Baseball Coaching - How To Coach Baseball For Players 12 and Under

There is more to baseball coaching than just strategy and fundamentals. While these are important I am going to cover the aspects that I feel will help you become the best coach you can be.

Baseball Coaching Tip #1 - Patience

Without patience you're in for a very long season. Especially at this young age with skill levels being so drastic from player to player and hormones just starting to kick in (obviously depending on age) you will need to exercise extreme patience. Everything from patience of a kid not being able to do a drill correctly to a kid acting up. You usually don't know what is going on at their home. If it's a bad situation they are in, baseball practice may be their escape, even if they don't act like it sometimes. Remember, nobody said this was easy and you certainly aren't dealing with robots so be sure to be patient at all times...

Baseball Coaching Tip #2 - Self-Control

At times you will want to rip your hair out and may be so frustrated with a player, not necessarily how he is performing, but how is he acting that you'll want to thro whim off the team. Now this isn't politically correct, but you'd be kidding yourself if you thought this didn't happen in every youth league across the country. It's at these times where you'll have to be a leader to these young boys, which leads into my next tip...

Baseball Coaching Tip #3 - Leadership

These boys look up to you. How you act will help shape them now and in the future. Great baseball coaching is always done in a positive fashion. There is never a time to be negative, especially at this young age. Lead by example and be positive and supporting.

Baseball Coaching Tip #4 - Instill Self-Esteem

Most of the kids you will deal with won't be great athletes or baseball players. You'll be lucky to have 1 or 2 players who will even play in high school, let alone in the Major Leagues. But the self-esteem they learn from you will help them in every aspect of their life. Be positive, reinforce positives over and over again. This does not mean they shouldn't be properly coached and instructed, just don't focus on anything negative.

Baseball Coaching Tip #5 - Fundamentals

In most lists you would have found this at #1. Truth is it's just not important on the grand scheme of things as 1-4 on this list. Don't get me wrong, you should do your best to teach your kids the proper fundamentals of the game: hitting, throwing, catching and running. Don't worry about advanced techniques or any of that non-sense. That stuff will come down the line if they are still playing in high school or college. Focus on what will get them there, which is proper baseball fundamentals.

Baseball Coaching Tip #6 - Mental Aspect Of Baseball

This is very important in baseball coaching because, just like Yogi said "90 of the game is half mental". In other words - it's critical to success, not only in baseball but life. Great hitters fail 70% of the time. Great businessmen and women fail at an even higher rate, yet they get back up and keep trying. Dealing with failure is the secret in baseball and life that everyone's looking for. Be positive, provide some instruction to learn from mistakes and move forward.

Baseball Coaching Tip # 7 - Ability To Deal With Parents

This is a biggie, mostly to make your life easier. At the beginning of the season set ground rules for the parents. Things such as no yelling, not talking to kids during the game, not interrupting at practice, etc. Whatever you feel comfortable with. Set these ground rules early, both verbally and on paper and it will be clear to all if any rules are broken.

I commend you on your decision to join the baseball coaching ranks. Without you there is no high school, college and MLB baseball. You are the rock of America's pastime. Accept that responsibility with pride and our future generations are in good hands.

Jon Doyle, MA, CSCS is considered the world's foremost authority of effective baseball training having worked with tens of thousands of professional and amateur ball players. His baseball training website is the largest site in the world of it's kind. Be sure to check it out and sign up for his FREE Baseball Training Newsletter.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Baseball Coaching Digest - Why Baseball Players Are the Most Accountable Athletes in Sports

Baseball players are held to a higher level of accountability than any other athletes in the world. If you compare baseball, football and basketball to see which sport holds the player athlete more responsible for mistakes and errors, you will find that baseball holds players to a higher level of accountability. This article explains my perspective on why baseball players are the most accountable athletes in sports.

I am absolutely sure that baseball players are held at a higher level of accountability than other sports athletes. Why do I feel this way? Have you ever been to a football game and seen a player miss a tackle or block that cost his team dearly? Did the official score "flash" error on the football scoreboard? The answer is no. Have you ever watched a basketball player miss a wild open layup that hurt his team? Did the score keeper or score operator flash "error" on the scoreboard? The answer is no.

On the other hand, as baseball player can bobble a hard hit ground ball and the whole world will soon be notified and an official documentation of the mistake will be made in the scorebook. The scorekeeper will write a big "E" in the scorebook that makes the error officially known. Then the scoreboard operator will also turn on the "error" light on the scoreboard to let every player and spectator in the park know that an error was made.

That is the reason I feel that baseball players are the most accountable athletes in sports.

Maybe other sports consider adding an "Error" light on their scoreboard or writing a big "E" in their scorebook when a player makes a mistake. Then maybe the next time a player fails to execute on a football field or basketball court, they will know what it's like to be held publicly accountable and responsible like a baseball player.

I hope that you enjoyed this article. Thanks for taking the time to read it. Visit the Baseball coaching Digest, Youth Baseball Digest, Little League Digest and Baseball Parent Guide for more baseball articles. Good luck to you and your team, Nick.

The CoachesBest Baseball Store has a great selection of 1400 Baseball Products. Check out the BatAction Hitting Machine baseball pitching simulator. This high speed training machine is 100% Guaranteed to raise Batting Averages and has a full year warranty.

Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, a sports training company established in 1999. Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Coach Dixon is better known as the inventor of the BatAction Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Target Trainer, the SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and the SKLZ Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is also a contributing writer for BaseballCoachingDigest, the Youth Baseball Digest, the Baseball Parent Guide, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, and Blog4Coaches.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Independent Professional Baseball Players - Why They Play For Such Little Money

If you have attended an independent professional baseball game then you know that the level of play is equivalent to different levels of the regular "affiliated" Minor Leagues. What is not known by many fans, however, is how little money many of the independent baseball players make.

Unlike many other jobs across North America, independent baseball players do not have union. They can be released almost at any time, for almost any reason, and there is usually nothing in their contracts which guarantees any sort of payment after players retire. When told all about this, many fans say, "Why would these players do that?!?"

Here are a few of the reasons:

* Genuine love of the game: Many players in independent baseball believe that they have been overlooked by the Major League teams' scouting departments. They genuinely believe that they deserve a chance to be in an "affiliated" farm team with one of the Major League organizations; and they truly love playing baseball. Many fans whom have attended independent baseball games comment on the hustle and passion of the players. A player who believes that he was overlooked may play with a "chip on his shoulder" in order to prove that he belongs with a Major League-affiliated farm team.

* Need to be closer to home: Often, there are a few guys in each independent league who genuinely belong in a higher level of baseball. For whatever reason, however, they need to be closer to home with a less-grueling travel schedule. Sometimes players just started a family, others need to help out with a sick family member, and others need the support of friends and family in order to be comfortable with playing at the professional level.

* A desire to continue his career in baseball: Many players will play in an independent baseball league in order to gain credibility for his post-playing career. Certain players want to manage or coach in professional baseball, others want to coach at the college level, and others want to transition to the front office of a professional sports team after they retire.

* A need for camaraderie: If you have ever watched any documentary about "life in the minors" then you know that the players love playing baseball, enjoy crazy antics with their teammates, playing cards in the clubhouse, and the chance to develop lifelong friends especially on those long bus trips! If a player is good enough to be considered professional then many will take the opportunity to play in the independent leagues because he knows how competitive the demand is. Other players from around the continent are more than willing to take his spot, so he knows that he part of an elite level of baseball even though it is considered to be independent of the affiliated organizations.

* A chance to rebuild his career: Sometimes an extremely talented player ends up in an independent league due to an injury, salary cap move, o r simply due to "politics" in organized baseball. Such a player will play on an independent baseball team in order to prove to scouts that he is healthy, willing to go back at a more economical price, or simply that the other team which released him made a mistake. In a given year, dozens of players in independent baseball sign contracts with affiliated Minor League teams; and each year a few will get to play in the Major Leagues.

The next time you see an independent baseball game, or if you meet some independent baseball players around town, now you have a better understanding of why they do what they do regardless of the price at which they play. If you ever have said that you think pro athletes need to play with more passion and that they are overpaid, then be sure to attend an independent pro baseball game. You will be pleasantly surprised!

If you ever played or worked in independent baseball then you can relate to this article! Be sure to join the free Independent Baseball Alumni membership site.

If you are a player and want to get your name in front of independent baseball general managers and managers for tryout information then be sure to visit Independent Baseball Tryouts.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.