coachdaryl

Daniel, thanks for your service. << Salute >> << 2 >> hope you are ok and safe and still coaching Cheers !!!

One of my favorites !!!! Glad I stumbled upon it and re-read it today in preparation for the upcoming baseball season. Thanks

First of all congratulations on your decision to coach! This is a great opportunity to interact with your child and his/her friends and parents. I previously coached my sons tee ball team, last year I did not get to coach his rookie team. However, I used it as a season to help coach and to learn from other coaches. I will be coaching his team this year and here are a couple of items that I am implementing. Parents meeting. I am not completely sold on this. An alternative approach that I am considering is a one page handout for them. I may use the meeting and handout as well. Just depends on the team I get. Practice - Again here is my approach I am not telling you how it should be done. Every practice will have a theme. Base Running, HItting, Throwing Fielding etc. Note that each practice will have many different drills. Games - I am not going to keep score. At this level kids should learn, be safe and have fun. No need to introduce winning and losing this early. Clinics - I am going to offer "clinic" type sessions every Sunday through the season. Note that these are not practices nor are they "mandatory" I just intend to give kids the opportunity to explore the different elements of baseball. Just my 2 cents and I would enjoy hearing from others and learn from the more experienced coaches. Good Luck!

Great question! It is obviously difficult to teach a lot in one hour and I am guessing that you will be hands on based on your suggested approach. I think that I would try and teach them something basic about the sport and try to incorporate it in a fun way. Try something like this, divide the group into two groups. Position on set of the children behind second base and the other behind homeplate. You can make it a relay race. Give each team a baseball. The player runs to the next base so from home the player runs to first, before getting there they have to yell the name of the base. Continue until complete. When you are done you may have taught them the names of the bases. I would then teach them the basic mechanice of throwing. I use a saying that when you throw its thumb to thigh hand to sky. Helps teach or enforce the windmill throwing action. The last thing that I would go over with them is fielding. Again I use a saying that goes, Elephant, alligator, belly button. The arm with the glove is the elephant the 'trunk' is on the ground ready for the ball, the throwing arm is alligator. As the ball is entering the elephant you trap it with the alligator then both hands raise together to the belly button. Hitting is very complex and I would think that one hour is already used up. If you do venture into hitting, a simple set up and swing motion would be enough. I hope this helps. and good luck