1. The key to motivating players is to catch them doing something right. As much as possible, give praise publicly, and individual constructive criticism privately. Motivate by inspiration not intimidation. Constructive criticism is always about the behavior never about the person – do not make it personal.
2. Coaches ask their players to work hard to get better every day. In what ways are you learning, adapting, and changing to get better every day? Coaching for 20 years does not mean you have 20 years of experience; it may mean you have 1 year of experience 20 times.
3. Students learn in different ways. Which of the three learning modalities (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) applies best to the athlete you’re coaching and in what ways are you adapting your coaching methodology to be consistent with it?
4. The most important part of coaching is the relationship we have with our athletes. In what ways are you coaching the whole person, not just the athlete?
5. Coach process and execution, not results. Good process and execution will lead to good results. When coaching process-oriented thinking, remember that not all players are auditory learners. If you are yelling out to a kinesthetic learner, you better have some kinesthetic cues in the instructions, e.g., “land softly” to a pitcher.
6. When considering faults and fixes, always start from the ground up. Problems with mechanics in the upper body are frequently caused at least in part by problems in the lower body, e.g., pulling your front shoulder or your head when hitting is usually caused by the spinning open of the stride foot.
7. When coaching the fundamentals and mechanics, everything starts with posture, balance, footwork, angles, rhythm and timing. If these are wrong, what is done with the glove, bat, and ball are doomed from the beginning.
8. Start with “Dry Mechanics” – no ball, glove, bat, or movement and work on perfecting posture, balance, footwork & angles and only when those are perfected do you go to regular mechanics with the ball, bat & glove – start stationary and then add movement leading to game speed and game intensity through competition with significant consequences.
9. In games, always coach forward. Get the team to focus on this pitch, this moment. If you are yelling at players what they should have done, you should be yelling at yourself and your coaches for not teaching them properly. Coach backward between innings and at the next practice.
10. Let your players play. Stop calling pitches and micro-managing your players’ every step. Teach them well and let them learn to think and communicate the game amongst themselves.
2. Coaches ask their players to work hard to get better every day. In what ways are you learning, adapting, and changing to get better every day? Coaching for 20 years does not mean you have 20 years of experience; it may mean you have 1 year of experience 20 times.
3. Students learn in different ways. Which of the three learning modalities (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) applies best to the athlete you’re coaching and in what ways are you adapting your coaching methodology to be consistent with it?
4. The most important part of coaching is the relationship we have with our athletes. In what ways are you coaching the whole person, not just the athlete?
5. Coach process and execution, not results. Good process and execution will lead to good results. When coaching process-oriented thinking, remember that not all players are auditory learners. If you are yelling out to a kinesthetic learner, you better have some kinesthetic cues in the instructions, e.g., “land softly” to a pitcher.
6. When considering faults and fixes, always start from the ground up. Problems with mechanics in the upper body are frequently caused at least in part by problems in the lower body, e.g., pulling your front shoulder or your head when hitting is usually caused by the spinning open of the stride foot.
7. When coaching the fundamentals and mechanics, everything starts with posture, balance, footwork, angles, rhythm and timing. If these are wrong, what is done with the glove, bat, and ball are doomed from the beginning.
8. Start with “Dry Mechanics” – no ball, glove, bat, or movement and work on perfecting posture, balance, footwork & angles and only when those are perfected do you go to regular mechanics with the ball, bat & glove – start stationary and then add movement leading to game speed and game intensity through competition with significant consequences.
9. In games, always coach forward. Get the team to focus on this pitch, this moment. If you are yelling at players what they should have done, you should be yelling at yourself and your coaches for not teaching them properly. Coach backward between innings and at the next practice.
10. Let your players play. Stop calling pitches and micro-managing your players’ every step. Teach them well and let them learn to think and communicate the game amongst themselves.
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