Coaches’ Corner

This entire episode is focused on the baseball statistics in youth baseball that can be used to teach players how to win and how to play the game right. Both team and individual hitting and pitching statistics are covered.

We focus on pitch selection - from a pitcher's perspective. Our guest is Matt Whiteside, former big leaguer with 17 years of professional baseball experience. Matt talks about the "on or out in 3" approach to pitching. This is a great interview for every youth coach and pitcher.

We focus the entire episode on pitch selection, from the hitter's perspective. Steve Hacker, former college baseball All-American and professional hitter with the Braves and Twins organizations, is our guest once again. This is a great interview, full of information that coaches can directly apply to help their hitters improve.

We discuss two great topics in this episode of Coaches Corner. First, we discuss coaching behavior during games. To be an effective coach, your behavior during needs to be consistent with your team mission and philosophy. A recipe for controlling your behavior is provided.

Second, we discuss how to use statistics to help you develop young baseball players. This is a controversial topic, because I recommend that you throw out the most common stats and develop an completely new language of statistics with your team. The shownotes of more details on this subject.

The listener feedback has caused me to re-think what is meant by “select baseball”.

We discuss what coaches and players need to do to have effective bullpen sessions - both practice bullpens and pre-game bullpens.

Matt Whiteside is our guest and provides another great interview, full of information for both coaches and players.

This episode focuses on batting practice. Steve Hacker, former All-American and professional hitter, is our guest. Steve gives us insights into effective and efficient BP sessions, from both the coach's and player's perspective.

We discuss Pitcher Fielding, which is worth 3 outs per game to your team. The approach to improve pitcher fielding focuses on fundamentals, repititions and mental toughness.

We also discuss how to develop well-rounded baseball players that will succeed at the next level. This is an important topic. Besides teaching fundamentals and developing skills, select level coaches can do more. Four additional development areas are discussed: athleticism, mental toughness, multi-dimensional skills and passion for the game.

Good defense is the hallmark of well coached baseball teams. In this episode, we discuss how to prepare you infielders and outfielders during your preseason practices. The two messages are: 1) Emphasize proper footwork and 2) Lots of high quality reps.

Also, a lot of coaches are facing roster decisions as part of the preseason program. We provide some tips and advice on how to assess players and make decisions. For physical skills, you need to measure, don't rely on reputation and heresay. Mental skills are just as important, so be sure to have a system in place to assess mental skills.

Finally, John Wooden's book "The Essential John Wooden" is reviewed and highly recommended for all coaches.

Coaches' Corner episode 10 is another special edition. The entire episode is dedicated to positive coaching. We have an extended interview with Brendan Sullivan, co-founder of Headfirst Baseball. In the interview, we discuss the foundations of positive coaching and the challenges of being a double goal coach.