come the ballfield. Often a team that goes 9-7, 8-8 or 7-9 had a better overall experience than the team that went 16-0. If the baseball coaches and instructors do a really good job, that 8-8 team might have just about every player wanting to sign up again next year. While the 16-0 team, although winning lots of games, might have been miserable and lacking the growth and satisfaction that players and parents really want out of youth baseball.
Is it the Kids Who Want to Win the Pennant or the Coaches? Parents?
Who really wants to win the pennant? The coaches and parents or the players? It is mostly the parents and coaches who bring the professional sports mentality to youth sports. Before adults got involved in youth sports none of these problems ever existed. Players would play to play. On play grounds and sandlots across the country players played the game for enjoyment and sport. Not many adult coaches were around to learn how to coach youth baseball. It was not until youth sports became organized and parent coaches brought the professional sports mentality to the youth league levels that winning became the main focus and measuring stick of success.
Measuring Success on Something Besides Wins
>>Most youth league players will eventually stop playing baseball by the age of fourteen. In fact data shows that 75% of players will be out of the game by this time.Knowing that, it is imperative that when coaches look at how to coach youth baseball they keep in mind that most players careers will be short lived. So, let us make the baseball team playing experience as beneficial as possible for all participants. There is only one focus necessary to make youth baseball successful. Follow what is best for the players first…and who wins the pennant a distant second. How many of the players on the team will say, “Wow, that was an awesome season. I cannot wait till we start again and sign up for next year.” The true measurement of success!
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