If you are involved in travel ball, tournament baseball, travel baseball especially for the ages 12 & under you may not be in the best situation to develop ballplayers. Listen to some methods and ideas that are starting to emerge around the country that can better develop baseball players. Small adjustments and tweaks and some imagination can help set up more players for success. Coachandplaybaseball.com

Is youth baseball travel ball the best platform to develop baseball players? Dave takes a deeper dive into the perils of travel baseball and tournament travel ball. The focus is mostly on the ages 12 and lower as we discuss the most damaging segment of travel baseball that entraps even the best of youth coach’s intentions. Coach and Play Baseball.com

Getting your season off on the right foot takes a little preparation and planning. Dave talks about some the main items to take care of as the season approaches. And don't forget the most important thing that cannot be skipped over...tune in to find out how to sell your kid's parents on your player develop systems. Coach and Play Baseball.com

Are you over-pitching your youth baseball pitchers? There is a good chance you are or you have seen other teams go too far with their pitchers. Dave spends some time going over the reasons why we see too much over-pitching of our youth ballplayers today. Get some background and insight to the right Smart Pitching guidelines and get a copy to all the ‘Big-People’ (parents and coaches) today.

One of the ‘5-Tools’ of baseball is labeled “Fielding”. Within the content of fielding is ball-handling. The transition from the time the ball hits the glove to the release of the throw. During this time the ball never really stops. It becomes one fluid motion from the catch to the release. Dave goes over some practice ideas and drills to help your baseball players master the vitally important art and skill of ball-handling.

Want to create a hitting environment on your teams just like professional baseball teams do it? Listen and take notice of the best ways to build a culture of hitting on your youth baseball teams. What is more fun than unleashing your aggressive hitters and dominating the offensive game by outhitting your opponents? Hitters will have a blast and really help your kids swing-it!

We like to help our kids by coaching them during ballgames. Sometimes this might backfire. Especially when kids are batting. Giving too much advice and scolding kids when they chase bad pitches can do some long-term damage to hitters. Listen to Dave and see if you might be over coaching or doing things the right way.

As a youth baseball coach, are you embarrassed to lose games? You are allowed to lose sometimes. In fact, it is healthy and necessary to lose some games. In order to properly develop the most players teams will likely lose a few more games. You are using more pitchers, catchers and shortstops with kids playing multiple positions. And hitters are going to swing the bat aggressively. All good things but raises the risk of losing. Losing is expected or you may be in the wrong league if you win all the time.

Everyone should know the ‘5’ Tools of baseball skills. This is the basis for player evaluation and physical value that players bring to their teams. The Major League teams use the ‘5’ Tools to grade their players and decide on which players to draft and what round. The ‘5’ Tool player can “do it all” as they say. One of our biggest jobs as baseball coaches is to provide plenty of opportunities for our players to build up their ‘5’ Tools. Once kids reach high school their ‘5’ Tool abilities will largely determine if they will be successful in high school baseball.

When we get youth baseball back on the field are things going to be different. What will youth baseball look like? Dave talks about some adjustments that might come out of youth baseball as we look to play ball again. Coach and Play Baseball.com