USA Baseball just released a report on the status and groundwork for developing youth baseball players. The report lacks for any real detailed plans, but it does touch on some very pertinent aspects of player development that you should hear about. Listen in to Dave’s breakdown of the report and see where this leads down the road. Reach us at coachandplaybaseball.com

What aspect of playing baseball will give players the most enjoyment? I think that ‘squaring up’ and smacking the ball perfectly on the barrel and having the ball ‘jump’ off the bat is quite rewarding. This is where the “fun-level” meter goes way higher. This is what brings kids back year after year—being able to hit. Learn how to use PRO hitting terms to help foster a hitting environment on your ballclubs.

Baseball knowledge and experience is nice to have as a youth baseball coach. Knowing the in’s and out’s, the x’s and o’s, the techniques of the game and all the technical strategies is a valuable asset to coaching success. But, maybe more important in leaving a positive foot print on kids are some of the character growth potential we have. Here is one of Dave’s coaches in his own words on how he envisions impacting his players over the season.

https://www.coachandplaybaseball.com

One of my baseball coaching student disciples was kind enough to share a letter to his team’s parent with me. Dave goes through the letter with his commentary with examples of best methods and philosophy to help develop your youth ballplayers. Your coaching success increases when you have a strong philosophical foundation to build from and communicate to the players and parents. visit us at www.coachandplaybaseball.com

This podcast episode we go into some of physical areas of the game to focus our player development on. In order to sustain themselves in baseball until high school age players have to excel in various skills to be able to make the high school teams. Here we go into these areas and let players, parents and coaches know exactly what areas to focus on that will give us the edge we need to be successful on the ballfield. Coach and Play Baseball.com

Are we as coaches getting the most out of the field time we have? Are we providing enough baseball plays for our kids to develop? Are we allowing opportunities for our players to really learn the game? Try this accelerated format out in your practices and see kids build the freedom and confidence to play the game at higher levels someday. And have a blast at the same time.

Coach and Play Baseball.com

It is very satisfying to win games. Winning the battles is nice for immediate gratification, but we may be missing the big picture. From age 5-14 years old we want to try to win the war.

That is winning the player development war which takes several years to make happen. Our focus changes drastically when we approach youth baseball with the long view always smack dab in front of our minds. coachandplaybaseball.com

Dave does a review of the famous “Matheny Manifesto” written by former MLB player and now manager Mike Matheny. Mike jumped into his own kid’s youth baseball world after he retired from baseball. The “Manifesto” went viral and is now mandatory reading for all adults in youth baseball. Dave dissects part of the highlights and elaborates on why this is such a lifeline to helping parents and coaches look at youth baseball from ‘player development’ eyes. https://www.coachandplaybaseball.com/