Adult emotion drives almost everything to do with youth baseball. Have the adult emotions helped or hurt player development? Are we operating to cater to the adult’s emotions or are we doing all we can to make it all about the kids? Dave talks about the situation and some ways to throttle back some of the high-octane, parent/adult emotions that drive the sport model.
We know that winning is important to everyone in youth baseball. But, if we don’t win that day do we have anything we can talk about despite the game outcome. We do if you build a culture statement about the other real important elements that represent your team. Dave will throw out some ideas for you to ponder and put together your own personal culture statement for your ballclub. Everyone needs a culture and this statement gives you goals to shoot for it. CoachandPlayBaseball.com
Baseball played in the 12 & under ballfields can be very deceiving especially to the ‘Big-People’. In other words, we should take caution and realize that once we hit the 13 & over 60’ 90’ ballfields it’s going to be game-on. Challenges of enormous size wait lurking for us in middle school years playing baseball. Most turn from the game because it is so difficult to perform as they once could at the smaller dimensions. Listen in to Dave’s warnings about 13 & over baseball.
We follow up again on the recent report from USA Baseball and take a deeper dive into how baseball will be affected. Can you imagine what youth baseball will look like practicing more than playing games? This could really upset the apple cart and change baseball as we know it and for the better for kids too. Listen to see how The “Big-people” are going to make adjustments.
USA Baseball just released a report on the status and groundwork for developing youth baseball players. The report lacks for any real detailed plans, but it does touch on some very pertinent aspects of player development that you should hear about. Listen in to Dave’s breakdown of the report and see where this leads down the road. Reach us at coachandplaybaseball.com
What aspect of playing baseball will give players the most enjoyment? I think that ‘squaring up’ and smacking the ball perfectly on the barrel and having the ball ‘jump’ off the bat is quite rewarding. This is where the “fun-level” meter goes way higher. This is what brings kids back year after year—being able to hit. Learn how to use PRO hitting terms to help foster a hitting environment on your ballclubs.
Baseball knowledge and experience is nice to have as a youth baseball coach. Knowing the in’s and out’s, the x’s and o’s, the techniques of the game and all the technical strategies is a valuable asset to coaching success. But, maybe more important in leaving a positive foot print on kids are some of the character growth potential we have. Here is one of Dave’s coaches in his own words on how he envisions impacting his players over the season. https://www.coachandplaybaseball.com
One of my baseball coaching student disciples was kind enough to share a letter to his team’s parent with me. Dave goes through the letter with his commentary with examples of best methods and philosophy to help develop your youth ballplayers. Your coaching success increases when you have a strong philosophical foundation to build from and communicate to the players and parents. visit us at www.coachandplaybaseball.com
This is one step we never want to circumvent. We should always make time to get together in some form or another to state our case in front of our youth baseball parents. This sets the stage for the coming season. This gives us a sturdy foundation to work from. When the oceans get rough we have something to steady the ship. Dave goes over some information you might want consider going over with your youth baseball parents.
This podcast episode we go into some of physical areas of the game to focus our player development on. In order to sustain themselves in baseball until high school age players have to excel in various skills to be able to make the high school teams. Here we go into these areas and let players, parents and coaches know exactly what areas to focus on that will give us the edge we need to be successful on the ballfield. Coach and Play Baseball.com