Coaches’ Corner

Episode 9 of the Coaches' Corner is a special edition. We dedicate the entire podcast to one topic - select baseball and academics.

Brendan Sullivan, a former pro pitcher and co-founder of Headfirst Baseball, provides his perspective on the importance of academics and the unique link between baseball and academic performance.

In this episode, we discuss how to plan and run practices that are focused on developing fundamental baseball skills. Our guest is Bob Byrd, long time youth baseball coach in Florida and co-founder of Baseball Excellence.com, one of the great internet resources for select baseball coaches. The interview with Bob is full of great information and advice.

We also discuss how coaches should help players set individual goals for the upcoming season. Guidelines for effective goal-setting and a process for setting individual goals are reviewed.

Finally, a book titled "The Mental Game of Baseball", by Harvey Dorfman and Karl Kuehl is reviewed. This book should be on the shelf of every serious high school baseball player.

We discuss preseason work for catchers with Ben Margalski, one of the leading catching instructors in St. Louis. Great advice for how coaches can help 12-16u catchers prepare for the season and improve at this important position.

We also discuss setting team goals. Team goals allow you, as a coach, to define how success will be measured for your team. As a coach, you need to take control of your own success. Guidelines and a process for setting team goals are provided.

Finally, some free internet materials from Baseball-Excellence.com are discussed and recommended.

In Episode 6 of the Coaches' Corner, we discuss how to plan and run an indoor practice session. We also discuss how to set behavior expectations on your team.

In Episode #5 of the Coaches Corner we discuss an offseason arm strength and conditioning program with Matt Whiteside. We also discuss what it means to be a part of a team and review the actions a coach can take to teach players how to be strong member of a team.

In Episode #4 of Coaches Corner, we continue our discussion on offseason and preseason activities. We discuss the priorities of an offseason pitching program with Matt Whiteside, an 18 year veteran of professional baseball. Then, we discuss how to develop a tournament schedule for you upcoming season.

In this episode, we focus on two topics:

1. Priorities for a offseason hitting program. We have a great interview with Steve Hacker, former All-American at Missouri State and one of the leading hitting instructors in the Midwest.

2. Developing a team mission statement.

In a addition, a book called Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx is recommended.

We cover three key topics in this episode:

1. Definition of “select” baseball

2. Strength and strength training for select baseball players. We interview Meade Smith, Director of Athlete Training at Velocity Sports Performance.

3. Planning for the first parent meeting

We cover three key topics in this episode:

1. Background on the Coaches’ Corner podcast

2. Planning your offseason baseball program. We interview Aaron Jaworoski, co-founder of Balls-n-Strikes and a leader in instruction and training for youth baseball.

3. Developing a communication plan for your team

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