My Coach Just Won’t Stop Talking

Last week I wrote about taking responsibility for things you see as a coach. Besides teaching your ballplayers about working together as a group, ballplayers need to learn that the skills you need to succeed in baseball are largely individual. A good coach should want not only what is good for his team today, but what will be best for his players in the long run.

Coach Bruce and I discussed this at length last week. Not saying anything to a player developing a bad habit is a bad choice for a coach. But a far larger problem in youth baseball is over-coaching.

Over-coaching can take many forms. The most common is a coach who just won’t shut up when he’s in the dugout or in the coaches box on the baselines. Hitting and pitching are not easy tasks in which to become consistent. Pretty much all athletic success comes in situations where your mind is clear and you just focus only on your task. In the great baseball movie “For Love of the Game,” Kevin Costner plays an experienced Detroit Tigers pitcher who know how to “clear the mechanism.” Here’s a short clip from that movie…
But most youth ballplayers (and young people in general) just can’t shut out the world like Billy Chapel so they can better achieve their task. Yelling a constant stream of commands, no matter how well meaning or accurate they may be will not help little David hit more consistently or little Matt throw more strikes. It’s perfectly alright to cheer, especially short phrases like, “Good job, kid,” or “That’s the way!” Anything more than that will take away from the ballplayer’s success by taking away his focus.

Even on a practice field, coaches spew too much information. To a young player after five seconds this sounds sort of like “blah, blah, blah.” Word your instructions in the simplest, shortest phrases possible. Give frequent praise.

Now is a great time to refresh your coaching skills. We hope you’re giving helpful, positive, and proper instruction. I’d like to help you with that. First you can order a library of easy-to-follow teaching videos like the Tips From The Coach series. You’ll learn what you need to lead a group of players through a season. You’ll improve their understanding of the game, their rate of success, and you’ll have a more pleasurable time yourself. As my friend Brent Strom says, learning never takes a holiday. See a preview and get Tips From The Coach videos here…
Use the promo code TURKEY2013 and get the entire set for just $40. (our lowest price ever). But that’s just until Saturday 11/8/2013.

Also, I can help out your league in person by putting on a Coaches Clinic this fall, winter, or spring. It will be the most enlightening and entertaining learning experience you can provide your coaches to help your ballplayers and league. This can even cost your league nothing out of pocket. Check out this page for details.