Mike,

You are doing all the right things, and I should have written earlier that I admire what you are doing...I wish more parents put the thought into what you are trying to accomplish as you do. It is a thankless task.

When I was 12 I played for probably the best coach/manager I would ever encounter.

This was in 1968 so the perspective may be interesting. He handed to each player a set of team rules at the start of the first practice. All sorts of stuff, including expectations of timeliness, behavior, words not to use, etc. There was also a parents section. The reasons for being asked to leave the team were spelled out, the inviolate line in the sand.

We had to sign it, as did our parents. It really set a tone, and he would refer to it as the inevitable circumstances arose.

I can picture my Mother's reaction if she ever got the "call" from a coach...she wouldn't question the coach, trust me.

Good luck!

Yeah - I wish I had the opportunity to set that tone earlier and in fact It's something I want to try to incorporate into the things I volunteer for moving forward. If things don't turn around I may attempt to inject this late. We actually already have a player code of conduct but we did not review it as a team. I think we should have. It was 'just sign it and give it back please' sort of thing.

I wasn't the coach at the very start - that guy go into it with his own son and ended up suspended for half the season. He's a good coach and I've heard a few versions of the story as I wasn't there (it was the first practice of the season!) but all of those versions end up with the same conclusion. Suspended.

I absolutely will start out my next season as coach (which now I plan to continue because it is a lot of fun) with this sort of thing.

Nothing says you can't have a team meeting and set new rules...invite the parents or have them attend via Skype.

Team Meeting
 

I have coached various sports since 1987. One of my jobs in law school was coaching rowing. Athletes and parents will take their cues from you and will never treat something as more important than you treat it.

Do not have a meeting by Skype. That allows the parents to treat it as not very important b/c they do not have to put much effort into attending. If it is important enough for you to volunteer your time and an athlete is causing problems it is important enough for the parents to show up in person.

The Skype option is for parents that have restraining orders or simply want to strangle their exes.....

Anyone who follows college football knows ALABAMA has been dominating the last few years. They also hold more football national championships than any other college team in history.

When I read your post, Mike, I couldn't help but think about how things are handled at Alabama when a player is not practicing the way he should be - whatever the issue may be.

The older veteran players do not let them get away with it.

It's a technique that uses the "peer pressure" concept to achieve a positive outcome.

I realize you are dealing with younger boys - but regardless, a sports team is a sports team and on all teams, there are veteran players who can and do have influence.

Not sure if this will help but thought I would share it. Alabama is the least penalized football team in it's conference. It's not just because of coaching....it's because the players have bought into a system.

Good luck!

I agree with this approach but not at this age.

We had a better practice today - the Dad's of most of the troublemakers were around and helping out. I always appreciate that. I also prepped them prior to starting our drills today with more explicit instructions on how to handle themselves.

Game time tomorrow! Last 'practice game' until we start the real deal.

I also found out something that really bummed me out. Apparently the teams are stacked pretty unevenly. I know most of the kids but I didn't really count how many good players on a team there were and I wasn't involved in the drawing at all. Plus, our team is the lowest 'ranked' group of players. I'm really disappointed in the league and based on looking at the rosters I can see it now. It bums me out that they would do that to the kids and I can't see a reason to do except to make the Dad coaches feel like they have a better shot at winning than the rest.

Our team manager told me this today as I was finishing up the practice so I responded - 'So you're telling me we're the bad news bears?'

He just laughed.

It also bums me out because one of our inner circle friends is a coach who we have had the last few years. If what I'm being told is true then I'm pretty sure that he didn't pick my son on purpose. My son isn't really that good in AA. He was OK in Single A against the pitching machine. Kid pitch freaks him out though. His fielding is a little rusty but he's getting back into the swing of it and he's really trying hard - harder than I have ever seen him try. We were really disappointed not to get on our regular team because we are close with that group of folks. I'm not sure what to make of it if anything but if my wife finds out she will have her feelings very hurt. We probably won't get as close with as many folks on this team but I really like these kids - on that other team I actually didn't like all the kids. This team though - there is only 1 kid I am really having a hard time liking and that's the angry one. Some of the other ones though are just downright fantastic kids with great attitudes and they show RESPECT for adults. I am so happy to tell those kids parents that they have GREAT kids and whatever they are doing they should keep doing it.

Baseball around here is really competitive - too competitive in my opinion. I'm all for wanting to win and I like seeing kids go after that ball and get it. But I really am bothered by stacking teams unevenly. It's kind of lame to do that to these kids. My hope is that the kids can rise to the challenge and if they can then I think they have a good shot and some of these kids really do have it in them. They may be the underdogs now but I think they can do it.

I believe that next year I will volunteer to be a coach from the get go and make sure that I am an advocate for fairness in drawing the teams.

Even with a draw, you will still get stacked teams. We draw for karts in my indoor kart racing, and you can have a guy draw all five of the top karts in one night out of six draws, and that sixth was still a good one...

For me, what you're going through is a tough issue. There are kids that really want to compete, and play the best baseball they can as a team, then there are those just looking for something to do, or wanting to hang out and have fun and play some ball. Its almost like you need some other league for the ones that want it "fair" rather than "competitive".

But just like in racing, when you come out with a new low cost budget class, there will be guys finding ways to spend a lot of money to get to the front, and you end up with a high budget class in a few years.

Youth Baseball is really competitive everywhere. Around here we have traveling teams for those tha want the competiition and thos that dont do not try out for them. 2 of my sons are on the u-8 and u-12 traveling teams for the first time this year so that will be interesting. I do not coach either of thse teams.

Our Req leagues are still competitive and I coach both of them for my sons the minors and Majors both kid pitch one kids pitch about 40MPH at best and the other 60mph. We had a parent meeting first practice for the majors and I spoke to them all about playing time and how to ensure playing time. It was all based on attitude, hustle, respect and lastly talent. I feel that you can make a good ball player out of an average kid that is respectifull and treats people well. versus the other way. I made all the parents sign a parent contract and the kids signed a player contract indicating the read the rules of the team and understand what could happen to playing time if they do not follow the rules. I noticed in practice this week one parent was coaching from outside the batting cage. I will be addressing that agian in this coming weeks practice to ensure it does not snowball. You just have to tell them how it is. I purposly talk quietly so the players have to listen and also seperate them from the parents hearing range so there are no distractions. Been coaching for 8 years now it works..

Best of luck

I thought about the teams more last night and I just don't think they are that stacked.

I think we have 6 teams and of the six, three do have some exceptional players but not an abundance of them. Heck, we even have some borderline exceptional ones.

So I think last night when I posted I was over reacting to what the team manager had said - I actually think he's kind of wrong.

The other three teams are a little more ordinary based on the average of the players but not to terribly. I think our manager may just be a little sensitive to some of the things that have gone on this season with loosing his buddy as coach and some lame stuff with regards to trying to get fair practice schedules laid out.

Anyway - I have got to stop taking this as seriously...

You're doing fine.

The coach I referenced in an early post was fanatical about preparing to win, in a good way.

He was the first coach that ever got me to think about baseball, not just be good at it (I played in college).

If we lost and tried our best, he was excellent. He embodied the opposite of the zero defect mentality: 11/12 year-old boys are going to make mistakes, the art of baseball is to learn from them, prepare for the next opportunity.

Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane. Make it fun, have them mentally ready to compete and make them better players.

Edit: Much to my chagrin, my son, who was an excellent player (I did not coach him) never took to baseball. He played two seasons, rocked the league (9/10) and then asked not to play: "Boring, too slow." I respected his wishes. It was a sad day in my Mudville. Enjoy what your are doing, Mike, I would.

I think the biggest part of team sports isn't about teaching kids to be winners. I think it is about teaching kids to be the best they can be, and still be a team player.

If you can teach them to be a team, then you have given them all a great gift. Obviously the gift is greater for those who have more need of it.

Pushups and laps are for behavior. Drills are for skills. But talks are for the head.

A TEAM can beat a bunch of all-star individuals any day of the week if they believe they can.
I've seen it happen and more than once.

work on team discipline. If one kid is acting up, they all take a lap. Tell them when they get back, that you don't care if they run all practice. Blame the kid acting up. Let his team mates know its his fault they are running a lap. They will get it and start to self discipline their team mates.

Mikester, I'd like to recommend a book called "When the Game Stands Tall". It's about the most successful high school football program in history. They amassed 151 consecutive wins over a decade, and this book chronicles how they achieved this feat over so many seasons, with all the turnover of players, while playing at the highest level of prep sports in the nation. Coaching is one of the noblest activities there is. The best ones realize the role they play in a child's development.

When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak: Neil Hayes, Bob Larson, John Madden, Tony La Russa: 9781583941300: Amazon.com: Books

I respect a good coach....still have fond memories of one of my hockey coaches as a kid. Really taught us some things about respect and team work, so for that reason, my hats off to you! I know I could not do it, I anger far to quickly and someone would get a real ear full and sent to the bench for the entire game! That being said, you will find those very personalities right here on this forum with grown men and women, sometimes you are not going to effect change. Sometimes it gets to a point where you are just going to manage the situation so as to let it least effect the other kids/families on the team. Good luck sir and once again thanks for offering your free time to coach! (the world needs more leaders)

Discipline
 

It is a bit Machiavellian, but I have found that the best way to get the attention of an athlete who is causing trouble on the team isn't to have the whole team run or do pushups or crunches, etc.

It is to have everyone BUT the troublemaker run, do pushups or crunches, etc. The troublemaker stands w/ the coach and watches his/her teammates while the teammates perform the "punishment". After the punishment is over, I give the team 30 seconds to tell the troublemaker how much they appreciated the opportunity to improve their conditioning. The combination of peer pressure, social interaction among the team and guilt tends to stop the bad behavior very quickly.

Disagree and here's why.

Teams need time to sort out their leaders and their pecking order for themselves. If you keep the kid out of the lap, the team won't have time to talk to him, chastise him, etc... They need to do this outside of the coaches ear. It's their team, they need to handle it.

This has worked for every team I have coached (10 years+), except one where the kid had legitimate (diagnosed) mental issues and ultimately left the team.

I want to agree with this approach and I think with older boys it does work. I have used it in Scouting many times but with younger boys - I don't believe they have the maturity to be given the power over other boys like that.

The two hyper kids would end up crying and wanting to quit. The Angry kid would end up in a fight and the older superstar would bully others or end up crying himself (which happened at yesterday's game when he didn't perform up to his dad's expectations - that was awesome).

Anyway - at this age the boys need to recognize one source of authority - the coaches. Then they need to be a team - I have had them run laps together but at a certain point if I have a single boy derailing practice I'm not going to punish the whole team for one person who doesn't want to be there that day. Honestly we're just a few weeks into it and we're all getting to know each other and I think things are on a good path.

Yesterday we played on of the teams considered slightly stacked. I know a few of the boys well on that team from Cub Scouts, fall ball and school activities. They are quite good and their fielding was very good. Our team brought it better than they have yet though and we actually beat them. Their coaches came up to me after the game and said 'Man, you guys are really good.' I was as surprised as anyone to be honest.

The Superstar was one of our worst performers overall but I honestly think that he was just off from some stuff at home. His parents were really drilling him hard prior to the game. His hitting was way off, he had 4 at bats and struck out 3 of them. He's usually good for at least a few triples and a homer per game. He pitched one inning and he actually did well but had a few moments where we thought he wasn't going to make it. He turned it around though, calmed himself and pulled out something like 6 strikes in a row to get us back to bat. I felt bad for him - he has really competitive parents and I'm wondering if I need to try to dial them back a bit. I'm watching the situation to see if that is the case.

The Angry kid and my son are almost always at odds. Honestly I think it's just that they are at practice at the end of the day for both of them, they are both a little younger on the team and they both have a little bit of a temper (understated). So, during pregame warm up when the other kids took the field and these two were on the bench I took them way out to the outfield to warm them up. I had them catching pop flies and fielding grounders back to me and made it a competition against me. If they caught it in the air it was an out, if they caught it on the first bounce and fielded it back to me before I got to the count of 5 then that was an out. If they missed or didn't make it by the count of 5 then I got the out. They had to beat me together and they did handily at something like 21 to 6. We ran back to the dugout for the start of the game sporting smiles and high fives. The angry one went on to hit his first two at bats and walk the other two. He is a little guy, he's been working really hard on his batting and he hit a triple into the outfield in the 2nd inning. He fielded a line drive from left field and made his short stop cut off to stop the runner at 2nd base in the 1st or 2nd inning. I think they are getting it... He got the game ball yesterday and walked away extremely happy.

We usually give out two game balls a game. The other went to one of the older boys who pitched a good inning and hit impressively with 4 at bats and 4 very good chunks of ball to the outfield.

All around a good game and the last 'practice game'.

Next week is the real thing and it's against a couple of my best buddies. We must beat them. SmileWavy

Yep. This bugged me and didn't realize why until I went back and read NS's comment.

You are coaching KIDS. This is what they do. Nobody needs counseling or ritalin or anything of the sort.

Also echo the sentiment that baseball practice can get away from you very fast if you're not keeping everyone busy. Split 'em up and run 'em through stations in a rotation.