Coaching Youth Baseball

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...

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.co...

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...

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 Te...

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 friendl...

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. coachandplay...

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 a...

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....

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...

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 a...

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. Coachandpl...

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....

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 f...

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 Acceler...