Coaching Made Easier

Correcting vs Humiliating

With any human characteristic, there is a range – in coaching you find various styles in dealing with the players.  There’s the “old-school” gruff, yelling type at one end of the spectrum and the politically correct, “everyone is doing great and we don’t need to grade kids” at the other end.

I tried to stay comfortably in the middle:  correcting when necessary and praising when deserved.  If at all possible I tried to correct privately (unless the entire team screwed up) and praise publicly.  In my observation of fellow coaches it always seemed to me that the abrasive, in-your-face coach may have gotten the corrected action he desired but it was obvious that his teams did not seem to be enjoying the experience.

Depending on their age, players can be emotionally fragile.  When I pulled players aside and discussed their error or mistake eye to eye in a civil tone they were less likely to get upset and they took my instruction to heart.  As I said – I tended to ride the middle ground but my voice needed to be raised from time to time depending upon how often I had to tell the player the same thing.  When you use a raised voice all the time it becomes the little boy who cried wolf and doesn’t get any different.

No one appreciates public humiliation and it is a sure way to get parents on your back.  That aside, it’s not good for team morale and it creates an atmosphere of fear and defensiveness.  Fun should be the name of the game.  That, along with your obligation to teach the game, requires a blend of good coach/bad coach.  Just make sure that the good coach is in public and the bad (correcting) coach is in private.

Mike Huckabee the Catcher

  I’m going to digress a bit from my normal blogs about coaching and share a true life experience that I hear of over the weekend.  It’s about little league baseball, so bear with me on this.  One of the companies that my consulting firm is working with is called Christian Values Network (www.cvn.org) – it’s an affinity marketing portal that provides funds to churches and Christian non-profits.  CVN just signed Mike Huckabee as a spokesperson and I had the privilege and the honor of spending some time with Governor Huckabee over this past weekend.

I was also able to hear him speak several times in various venues:  from a small country church to a convocation with over 10,000 college students attending.  His messages were all different and relevant to each of his audiences.  In the sermon at the rural church, the former Baptist pastor preached a lesson on Roman’s 8:25 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. “  One of the illustrations that he used was regarding his little league baseball playing days – finally Rod, a connection to baseball – thanks for hanging with me.  Mike was playing catcher and did not follow the cardinal rule of catching; i.e., keeping his ungloved hand behind the glove and a foul tip broke his finger.  He was eleven and his baseball playing days were over for that summer.  Here’s where the “all things work together for good” part comes in.  After his injury his coach asked if he would be interested in going into the press box to announce the players as they came to bat.  He did and he was quite good at it. 

This all took place in Hope, Arkansas – the town was so small that the local radio station actually broadcast the little league games each Saturday.  One of the announcers of KXAR 149 heard Mike announcing the players and was impressed with his voice and skills and invited him to come to the station when he was old enough to get his FCC license.  He started to hang around the station when he was 13 and at 14 he got his license.  He started working at the station - a broken finger was what launched Mike Huckabee’s career in broadcasting – he now has 3 ABC radio shows and a weekly show on Fox News, “Huckabee” 8PM Eastern on Saturday and Sunday nights.  You never know what God might have in store for you when it comes to misfortunes……

All things work for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Little Eyes Are Watching

  Coaching young people brings with it much responsibility.  You owe it to the parents of your players but more importantly to your players that you will “walk-the-walk” and not just “talk-the-talk”.  Here’s what I mean by that, most coaches encourage the parents to be good sports and remember that the umpires will often by young and somewhat inexperienced – this varies with the age of your players but in general the umpires are prone to making bad calls.  If you tell the parents to have patience and lose your cool when bad calls are made – what message does this send to your team?

All those little eyes on your team are watching the coach and they will take their lead from your actions.  Keep your cool and, if you feel that a call is worth discussing, do so in a calm manner.  Depending upon the impact to the game, you may want to just call the ump aside between innings and discuss it with him.

It is important that your team sees you as in command of all situations – when you lose your temper it sends a clear message to the players.  I had a parent of one of players recently tell me over a cup of coffee that I was able to get their son to respond better than any coach or teacher that their son ever had.  He told me that he and his wife were discussing this when they were trying to get their son to respond to something they wanted him to do.  His wife asked him the question – how would coach Rod handle this?  She told him that she never saw me get upset and I always handled situations in a calm cool manner.  She attributed that approach to getting the best response from their son.

I have always been a “get more with honey” than vinegar type coach.  Encourage, build up, correct quietly, don’t embarrass your players and ALWAYS be an example that they can all (parents included) can look up to.

Coaching the Mental Game

We have all heard that “winning is 90% mental and 10% physical” or as Yogi Berra once said “Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical”.  No matter how you do the math - how players think about themselves plays a big part in how they perform. As you coach your players, never forget this aspect of the game and constantly think of ways to improve your players and your entire team’s attitude.

There are some subtle things that you can do to instill a winning attitude.  Since your opponents will be watching you go through your pre-game warm-ups, the way your team handles themselves will say something to the team you are about to take on in the field.  That said, instill in your teams to warm-up deliberately.  This applies to every aspect of your prep.  During your arm loosening time have your team line up with half of them standing on the 1^st or 3^rd base lines with their partner in right or left field.  They will tend to spread out but keep them within 10-15 feet of each other so they are playing catch and not throw the ball and chase it.

During the stretching – make sure all the players participate and it looks organized.  After your warm-ups have them all “take a knee” for the pre-game meeting with all eyes on you or your assistant as you run down the line-up and positions.  Following your team prayer have them break it down – hands in the middle “Birds” (or whatever your team mascot or word is) on 3, 1-2-3 “BIRDS!!!"  Have them yell loud so the other team and their fans can tell that your team means business.

Hustle is imperative.  Always make sure that your team hustles in everything they do.  We had a rule that only the pitcher is allowed to walk on or off the field – everyone else runs.  Even on base on balls, our players were coached to run down to first base.  This action sometimes catches the opposing catcher off guard and he gets excited and rifles the ball back to the pitcher or even down to first.  An overthrow often finds your BB turn into your player reaching 2^nd base.  Even if this doesn’t happen the other team knows that your guys are serious about the game.

Other subtle things that contribute to a winning attitude is to have your players always looking like ball players; i.e. shirttails tucked in, cap on straight, proper colored socks, etc.  These things may seem simple and unimportant but when you wrap it all up in your team’s attitude it all contributes to putting a W in the scorebook.  Your players may grumble a bit about your emphasis on these things but as they begin to see the results they will understand how all of this comes together for the betterment of their team.