Baseball Coaching Tips
Help is on the way...
Coaching a baseball team is not an easy task. Following these baseball coaching tips should help make the experience a positive one for both you and all your players.
Smells Like Team Spirit
The first of the baseball coaching tips revolves around the attitude your players bring to the field and apply to their day to day lives. When coaching a baseball team, not only do you have to deal with the good players" egos in conjunction with the weaker players" lack of confidence, you also have to try your best to instill a spirit of teamwork and camaraderie amongst your players. This has a two-fold objective. First, it allows players to co-operate better on the field, and it also shows them the advantages of maintain this attitude throughout all their daily interactions.
One great way to foster team spirit is by ending each practice with a game in which the team has to work together in order to win. Try something like a hitting derby where a single earns one point, a double two, a triple three and a home run five points. Players must work together towards earning a score of 100 points, and every player must contribute to the total at least once. Before long, players will be cheering on the weak hitters, which might be just the push they require to get the ball over the fence.
If at First you Don"t Succeed...
Another challenge many coaches face is coming up with a repertoire of varied drills that build muscle memory and improve their team"s skill sets while keeping players engaged and interested. For this, I suggest first reading up on baseball drills and exercises and coming up with a practice plan that reflects your team"s strengths and weaknesses.
Baseball practices become really boring when players repeat the same drills day in and day out. But, since many players crave stability and routine in their practices, I suggest devoting one practice a week to building different skill sets. For example, our team"s Monday practice focuses on reflecting on our last game, hitting drills, and strength and conditioning exercises such as wind sprints. Tuesday's practices are devoted to fielding, with teams breaking off into infielders, outfielders, and pitchers and catchers. Wednesday's I give my team a day to rest, and Thursday's we play an hour-long scrimmage followed by drills that improve areas where teams falter during the scrimmage. For example, if two players both miss catching pop-ups, I"ll run a series of drills that focus on catching pop-ups so that everyone can have a little refresher.
I also like to shake things up during practices by incorporating some of my players" favorite schoolyard games into warm-up and tension breaking exercises. After a series of particularly tough drills, I give my team a five-minute break and let them run around playing freeze tag or dodgeball.
To keep players" mental focus on baseball, we like to play a version of tag where one player is "it", running around and trying to tag the others. If a player is able to sit fully on the ground with both buttocks and yell out the name of a baseball team or player, they are exempt from being tagged for five seconds. However, if they err and say the name of a team or player that"s already been said, this exemption is not granted.
Author: Kenny Buford
About The Author
Kenny Buford has coached nearly every level of baseball in a career that spans several decades. You can get instant access to his championship baseball practice plans and more baseball coaching tips by visiting his website:
http://www.Baseball-Practice-Plans.com/
For a limited time, all coaches who visit Kenny's site will also get a free copy of his special
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