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Coaches |
| ...the right way goes a long way |
First, if anyone has not yet said so, thank you to all coaches, who, as many tend to forget, are volunteers. Without coaches, regardless of the sport, many amateur teams and leagues would not exist.
Coaching can be a thankless activity as it is almost impossible to keep everyone happy. Whether the team is winning or losing a coach can only play nine players on the field at a time. Therefore, a coach's greatest challenge is to keep all players interested in the game.
In order to keep players interested two things must be accomplished:
1 - keep the players busy so that they do not get bored;
2 - provide them with an environment enabling them to improve their skills.
With reference to keeping them busy, a coach must ask him or herself whether they have introduced enough activities into a game or practice that allows each participant to keep busy, have fun and learn. For instance, during a game is there a player on the bench counting your team's pitches, counting the other team's pitches, keeping score, in charge of chasing fly balls, in charge of catching in the bull pen, etc. If a coach can explain why these activities are being done, the activities not only give the non-playing players something to do, but also teaches them about the game.
Further, when it comes to practices is there ever a player standing around with nothing to do. For instance, batting practice (BP) is one of the worst drills for boredom. Generally, the only player enjoying BP is the hitter, while everyone else stands in place waiting for the ball to come to them. A remedy to sleepy BP is to have two assistant coaches or players hit balls to the outfield and infielders between pitches. This ensures all defensive participants practice their defensive skills during BP.
The key to eliminating boredom at practices is to introduce drills that allow everone to participate or to introduce multiple drills at one time.
Any coaches requiring some assistance in this area (eliminating boredom) can contact The Baseball Mechanic directly via e-mail (inquiries@thebaseballmechanic.ca) or phone.
For tips on fundamentals and drills the following sampling of links provide a wealth of baseball information:
Coaching Association of Canada
Baseball Handbook
Bobby Valentine's Online Baseball Clinic
Dick Mills Pitching.com
3and2.com
Learn-Sports.com (Baseball)
WebBall.com
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