Coaching Youth Baseball

I have known several youth baseball league presidents over the years and they all have shown to be very nice, hardworking, dedicated and the desire to provide a good experience for the kids and families that they work with. Only thing is they are nowhere close to well trained, player development people. In fact, they had little to no baseball coaching experience. Yet they are picked to continue th...

One of our listeners sent this to me … "Listening to your podcast has really changed my perspective on youth baseball. I coach 11-12 year olds in rec league and in the tournaments. I was "that" coach focused on winning district tournaments. I used to think 12u was the end-all-be-all of baseball. Boy was I wrong. I'm 100% resetting this year   to player development. We've had a bunch of practices a...

There might be some things you think and believe to be true in youth baseball that might not be. Listen in to hear Dave talk about some of the "myths" that are commonly circulated in the youth baseball arena. I bet most of these "myths" you have heard of and probably directly affect your current situation. Well, here are the seven discussion topics and we wrap up with a solution that you don't wan...

Are you tired of slow paced, boring, unproductive ballgames? Want to open your youth baseball world to unlimited player development and player enjoyment? Then you will want to hear the features and benefits of my accelerated High Tempo© baseball development formats. Here we go looking into a completely different way to approach youth baseball. See for yourself if you want to stay same old, same ol...

Youth baseball parents and coaches are in a vicious cycle of trying to accumulate "status symbol points" watching their kids play ballgames and giving up the status points and allowing the kids to develop more during on-field baseball practices. Listen in as Dave talks about how the 'Big-people' are locked in and obsessed with status points and at some point got to give it up and let kids have mor...

We complete our 100-point youth baseball coaches checklist with this episode. We cover several topics of interest and concern especially digging into how to coach hitters during competition and coaches demeanor during ballgames. In addition, we also discuss the problem of playing too many ballgames and neglecting on-field well organized baseball practice. We say, "Develop, develop, develop, but wh...

Our 100-point baseball coaches checklist continues and we hit a bunch of topics that commonly we have to deal with as youth level coaches. We also try to answer a really big question that I cannot get a fair answer to that makes sense to me. Want to know what that question is then tune in and maybe you can help give us an answer. I doubt if you can but let us know your best shot.

The "business model" of the major youth baseball national organizations is "ALL-STARS". It is the main carrot that these national entities use to attract families. Unfortunately, the collateral damage from All-Stars is what turns many families away. We take a big long look into what it would take to shift from a national umbrella organization and just play as a local independent youth baseball ope...

We have so many opportunities to  communicate and interact with our players, parents, umpires and opponents. It is really good to have your coaching style, approach and philosophy on solid footing so we are able to handle the ups and downs of the baseball season. We continue through our 100 point checklist here and we end with a call to action for decoupling from your National Organization and sta...

Wow, youth baseball coaches have a huge task list to cover in order to do their jobs effectively and leave a quality legacy. We continue with our coaches checklist and touch on several important bullet points on our 100-point checklist. Listen in and hear what vital topics we discuss on this one as we try and speak to coaches of all levels and experience.  www.coachandplaybaseball.com

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 t...

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 pract...

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?  coachandplaybasebal...

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. co...

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...

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 im...

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 pl...

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 baseru...

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 le...

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...

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.coa...

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.coachandplayba...

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 co...