Coaching Tips

Read these 14 Coaching Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Baseball tips and hundreds of other topics.

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Does attitude make a difference?

Hustle

Hustle is what determines the winners from the losers and the players from the athletes. Hustle catches the attention of coaches. A coach may take a player who hustles over one who is more talented, because that person is more valuable as a team player.

   
What is the best way to constructively criticize a player?

Coaching Attitude

When coaching, follow every negative comment with a positive one shortly down the road. Players will respect you if you criticize them when need be, but also praise them at every opportunity.

   
Can you truly measure baseball ability?

Measuring ability

Baseball is one of the few sports that cannot measure ability strictly by athletic prowess. Stats, radar guns, and tape measures do not measure the heart of a player (a critical part in baseball). Listen to coaches and scouts about that player that may not be as gifted as the rest, but has the heart of a lion.

   
What does a player look for in an umpire?

Admitting mistakes

Umpires are human and will make mistakes. Especially at advanced levels, the game moves so quickly that you simply can't make every call right. Umpires should realize this, but players and coaches should respect their decisions.

   
How do you get noticed?

Trying to get noticed

You never know when a scout is in the stands looking at you. Be sure to hustle on and off the field. Avoid public displays of anger. And always handle yourself with class and dignity on the field.

   
Are coaching camps available?

Coaching Camps

Coaching camps are available throughout the country. Tips, advice, ideas, and counsel that the college and professional coaches give at these camps are invaluable.

   
What kind of signs should I use?

Signs

Keep signs simple. You can use a simple numbers system. That is, how many signs will you give before a specific cut-off gesture. By counting the number of signs before the cut-off, the player knows the play. For example:
2 signs = take (two...take)
3 signs = hit and run (three words in hit and run)
4 signs = bunt (four letters in bunt)
5 signs = steal (five letters in steal)

   
How do you deal with tantrums?

Tantrums

Perhaps it is because the game can be so frustrating, but baseball naturally lends itself to tantrums. Try to discourage that immediately. One way is to get everyone to laugh instead, but you know what works for individual players.

   
How can I enhance my recruiting?

Work with scouts

When recruiting on the college level, the best way to improve your team is to form a relationship with pro scouts. Often, they will scout players that are not quite ready for the professional level, but might be with some cultivating.

   
How can I enhance my recruiting efforts?

Baseball Recruiting

Many coaches do not realize the value of the Internet in their recruiting efforts. Many sites allow you to search a talent pool for players. Players can make themselves available to web talent pools by posting their baseball resumes online.

   
What kind of demeanor should an umpire have?

Staying out of the limelight

Even at the amateur level, certain umpires have the wrong attitude. Never should an umpire be more important than the game. The umpire forgets the game on both sides of the ball should be fun!

   

So you want to coach baseball?

So you are done playing the game of baseball but still want to be in the dugout. Many players, once they hang up their cleats, decide to pursue coaching as a way to stay involved with the sport that they are so passionate about.

There are many ways to become a baseball coach, here are a few of them:

In order to become a baseball coach you have to have a great understanding of the game. Baseball, like all major sports, is very complicated and has room for a ton of information to be learned. So hitting the books, researching games as you watch them, and asking other professionals can be a great way to learn what you need to in order to command respect in the dugout.

If you already possess the knowledge that coaching demands, what next? Well, you have to decide at what level you desire to coach.

Baseball teams are like gigantic machines and they require many different operators, or coaches, to keep them running. There are the positional coaches, the pitching coaches, the head coach, and assistants for every other position you can imagine.

Becoming the head coach of a youth league will be much easier than getting a head coaching gig at the high school or college level. You may also benefit from starting out at a low level, and working your way up.

Once you've decided where you want to coach you can begin the application process. Go through park districts, or school districts, and look for open coaching positions. After all, you'll never be a coach if you don't apply!

   

Speed and the Baseball Coach

Becoming a baseball coach can be a wonderful way to spend time with children to be good role models for them. Let’s not pretend, though. As the baseball coach, your job is to teach boys how to become the best baseball players they can be.

One way to do that is to focus on speed. While a baseball coach should work to create an atmosphere of positive reinforcement, making sure that players are doing their best and improving is important as well.
Checking the speed of players in certain drills is one way to accomplish this task.

The discerning baseball coach should have a stopwatch and clipboard available at all times. Use the stopwatch to record the time a player takes to run the bases or to field grounders. Make sure to record this information for each player throughout several practices.

A quality baseball coach will use these numbers to make decisions on players. Some players will not be quick with grounders, and the numbers will bear that out in a more concrete way than any other method. Instead of just using your senses, which can lead you to favor showy players over consistent ones, look at the numbers.

Who runs the fastest?

Who gets the ball to first base the quickest?

Whose hits take the longest to field?

These speed questions can help an average baseball coach learn to be an excellent one.

   

Baseball Coaching

There is a huge need for volunteers to help with baseball coaching in youth baseball leagues all over the United States. In today's busy world many individuals are forced to work overtime to make ends meet at home but there has to be some time set aside to spend with your children and what a great way to get involved in what your kids are participating in.

In youth baseball you will find that many kids do not have someone to play baseball with and they look forward to coming to practice and the games.

Baseball has become a very popular sport that both girls and boys have enjoyed playing for many years and that is why the need for baseball coaching has grown so much.

There are a few key points to baseball coaching including the interaction with your kids on the field, helping other kids to fulfill their need for playing baseball and also to keep kids busy and out of trouble. Baseball is a wonderful sport that has been around for many years and will continue to be as long as there are people helping the youth baseball leagues.

   
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Jolyn Wells-Moran