Coaching youth players can be a very gratifying experience on a personal level when you understand the dynamics of being a leader and a coach. There are many responsibilities with being a manager or coach for any youth little league baseball teams that you may never realize until you wear the coaches hat. You can become a huge difference maker in your players eyes if you choose or you can become a nightmare. You need to make a decision before you take on coaching a team which side of the fence you want to be.

Almost all coaches in the little league youth program are volunteer parents that want to help out because they want to coach their children on the team. I commend all coaches that volunteer endless hours for months that help out. I always try to become the head coach of a team, not because of my ego, but because I can implement my program and set the tone for the team. This starts at the top. I have a military background so I understand how to lead and more important how to follow. If you become a manager of your team, choose your coaches wisely and set expectations on your coaches before you begin your season. Explain to your coaches that their behavior will reflect on you and your team. This can be a great thing if they are great coaches but on the other hand can be bad if they do not use it to their advantage. So keep your coaches by having a meeting prior to the team getting together and explain to all your coaches to be positive. Explain to your coaches that no one likes to be beat down with yelling and degrading comments. Throw out positive comments consistently to all your players. Do not put your star players on a pedestal.

I once had a star catcher that I taught how to catch for 3 years that came up to me at the end of the game and said, coach I only had 1 passed ball during the game. I immediately told him, not good enough. Was I wrong for saying that? Of course not. All my players know that I expect perfection. Am I ever going to get it? Probably not and highly unlikely in youth leagues. If any of my other players came up to me and said that, I would have been telling them great job! You need to challenge your star players for perfection. Too many coaches put their star players on pedestals and forget little Tommy in left field. Little Tommy may just throw the ball in quickly to the infield quickly and I will throw out a great job to him. Try to treat all players with dignity and respect. All players want it and you will be remembered by kids later in life. Most kids will remember their coaches better, good or bad, than their school teachers later on in life.

Always have a meeting with all your parents prior to the team getting together. Set the tone with parents. Get them excited and show some excitement. I always go over the minimum play rule with all the parents. This will save you a lot of headaches. Do I personally stick with this game in and game out? No but I always keep my options open as a manager. I always try to double it up for everyone. You can have parents become fans of you if you do it the right way. Be upfront with parents and your expectations of them. I never punish kids for being late to practice. I bug the parents about it if its a problem. They are the ones that drive the kids. I never punish a kid for not showing up for practice as long as I get a phone call or I have been told.

Now you have a team in place, now what? Set the tone. My motto is I am going to have more fun than the children out there. Kids in the youth league are very respectful and impressionable prior to puberty. They are excited, enjoyable and want to succeed. I have never ever had a kid on my team in 10 years fail and hit the ball during a game. Why? Because I spend time with all my kids on my team. I never have to spend much time with my star players. I spend most of my time with the lower end of my players. This is where championships are won. Little Tommy who no one expects to hit the ball always comes thru when you least expect it. Every team in the league usually has star players that counter act each other. I basically have my scrub players so to speak outplay the other teams scrub players. This is the best advice I can give if you want to contend for championships.

One of the worst things I see is coaches over coaching. I will never coach my kids swing, throwing motion or technique during a game. I only coach fundamentals during practice. I coach until I am blue in the face during practice. I am very critical about every little thing my team or players do during practice. I make them swing the bat with their legs, make them pitch with their legs, make them field balls properly all the while sounding like a broken record and being critical with them. This is at the same time throwing out positive notes of encouragements to good deeds. During games, I am just a positive role model. Never correcting, never coaching fundamentals. I never yell at my players when they make errors or make bad throws during games. I let them react. I want kids to strive to be perfect without putting pressure on them. I just manage the game with substitutions and find mismatches to my advantage. You will find that if you are on your game and your kids follow your lead, you will steal more games that no one expects you to win. I have done this year in and year out. I once started a season 0-8 and ended up 11-11 at the end with the youngest team in the league. Our team was the only team to beat the league champions, twice that year, their only 2 losses. Why? Because when you focus on being perfect, the wins fall into place.

Never stress winning, stress perfection. In baseball, you can play perfect and still lose the game. If you keep the perfection mantra, you will win more than you lose. This is just a little that I do as a whole. Always be positive and always stress perfection. Treat kids like you want to be treated and good things will happen for your team. Never put your star players on a pedestal, talk about the little Johnie's out there trying his best also. The greatest gift I received recently was a kid I coached about 8 years ago told my kid "your dad was a great coach, I really liked your dad". That my friends is what coaching is all about. Influencing young lives respectfully!