Any other current/former LL coaches here? Oldest just moved up to 50/70 and youngest is doing his first season ever in Single A machine pitch. I was intimidated to actually manage a team this fall so elected just to coach (my second season). After seeing the caliber of managers (especially for the machine pitch), I almost feel obligated to run a team in the spring and look forward to the challenge.

Any good recommendations for folks to follow for general coaching advice/drills/etc?

Check out Dominate the Diamond. It's helpful if you're just getting started. It's pricey for what it is but they regularly have discount codes.

Dominate the Diamond looks pretty solid, just downloaded their app. I wish I had known about it before making the move to 50/70. Lead offs and open bases changes a lot of the strategy of the game.

Fortunately neither boy has been on a team where a parent just ruined things. For the most part, we have had decent coaches that care about player/skill development.

DallasAg 94 said:

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I would give them a pack of cards and ask them their favorite player. Most didn't have one, so I told them to talk to their parents and find one.

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This is great, definitely stealing this for next Spring.

I tell parents before the season starts that my number one goal is for their kid to want to sign up and play again next season.

my boy is playing fall coach pitch and his "manager" this year rotates all players defensively each inning. I love it. Sure mistakes are made by players that realistically shouldn't be there, but they are learning the game and getting opportunities they normally wouldn't get. Up until about 10 or 11 I think the kids needs to experience all positions. My biggest pet peeve at the young age is coaches ignoring the catching position. Dont do it. Especially when kids start pitching it's imperative that kids learn that position.

As a former college player and high school coach I wish I could be the manger of my son's team, but time just doesn't allow it. I also want him to experience what it is like taking direction from other adults besides me. Biggest thing is teach fundamentals and a love of the game. Kids get down on themselves to easy and baseball is a game of failures. The earlier they learn that the better.

AustinCountyAg said:

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my boy is playing fall coach pitch and his "manager" this year rotates all players defensively each inning. I love it. Sure mistakes are made by players that realistically shouldn't be there, but they are learning the game and getting opportunities they normally wouldn't get. Up until about 10 or 11 I think the kids needs to experience all positions.

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I love that this is happening still. My father coached my teams and went this route from T-ball to 4th grade or so in the local non serious suburban city league. Every year, the same horrible parents always moaned why their precious snowflake got benched for an inning or was moved from their favorite spot... starting in 1986. He even had a system where everyone had at least one at bat.

Bad parents can ruin the game.

Another thing to remember . . . baseball is really hard. It involves very specific coordination that you and I take for granted as adults playing catch, or hitting a moving ball. I've coached soccer, basketball, flag football, softball, and baseball. The situational aspect of baseball and softball are incredibly complex and requires instant decision-making by the kid.

I overcoached the hell out of my 2nd grade son in baseball, and I wasn't even his coach. He quit after that season and hasn't touched the game since.

Let them make mistakes, don't overcoach and overcorrect. Repetition is the key, and they will figure it out as they develop coordination over time. I wouldn't support letting everyone play every position . . . that spreads it too thin and the responsibilities are very different across the diamond, especially when you are backing up plays. But certainly rotate infield/outfield.

One of the reasons I flip LF/3B and RF/2B is that the kids are staying on the same side to reduce too many changes. I agree. Kids need "some" consistency.

I've loved coaching, as well, but some times I wish I could be just a dad. I've had teams with no parent help. In one case, either they didn't have active dad's or they were in prison. In another, the parents wanted to only coach their son, so I coached all of them, and then my son didn't get additional parent coaching like the other's. It is good to have another father talking to your son.

I coached a team of 1st graders at the Y. Nobody else would take more than 10 players, and I told the league guy I would take the extras. I had 13.

Most of my kids had never played. I had to teach them the bases. How to run. Most couldn't stop grounders.

1st game... I line my 13 guys in the field... and the other coach stopped me. "Hey, you can only have 10 on the field." I'm like seriously? Guess why nobody wanted the other 3.

So, I made an ass of myself (which I was fine doing). As I stood near 2B during play, like we were allowed to do. I started yelling to the other coach that I was going to call the Texas Rangers to come scout him as a future MLB coach. I lobbed a few more zingers.

His kids had played a few years together and were what you'd want rhem. The kids could make contact hitting and they could stop the balls on defense.

After their 3rd straight HR... he came over and said I could put the other 3 in the field. I told him it was ****ty of him and the others to not want additional kids. All in all he was probably a good teeball coach, but still irritates me.

I coached my kid's teams for several years growing up. Glad to hear you're doing it. It's well worth your time.
For me, I was always positive and optimistic with every kid. Forget the yelling, that's ridiculous.

Obviously, some kids have more skill than others. I tried to put them in a position where they could succeed. Like one kid could only throw slow meatballs over the middle of the plate. The other teams good batters would crush those. So we pitched him one inning when the bottom of the lineup of the other team was coming up. He was a successful pitcher for that one inning.

I remember one year we ended up with a kid who literally couldn't play catch. So I spent an entire practice One on one playing catch with him while the other coach ran practice for all the other boys. He improved throughout the season.

Things like that stick with you, and hopefully with the boys as well.

Some really good recommendations in here. I especially like the pre-season discussion on expectations with the kids and parents. Feel like that would nip a lot of things in the bud.

Crispin Torque said:

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Some good advice on this thread. A couple of things to add.

I have a parents meeting at the beginning of each season and let them know what to expect. Cover everything, scheduling and arrival, parent behavior, development philosophy, etc. Some will tune you out, but most will appreciate the transparency.

I would set a pretty consistent practice schedule that hits all areas and stick with it every week. My first season I changed practice up too much based on week to week issues. I think it worked against us in the long run and having a consistent routine has worked better since. The kids know what to expect and you get much more efficient over time.

Coaching baseball has been one of the most rewarding things I have done as a parent. Building a positive environment that fosters a lifelong love of the game for these kids will have a bigger impact than you can even know. Good luck!

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This is very good advice because you'll find that parents are usually the biggest challenge. I coached rec softball for several seasons and coached select for my daughter's team from 12U-18U. Before every season, before the first practice, I had a "mandatory" parent meeting to set expectations. Goals, schedule, playing time, all that stuff. But I also reminded them that I (and my asst coach) were volunteers (even at the select level). I'm paid nothing to do this. I told them they could come to me with issues, and I would listen and consider what they're saying, but I would never make any guarantees to make changes. If, at the end of the season, they didn't like the way I ran the team, there were many other options they could pursue (and probably pay much more for). I did lose a few players along the way but kept my core team of 8-9 players intact for many years.

I have been an assistant coach on my son's team every year but one due to work. Never the head coach, always an assistant.

He just turned 9 and is in his first year of kid pitch.

A few things that I have found important over the years:

The beginning of the year meeting with the kids and parents is crucial. It let's you set the tone of how you are going to run things and also lets the parents see a side of you that they may not see because they can't come to practices.

My son has never played select, just local rec ball. You need to remember that. I am as competitive as they come but my main goal is to develop the kids and get them to absolutely fall in love with baseball. When the kids are having fun, they typically play well as well.

Last year and this year we have really turned up the discipline aspect. I routinely make this kids run poles if they are playing too much grab ass, flipping hats, not paying attention, etc. Typically seeing one or two kids doing this gets everybody else in line. Also, they're all still young and dumb and think running is fun lol.

Like what DA94 said, we try to rotate the kids as much as we can. Not only to switch things up but also for their development. The only two positions that are fairly steady are Pitcher and Catcher but we opened up those positions to whoever wanted to play them and we only have 3-4 who have said that they want to play one or the other.

Our lineups are pretty set at this point in the season (we only have 3 games left plus the playoffs). Regardless if you were on the bench for that inning, we bat the entire lineup all the way through. The head coach figured out the best rhythm so that all of the hitters regardless of skill are pretty evenly spaced out so that we don't stall at the bottom of the lineup every time.

Lastly, and I push this really strongly. I let the boys know that this is their team. Not the coaches, not their parents. It is theirs and theirs alone. I get them to constantly talk each other up. If somebody struggles or makes an error then they need to go pick them up. If they do great then cheer them on. I tell them not to worry about the distractions in the stands like their family or friends. It is their game and they need to go out and play as hard as they can and have as much fun as they can.

All of that has worked out pretty well for me and my son and I hope to get to coach him as long as I possibly can. I know that I only get just a few more years left to do this.

100% agree with this. There is a fine line between being too serious and having too much fun. Knowing how to balance that is one of the most important aspects I have found.

For those with older kids, when did you find that they finally started to specialize in particular positions? On the 50/70 team, I feel like I can finally start to match kids skills with a position. Obviously this is more for kids with a few years experience. The really new ones don't know what they don't know yet.

Baseball is a very situational game. For example, teaching a whole team of 12 kids the right actions at SS and 2B would be really difficult with all the moving pieces. At what point do you eventually say hey, these are our 2-3 kids at this position that understand it and will play there 80% of the time?

DallasAg 94 said:

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1st game... I line my 13 guys in the field... and the other coach stopped me. "Hey, you can only have 10 on the field." I'm like seriously? Guess why nobody wanted the other 3.

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I am coaching my daughter's fall softball (rec) team this season, and crap like this has been the most aggravating. Some of the other coaches take things way too seriously and are too focused on winning. For example, arguing a call where my on deck hitter picked up an overthrow (lol). Yeah, technically the runner should be out, but it didn't affect the play. Send the runner back and play on, in my opinion as well as the umpire's, but the other team's coach really felt the need to get that out.

Also, pitching the same pitcher every single inning who absolutely overmatches my girls. Not sure who that's really helping in rec ball. Not the pitcher, as our girls can't touch her. Not their fielders either (no action), anyone else that wants to learn to pitch on their team, nor our batters.

But I guess it gets the win, so...good job?

I try to move my kids around and let them try out new positions they're interested in, and my focus is on learning the game and developing players. I made this clear to the team at the start of the season, but I like the idea of having a parents meeting to lay out my expectations and philosophy. Will definitely do that next season.

I have been helping over the past few seasons in which my son has been playing (10u and 12u) Little League). I have been torn whether or not to just coach, but I am a bit hyper sensitive to the perception of daddy ball likely from when I played and I honestly struggle to dumb down certain skills after coaching at the high school level in addition to the challenge that a lot of kids just have no motivation to be out there on their own accord.

A general rule I maintain is that I 100% believe you should coach Little League to develop players and winning is VERY secondary. It isn't completely pointless but it is not one of the primary goals. I would say the same thing for competitive travel and select ball too. Once we get into high school play, we can talk about winning and advantages you can gain to do so.

One small thing that dominates the Little League game at this age and skill level is a lack of really any team having overly skilled players who can play catcher. This means there are a lot of walks, passed balls, and frankly just cheap runs. If I were to coach, I would likely not be taking every single extra base due to the other players who have very little skill. As an example, it will be generally hard to coach and develop players on proper situational baserunning and hitting if all that happens is a walk and then 3 passed balls and a run scores (this really isn't baseball, even if it does happy at higher levels occasionally). At this younger age this hurts both the base runner and batter, and as many leagues have a mercy rule, it reduces the volume of at bats a team has in a game if that is what you choose to take advantage of.

Good coaches are super rare at any level, but I do tip my hat to those that are sacrificing their time and energy, even if it isn't how I would do it.

Loving and appreciating this thread although no time just yet to respond with thoughts.

But it gives me hope as I'm struggling through some things with our community, parents, coaches, etc.

(Coached my 4 kids a couple of decades ago)

"There's 3 positions on a baseball field: infield, outfield, and on the bench.

You will play all 3 each game during the regular season."

"However, during the post season tourney, we will play our best at their best positions."

I also started my batting order where it ended from the previous game so all the kids had equal number of AB's during the season

My kids were ready for the post season tourney and we won more often than not

The lineup consistency is what I'm not completely able to do. I coach 12u softball, and typically have 12 or 13 at each game. With 9 playing every inning, that's up to 4 on the bench. I'm not able to sit the same player twice before every one else has sit once, so I'm having to rotate them through a lot. 3 years ago, never thought I'd be head coaching my daughters team, but I've throughly enjoyed it.

I like watching Coach Ballgame's videos, and then I watch some things from Amanda Scarborough and Megan Remblatt for softball specific drills.