Youth Baseball Coaching Challenge - Get Your Players to Think

Youth Baseball Coaching Challenge - Get Your Players to Think

By Larry Miljas

One critical key to a successful baseball player is knowing what to do before the time for action arises.

As a youth baseball coach you need to teach your players to think: Focus on teaching them baseball rules and strategies.

I question if these goals would appear on many coach's radars. During my seasons of coaching, a lot of coaches do not make this a priority. However, if asked, most coaches will agree that this is one of the most important goals. When a youth ballplayer realizes the proper play at any given time, they will not need to be reminded in the future each and every time the given play occurs. Therefore, the player will get a greater enjoyment out of the game, due to their increased knowledge.

The following are common circumstances that I recommend working on with your youth ball players, especially players that have very little or no exposure to the game of baseball.

Running the Bases:

When to take off immediately for the next base -- This can be a confusing time for a base runner. Sometimes the coach is telling you to go on contact, other times, they are instructed to tag up, and still others, they are supposed to wait until a play is made ahead of them before advancing. If you wait until game time and hope that your base coaches will be able to instruct your base runners, you are asking for a headache. It is far better to spend ten minutes a practice to drill these situations into your player's head. The scoreboard will reflect the fruits of working on this.

Outfielders:

Throwing to the correct base -- Every outfielder must know the process of figuring out what base to throw to before they get the receive the baseball. Not only should the outfielders be thinking about where to throw, but the infielders should be helping them out. The initial base to throw to is based upon the base runners, if the ball was caught or fielded off the ground and where the fielder is when they get the ball.

Backing up plays -- One highly overlooked, yet very important responsibility of the outfield is to back up the plays. A team that realizes that every player has a responsibility on every play, regardless of if the ball is hit to them or not, will have golden opportunities to make outs that would otherwise not be there. Proper movement based on the location the ball was hit and where the play is being made is very good to teach your players.

Infielders:
Where the play is at -- Teach your infielder to know where the play is before they get the ball. Too many times a player is trying to decide where to make the play while they are in the middle of it. This causes everything from fumbled ground balls to late or erratic throws.

Covering Bases -- There is not much more frustrating then a sure out turning into an extra base, because your shortstop didn't move to cover 2nd on a ground ball that the 2nd baseman threw past first. The base runner takes off for second on the throwing error and the first baseman has the ball in plenty of time only to eat it, because no one is covering 2nd. Tons of variations on this can be seen in every little league game.

I have no doubt that there are hundreds of other of situations that can be thought of for your players. I tried to cover some of the main issues that can be easily fixed with proper instruction and dedicated practice time. Youth baseball coaching can be fun and rewarding. Try these suggestions and you will see games go a lot smoother and you may find some of those precious outs that would have otherwise not been recorded.

Larry Miljas believes that coaching youth is very important as it gives us a chance to influence tomorrow's leaders. He is a martial arts instructor and little league baseball coach that wants to provide baseball tips, drills, and information on techniques for hitting, pitching, coaching, and training through his website at http://www.TheYouthBaseballCoach.com.

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