Coaching Youth Baseball

Each youth baseball coach must work out their own style, philosophy and approach. We go over several topics in youth baseball coaching to ponder and chat about. Some you may be on the right track with and some of this might be new, beneficial material that you can use to coach your kids better. This is part one: 1-20 of my 100 point baseball coaches checklist. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

Youth baseball age kids are truly not athletically equipped yet to perform the necessary baseball skills at a high level to be able to play baseball like MLB, college and High School ballplayers. Yet the ‘Big-people' will not let go of forcing our kids to play “Real Baseball” rules despite the USABaseball/MLB American Development Model's allowing us to take the off-ramp. We will be interviewing the ‘Real Baseball' crowd to see why they are so convinced that ill-equipped kids must play “Real Baseball” or nothing else. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Does anyone conduct on-field baseball practice any more? Well if you are fortunate to have regularly scheduled on-field youth baseball practice here are some ideas for you listen to and see if they can benefit your teams. Most of them I use every practice and prior to ballgames. Get your notepad and pencil and jot down some of these drill ideas and try them out at your next on-field baseball practices. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Youth baseball has a big  problem by using “Real Baseball” rules with almost zero modifications or adaptations. Ever heard of “Sandlot” baseball? Well we are taking a look at starting with “Sandlot” style baseball and find some middle ground with “Real Baseball” rules and procedures. How do we make youth baseball act and mimic more benefits and features of ‘Sandlot” baseball? coachandplaybaseball.com

If you know the truth then are you ready to take a stand? Hear about the main purpose for youth baseball and here's a hint. It is not to please the ‘big-people'. If it doesn't benefit the kids then we will not be doing that. The Berlin Wall stood over 40 years and through the leadership of Ronald Reagan the wall came down in two months. We can take a stand for our kids and we can do it quickly. coachandplaybaseball.com

Youth baseball games brings a huge amount of entertainment to the adults. We talk about why adults are so infatuated about watching their kids play baseball. Yet have little or no appetite to make sure the kids practice baseball skills. It's like they have no concern for them about playing the game well or playing a long time---they just want to go to the ballgames every Tuesday and Thursday night. Coach and Play Baseball.com

How much “player development” actually is going on in youth baseball? Is youth baseball more about entertaining the “Big-people” or giving kids vitally important reps to build and develop baseball skills? Listen in and decide if you think we are just dressing up in our baseball uniforms or actually ‘playing” baseball. Let's see if there are improvements to our youth baseball systems that we can implement immediately. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Kids who start playing baseball at age 5 or 6 then reach age 13 & 14 have played 8,9, maybe even 10 years of organized youth baseball. They should be pretty polished by the time they are 13 or 14 right? Not always the case. Too many players are lacking baseball skills. The collateral damages of playing too many games, never practicing on the field and having coaches that are trained to organize player development minded practices are often more the norm than the exception. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

How many on-field baseball practices will a player participate in during their under 12-year-old career? From age 7 to 12 or about 6 seasons how often will kids have an on-field team practice? In addition, how many coaches will be thoroughly trained to conduct these on-field practices which include a large quantity of reps, wide range of throwing skills, sampling of multiple positions, many baserunning opportunities, turning double plays, catching fly balls on the run, numerous times to bat? All while having a blast! www.coachandplaybaseball.com

You all have been to your town carnival or county fair right? It's exciting and entertaining to go to a town carnival. Youth baseball has a bit of hullabaloo around it that somewhat mimics a carnival. It has an entertainment aspect to it. But the consequences of making kids play games and never practicing on the field leaves players ill-prepared for the 60'-90' fields. Pro baseball has a rookie level that you may not be aware of that youth baseball should take a long look at and it does not look like a carnival. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

When we find something ‘out of order' like an elevator for example it means it needs some special repairs to get it back functioning correctly. It is broken to some degree and working like it should. Is there any part of youth baseball that we can consider as ‘out of order'? Well, here is a couple areas that we will discuss and let you decide if there might be cause for an ‘out of order' sign. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

Listen to Dave's suggestions on how to turn the perfect hitting technique into a full-on culture of hitting on your baseball team. You will hear how the professional baseball coaches communicate hitting methods to their players. You might be surprised to hear some hitting techniques that you have never heard before. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

What are the options for your area ballplayers when they hit the 60'-90' ballfields at age 13? Has your organization fully prepared them for this age level? We are looking to join in with your local leagues and teams and work with you on our High Tempo© Baseball Development System and close up all the holes in your player development model and increase the kid's fun-level at the same time. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

Have you been brave enough to bring up kid friendly modifations and variations to your local youth baseball leaders and travel ball coaches? Often new ideas are met with laughter and little interest. If they are not laughing at you then maybe it is time to step up your game and get prodding. People only know if we tell them, so it's time for those laughing at us to get educated. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

If we know the problems and issues then we can analyze the situations and find solid solutions that make the problems somewhat go away. Here we look at our known problems in youth baseball development and match solutions to fix them. Question: Are our youth ballplayers “getting their work in?” Not like they should and probably not even close. How do we fix the problem?….by giving youth baseball coaches easy to use solutions. coachandplaybaseball.com

Someone asked me recently, “Hey Coach Dave, What would you do in youth baseball if your son was 10 years old?” So, here is the six things that I would use to analyze the situation and come up with my answers. What is the best-practice methods and systems to help your kids maneuver through youth baseball from 10 years old and beyond. coachandplaybaseball.com

Youth baseball leagues and travel tournament industry has a for-profit business model. And the models work very well to make money at our kids expense. Do you understand the business model? Once you know their methods then we soon realize the maybe, just maybe we have been duped. Come listen to see how the business model works and if should be a part of it. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

Wood working carpenters have a saying, “Measure Twice – Cut Once”. Obviously the take away here is to slow down and carefully calculate your measuring prior to sawing a piece of wood. Careless measuring can cause a bad cut and a wasted piece of wood. We carry this same metaphor into youth baseball here so listen in and see the similar saying we use in youth baseball player development. Carpenters advise applies to baseball too. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Who needs to practice? What do we do during practice? When should we practice? Where can we practice? Why do we need to practice? Finally, how do practice? We are going to put the pedal to the medal this year and promote baseball practice this year. So, buckle up, here we go into all the reasons we need to practice in youth baseball. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

I have been working in baseball my whole life and in youth baseball for the last 25 years or more. I have always been perplexed at the lack of desire in the vast majority of youth baseball coaches in learning how to run better practices. And it just hit me the reason why coaches shy away from learning. It only took me 25 years to figure it out. Come listen and find out. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

There are certain skill sets that are beneficial for players to have in order to survive the game of baseball longer. Listen in and hear what you as coaches can focus on to help prep your players for the long haul. When you have a bunch of weapons in your arsenal you have lots more opportunities to sustain your baseball careers. Coaches need to know what they need to invest their time in for their players to give them the best return. CoachandPlayBaseball.com

We want to play less games and practice more with our youth baseball teams. But we are not sure how to put High Tempo Baseball to action. We are not sure our facilities will be able to provide enough practice times for our baseball teams. Well, this is the episode to tune in to and take a look at some of the scheduling situations that you might have in your own town or league. How to bring High Tempo Baseball to your own town. CoachandPlaybaseball.com

When we ask the ‘Big People' how important is baseball player development to you? The response is overwhelmingly something like, “Yes, we are all about player development—definitely our #1 goal for our youth baseball players”. But, when we drill down and look at the body or work all we do is play ballgames. Why? Because youth baseball is largely adult entertainment. CoachandPlayBaseball.com

What would youth baseball look like if every single coach had a coaching guide that teaches them how to be in line with 100% concentration on player development? And, totally in on helping and preparing the most kids to reach the high school baseball funnel? Well, we might just have the tools to help youth coaches implement their practices and game management into a 100% player development friendly system and take the off ramp on the phony baloney systems we are using currently. CoachandPlayBaseball.com

Youth baseball has a system in place whether it is local Rec-Leagues, All-Stars or Tournament Travel Ball on the weekends. These models are etched in stone and not going away. The question is if someone wants to opt out of this system and is there another off-ramp to get off the freeway? Well, listen in this session and see if taking the off ramp is an option for you. Coachandplaybaseball.com

We dive into some areas of your ballclubs season and do some assessment of what went pretty good during the season and maybe some areas that need some attention as we go into our next season. We look at five areas of importance and give our coaching selves a school yard grade and then we check our GPA. Come and see what your grades are.  coachandplaybaseball.com

First, we listen to an audio from HOF'er Chipper Jones on his take on youth baseball. We then look at travel baseball and discuss some topics to see if it is truth or myth. And then we talk about various possible youth baseball options to try to make our youth baseball experience make more sense to coaches, families, and ballplayers.

Listen in to real life stories about the issues youth basebll coaches are experiencing as they deal with the “Big-people” in youth baseball today. Are kids really enjoying all the adult domination and drama? Doubt it. Listen in to hear Dave's take on the problems and what might be a good way to inch our way out of this and into a system that is much more player friendly and enjoyable. coachandplaybaseball.com

What happens to kids when they reach the upper levels of high school? Are there Very many if any summer ball team options? Listen in with Dave as he dissects the timeline of kids playing baseball and how baseball starts running out of gas when kids reach 17 & 18. And then we get into how youth baseball compares on the intensity level in the lower age groups. What we really need is a common sense approach as we get ready to “pick a fight” with traditional youth baseball. www.coachandplaybaseball.com

Ever wonder why we constantly play ballgames but rarely if ever have baseball practices? Ya, me too. Let us take a look at why we are so enamored by the ballgames and go to great lengths to play ballgames but blow off opportunities to have team practices. Who is at fault? The ‘Big-people' (adults) or the kids? You decide after hearing the discussion on baseball entertainment.CoachandPlayBaseball.com

Ever imagined what youth baseball might look like when we focus on everyone else besides the pitchers. What if we tried to develop the other eight players and the hitters and leave the pitchers on the sidelines. Can you visualize the amount of action, at-bats, fielding tries, baserunning turns, increased action all over the field with the pitchers staying out of the games and having machine and/or coach pitch all the time? You would have to be ‘stuck on stupid' not to realize how much difference this would make. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Hitting is a huge skill to try and master. Coaches must be able to build a culture of hitting on your teams. The ability to hit will increase the players longevity for sure. The kids that hit the best usually play the longest and have more enjoyment playing ball. Listen in to hear Dave's conversation on the importance of hitting development.

Where are the baseball “experts'? Where are the player development gurus? Why do we rely on non-baseball people to write the script, set up systems, make the rules, set up the programs and administer youth baseball policies? This is the discussion today when we look into the inter workings of youth baseball systems and realize this was all invented by non-baseball people for the most part.Coach and Play Baseball.com

What is it that slows down the baseball development of our kids? What is it that makes youth baseball so slow paced, lacks action, and dampens the enjoyment level? Well Dave discusses the ‘elephant in the room' and give us a way to change the way we develop ball players. Coach and Play Baseball.com

Today's youth baseball world is afflicted with the notion that we have to play ‘Real Baseball'. We have a better system to allow for increased action, more player development reps, more freedom for players to interact and more enjoyment for playing baseball. The ‘Big-people' are often so ‘stuck on stupid' they don't realize what they are missing. At least we have to try this!

Take a listen to this list of current youth baseball status topics and see if you are seeing the same things I am seeing. Asking the question, “Are our kids REALLY receiving the developmental skills needed at this age to become fundamentally sound ball players and gain a high level of enjoyment playing baseball? Lets compare this list of topics and see if we can answer these questions. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Chances are you are a youth baseball parent that has experienced the FOMO. Yes, we all want the best for our kids in youth baseball but we do need to put up some bumper guards to make sure we don't go off the rails into extreme fear that we might be missing out. Jump in and listen as Dave goes over some ways to keep from getting overly fearful of some of the ‘myths' going on around youth baseball. coachandplaybaseball.com

Let us go over and talk about a few ways that the ‘Big-people' are notorious about stripping the joy from the ballplayers. Yes, the ‘Big-people' have a lot to say about how much enjoyment we have in youth baseball. Here are 6 ways to help remind us how we can increase the enjoyment level for our kids. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Who will be the first to convert their entire league format to Accelerated Baseball Development? Most of us just follow the herd and keep doing what everyone else does even though we sense that something is not right. We just will not stick our neck out of the turtle shell and go anywhere. Here are a few options on how to bring the awesome power of Accelerated Baseball to your own teams and stop following the herd. Be a turtle and stick your neck out.

Have you as one of the ‘big-people' made it known to your kids and players that they are “allowed” to mess up? Yep, players are going to fail from time to time and we expect that. It is very important to talk to your kids about the difficulty of playing baseball well and there will be times of tribulation. As the adults we need to listen to Dave's approach to give the some “room' to mess up.

Where does the baseball road end for most youth ballplayers? Well it varies for sure. Dave take's a look back to his kids that he worked with over the recent years and checks in to see where they are at. How many made it to high school baseball, or college level baseball? The game is very difficult after age 12 so we better make the road enjoyable for as many kids as possible. That's where Accelerated Baseball Development comes on to the scene.

The template and format for Accelerated Baseball Development is now available for everyone in youth baseball and softball. This action packed, kid-friendly youth baseball practice system and competitive games formats is in a coaching course format for easy consumption for all youth baseball coaches. What is keeping you from implementing this new system in your local ballclubs? Let's check it out and see what's in it.

How do we know that we are doing things correctly in our youth baseball systems today? Is there improvements we can make, adjustments to make the game more enjoyable, adaptations to increase player development opportunities? Well, listen in as Dave talks about some new ideas that might just rock the boat and may even turn the boat over. Accelerated Baseball Development is here and you can hear from those that are experiencing it now.

USABaseball in conjunction with MLB have given us plenty of suggestions on how we can turn baseball back to the kids. Along with Aspen Institute's Project Play and USABaseball, Dave dissects many of the creative ideas to allow youth baseball's pendulem to swing back toward ‘free-play' and ‘sandlot' style, kid-centered,  youth baseball organizations. Check out what this ‘sea change' might look like.

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