The Youth Athlete has many responsibilities and duties as they participate in their sport. They have responsibilities to themselves and their parents, their teammates, their coaches, their opponents, and the referees.

In order for an athlete to enjoy the positive benefits of participating in youth sports, their responsibilities must first be clearly defined and understood. These responsibilities should be communicated from the coach to the athletes and their parents before the season gets under way. When their responsibilities are clearly defined, the youth athlete is much more willing to accept and carry these out throughout the season.

An enjoyable experience in youth sports is one that places many demands on the youth athlete while at the same time providing them with many positive benefits. These demands can only be met and these benefits can only be realized when the athlete is taught to be a responsible part of their team.

As they participate in sports, the youth athlete should put a tremendous amount of effort into following the ten responsibilities listed below. By doing this, they are putting themselves, their teammates and their coaches in a much better position to enjoy their youth sports experience.

1. The youth athlete should always treat their teammates and opponents with respect and dignity.

2. The youth athlete should obey all team and league rules at all times.

3. The youth athlete should give their full attention when they are being instructed on skills, drills and techniques.

4. The youth athlete should always participate in practices and games with a clear mind.

5. The youth athlete should immediately report any injury to their coach for further medical evaluation.

6. The youth athlete should always discourage their teammates and opponents from breaking the rules.

7. The youth athlete should play under emotional control during practices and games.

8. The youth athlete should avoid acting aggressively or in a self-destructing manner.

9. The youth athlete should compliment their teammates and opponents on their good performances.

10. The youth athlete should return to playing after an injury is completely treated and healed.

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Tags: childrens athletics, childrens sports, youth athlete, youth athletics, youth sportschildrens athletics, childrens sports, youth athlete, youth athletics, youth sports

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If it’s so easy to coach youth baseball and do it well, why do you see so many poor coaches? In my years as a player and as a coach, I can tell you that my opinion of poor coaching can be simply boiled down to: A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE AND A LACK OF PREPARATION! Simply stated… NO Game Plan! The great news is…both can be taught and both can be learned! And please don’t say that you don’t have the time. You do!

Here’s the math over a typical 15 week season:
10 practices of 90 minutes = 15 hours
20 games (includes exhibitions, etc.) = 40 hours
Misc. phone calls of 2 hours a week = 30 hours
Plus meetings, evaluation & draft, rainouts, team pictures, personal
instruction, travel time, etc. Lets say that = 65 hours

Plus, who knows what I haven’t added in, and the money you spend just doing these activities! You’ve just spent 150 hours… 10 hours per week (plus cash) on a hobby, community service, enjoying baseball, mentoring kids, or whatever your motive is for being a coach.

Get a plan…save your sanity… NOW! It will flat out save you time, not cost you time. It will reflect positively on your kids and your team’s play, and as a byproduct, coaches, parents and players will see a better coach who is having a better time!

So… What does it take?

1. Interest in becoming a better coach.

2. A PLAYBOOK. A simple 3-ring binder where you can write out your practice plans on lined paper. If you write in it the night before each practice or game, you will be dedicating about 25 minutes each week (based on 2 practices/games). You will begin remembering to do it as soon as practice sessions start because you will be bringing it with you and referring to it at each practice.

Hints for your Playbook

Include all the correspondence, notes, and forms from your league or school that you find yourself collecting and passing out to your players. Keep that stuff in your new “playbook.” It will easily become a habit and a central spot to refer to regularly.

Use a pencil and simply make it legible. Don’t make a big deal out of this, just get it done!

Beginning in practice #2, you should always spend 10-15 minutes reviewing any new concept you might have introduced in practice #1 or the previous practice. It is a common fault (not to mention a complete waste of time) to teach your team a concept and assume that players will perform when the time comes in a game situation just because you taught it once. And it just kills player confidence after the play because he knew he’d been taught. But obviously, not well enough. Your error, coach!
So … What’s in the binder?

The practice session number

The date, time and field of the practice.

Goal of the particular practice (keep it simple).

Each activity or drill. Note whether a review or new concept.

Time allowed for the activity or drill. NEVER OVER 20 MINUTES! If you’ll simply wear a watch, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish and how much fun your kids have, not to mention how much more baseball your team will learn. Keep ‘em moving: No drills over 20 minutes!!

Anything else that will help you, such as: which coach runs which drill, which pitchers and catchers throw together, reminders of when the next game or practice is. Just make it legible and don’t allow this to take up too much time. This isn’t supposed to be work, it’s an activity to keep coaching from becoming work! ENJOY YOURSELF!

Coach JP’s Note

Want to know the easiest way to teach and learn winning, fundamental baseball? Check out our newest videos aimed at younger ballplayers. Why do we suggest videos? Quality repetitions!! Learn at your own pace and on your own time. A remote control lets you slow it, repeat it, absorb it and understand it…year after year. Trust yourself to learn. If you are a dad or are coaching a team, you are your kid’s best chance of learning about the game. Camps, clinics and lessons can be great, but you are there to teach and reinforce through quality repetitions. Every day…every week…all season long! You can help! It is your responsibility to get better and learn more! You want it for your kids so you should ask it of yourself! Videos will give you a chance to help your kids quickly…and for a reasonable cost. Start a library now and watch your knowledge grow and your teams improve while everyone has a lot more FUN along the way!

Tags: AABC, ASA, baseball, coaching, little league, softball, youth sportsAABC, ASA, baseball, coaching, little league, softball, youth sports

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Ok so you have been on a few softball or soccer teams where there is one good kid who plays much better then all the rest. Most of the games he/she carries the team and it is expected that he/she will raise to any occasion if needed. How do you deal with this as a coach? What is the reason for the team? To win right? That should be simple then. Play the good kid all the time. Wrong and here is why.

We will take a not so big step from youth sports to military training. What do they have in common? Just about everything. Lets take a look at it more closely. They both have individuals of different abilities when they start. They have one goal. Many ways to achieve it. Rules to play (or fight as it were) within. They have to hang together to be effective. And they have to like one another.

There are two aspects to a team. First its physical aspect. How fast it is. How strong and so on. Then we have the mental aspect. How well it can think. React. Keep it together. Deal with stress. You can train the first all you want but without the second you will have no chance at all to succeed. Why is this? Because we are only as good as we think we are. Allow me to illustrate with a story about children and flees. In South America children would put flees into a jar and place the lid back on. Once the flee started to jump it would bump into the lid of the jar. After only a few minutes the flee would stop jumping as high and just jump low enough to avoid the lid. At this point the flee was let out of the jar, but would never again jump higher then the lit had allowed. We are no different, we too react to limitations. We will not keep running into a locked door or try to walk on water. We learn very quickly from observation. it has long been thought that the military will break you down so they can build you up to be a robot that follows orders. That is a load of stuff for sure. Nobody is broken down ever. A broken soldier is worth nothing. A soldier who stops thinking he is better then the guy next to him, is. When you should a group of people they can do something they did not think they could, they bold through the positive experience. Don’t get me wrong, they bond through negative too, but that is for another article.

The power of positive. So let’s say we have to show some year olds how to be a better soccer team. Would it be better to tell them what they did wrong or to tell them what they did right? Yeah, you got it. Stick with the positive here. So in order to get them on the right track, break down the task at hand and feed them a part at a time. In the example we are trying to show them how to pass the ball more effectively. What is involved in this? Well we have the ability to understand where to shoot the ball in the first place. To the open stop or right to the player. That would depend on some guide lines so take the simpler, pass the player. Next we have the act of kicking the ball straight and hard enough. Then we have the act of receiving the ball without it bouncing off our foot and away from us.

Don’t line up the group and ask them to pass one another. Why? Because you will have some kids who will ave played at home and can already do it and some that cannot. All you do is divide the team into the “can” and “cannot” groups. Fear that state, fear it with your life. Instead what you do is say, “We are going to play a new game”. Make up some game that is allowing the players to perform the action you want to practice, but without the negative of “why do I have to, I already know how to shoot”. This is not the time for individuals, this is the time for team. Now have all the kids do the game, make it simple enough so that they all can do it, but at the same time hard enough so that it actually helps them. Once you ave mastered this, move on to some other exercise that build upon the first. Again, keeping a keep eye out for making the whole team arrive at the goal together. All or none. Must be together.

What you will have in the end of this is a team that thinks well of each other. Where gifted player had respect for the not so gifted player because they both can do what is required. The team also needs to learn that they only get to the end by arriving together. If you have any reservations about this, just remember that if it is good enough for the special forces around the world, it is good enough for you. They train as a team, they live as a team and they win as a team.

Now go and build your team.

Tags: kids sports, youth leagues, youth sportskids sports, youth leagues, youth sports

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