Coaches, are you making these youth baseball coaching mistakes? Let's be completely honest...
You're not gonna be the next Joe Torre, Bobby Cox or Tommy Lasorda coaching your 12U travel ball team.
More importantly, Vanderbilt University isn't going to ask your players what their batting average is this year,
We need to back off.
On the other hand, I know we need to hold our kids accountable.
Youth Baseball Coaching Mistakes #1
The questions is, how do we achieve that perfect balance of motivating them, building them up but also showing them clearly where their weaknesses are?
Well - we have to be stern and honest with our youth ballplayers...
...but if you're a coach and you yell at a 12-year-old or under, you're not coaching them you're humiliating them in front of their peers. I've said this many times.
Build them up, break them down, build them up again.
When it comes to common youth baseball coaching mistakes, here's what I see.
- Making it about winning instead of development.
- Becoming "Johnny Testosterone" coach.
- Becoming "Fair-Weather, what have you done for me lately" coach.
- Embarrassing their players in front of their teammates.
Good youth baseball coaching is building players up so that they play this game with calmness, toughness and focus with a goal to help their team win.
Bad youth baseball coaching is teaching players that stats are the only thing that matters which leads to tension, pressure, and anxiety.
When you praise them, praise them in front of their teammates.
When you get on em, bring them to the side of the dugout or clubhouse.
Parents, this goes for you too.
There's nothing worse than a browbeat in the car on the way home from the game after going 0-4.
Youth Baseball Coaching Mistakes #2
I promise you, USC is not panicking if your son goes 0-12.
Baseball is the biggest self-esteem destroying sport on the planet...
...so use the drive home as a way to remind them the most important things.
"You love them and you love watching them play"
That's the best thing you could ever tell your player. Period.
Use baseball as a tool to develop responsible adults. As coaches and as parents, we are our players #1 fan and mentor.
If this is making sense, please take a few minutes to watch this video on youth baseball coaching principles.
Baseball is the BIGGEST self-esteem destroying sport on the planet.
As parents or coaches, when we berate, yell and chastise our players for underperforming or underachieving on the field, it's like throwing mental daggers at them.
Parents, I know you want what's best for your kids.
Coaches, I HOPE you want what's best for your players and that you're not letting wins and stats get in the way of what's most important.
With that being said, we can all lose our way sometimes which is why it's important that baseball parents and coaches have a way to train to become better at what they do as well.
If you want to get to hitting with confidence FASTER, join over 3,000 hitters who are training their mental side of hitting, bat-speed and hitting I.Q. in the >>> QAB Academy
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