Since I’ve been coaching baseball for a number of years, I have some favorite ideas on coaching strategies that are time tested and work well. Try these tips with your team and see how they improve your team.
Coaches Competition
If you’re coaching a new team it help the players get faster to have the two coaches compete against each other.
We split the team into two–one at third and one at second. Both coaches have three balls each, and stand on the pitcher’s mound. The player at third gets a ground ball at third, throws it back, then goes to short stop and gets another, tags second and then throws to the coach. When they tag second the next player starts. The players on second get a ball at second and between first and second, tag first and throw back to the coach. The team to finish first gets to bat first. The coaches are of course competing, and the players seem to get a kick out of beating the other coach.
Power of Positive Feedback
I always try to encourage my team to think positive. For example, if they miss a ball, don’t look at it as a bad thing and beat themselves up over it, but rather accept that the ball was missed and look at why they missed it and how to improve it for next time after it is thrown to the right place. Also get them to visualize their desired outcome, e.g. hitting the baseball into the outfield, rather than thinking negative where they are not as confident and could be more likely to miss the ball or not hit a great hit.
Pitching Machine Advantages
We have started doing fly ball drills with our pitching machine. It gives you more control and versatility, and takes up only a small portion of the field which allows other coaches to work infield etc. with the other players while you work with some on those skills.