All across the country there are adults that have no idea how to teach baseball skills coaching youth baseball teams. These adults think that because they played baseball as a kid and the are a fan and watch Major League baseball games, they will be good coaches for a children's baseball team.
Inevitably, the "coach" teaches the kids very little, the players do not develop well, and the "coach" thinks that his team performed poorly because his players were less athletically gifted than the players on the teams they competed against. This coach quickly gives up and the next year a new adult, with equally limited ability, steps in and continues the cycle. Eventually, the kids on the team grow up and have their own kids. Being a good parent they sign their kid up for Little League and volunteer to coach the team. Of course this coach believes he'll be a good coach because he played Little League himself and he's watched every Yankees game this decade. And the cycle continues.
What most coaches don't realize is that they are not really acting like coaches, they are acting like managers deciding on batting order, player positioning and pitching rotations. A coach is someone that teaches skills and helps players develop. A coach has to have a special set of skills. He must understand baseball and the way the game should be played. Even more importantly, he must be a good teacher and have the ability to give the kdis a good baseball education.
If you are becoming a coach you owe it to your players and yourself to learn the best way to teach baseball skills to your players. Your players will learn the game better, enjoy the game more and provide you with years of fun and excitement. You may even set a good example of what a youth baseball coach should be and help your players become better coaches in the future, effectively ending the cycle of bad coaches.
earch the internet, read books and watch videos. Learn how to be a better coach.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Teaching baseball skills
When I was a kid children went out, played sports together and naturally became better players. These days it just doesn't happen. When kids turn 5 or 6 their well intentioned parents sign them up for T-ball and assume that the coach will teach them everything they need to know to become the next Albert Pujols. That's not what really happens.
What happens is that he parent of another kid volunteers to coach the team. He may have played some high school ball, but likely has no coaching experience or training. The coach expects that like himself, the fathers of the kids signing up have at least played catch with their sons and the players will show up with at least the ability to throw and catch a ball and a basic understanding of how the game is played.
Mr. Coach is then surprised and frustrated when the kids can't do the very basic things that he expects the kids to do. Leagues try to get as many games as possible so there are a total of 4 practices before the season starts and parents are upset that little Johnny isn't knocking the cover off the ball. Mr. Coach realizes that there are 3 kids on the team that have some ability. He puts them at shortstop, third base and first and hopes for the best. By the end of the season the kids have not really learned anything, the off-season comes, and the kids and their parents don't even think about baseball until the next year when it is time to sign up for baseball again.
Mr. Coach remembers the frustration from the year before and decides that he won't coach again. Another well intentioned parent figures that it can't be too hard so he volunteers. He believes that he has to be an improvement from the guy who coached little Johnny the year before. At the end of the season the second coach has a new appreciation of coach number one. The whole process starts over again and coach number three comes onto the scene.
Fast forward ten years and little Johnny goes to high school and can't understand why he didn't make it onto the high school team. He's too old for little league, and his baseball "career" is over until Johnny Jr. comes along and Johnny Sr. turns into Mr. Coach.
The end of the problem will come when parents learn that they need to work with their kids if they want them to learn baseball skills. The new problem occurs when parents realize that hey don't know how to teach baseball any better than Mr. Coach did. The point of this blog is going to be helping parents learn how to teach baseball skills.
What happens is that he parent of another kid volunteers to coach the team. He may have played some high school ball, but likely has no coaching experience or training. The coach expects that like himself, the fathers of the kids signing up have at least played catch with their sons and the players will show up with at least the ability to throw and catch a ball and a basic understanding of how the game is played.
Mr. Coach is then surprised and frustrated when the kids can't do the very basic things that he expects the kids to do. Leagues try to get as many games as possible so there are a total of 4 practices before the season starts and parents are upset that little Johnny isn't knocking the cover off the ball. Mr. Coach realizes that there are 3 kids on the team that have some ability. He puts them at shortstop, third base and first and hopes for the best. By the end of the season the kids have not really learned anything, the off-season comes, and the kids and their parents don't even think about baseball until the next year when it is time to sign up for baseball again.
Mr. Coach remembers the frustration from the year before and decides that he won't coach again. Another well intentioned parent figures that it can't be too hard so he volunteers. He believes that he has to be an improvement from the guy who coached little Johnny the year before. At the end of the season the second coach has a new appreciation of coach number one. The whole process starts over again and coach number three comes onto the scene.
Fast forward ten years and little Johnny goes to high school and can't understand why he didn't make it onto the high school team. He's too old for little league, and his baseball "career" is over until Johnny Jr. comes along and Johnny Sr. turns into Mr. Coach.
The end of the problem will come when parents learn that they need to work with their kids if they want them to learn baseball skills. The new problem occurs when parents realize that hey don't know how to teach baseball any better than Mr. Coach did. The point of this blog is going to be helping parents learn how to teach baseball skills.
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