The way we teach vs. The way they learn

How many times have you spent what seems like forever meticulously introducing, going over, or reviewing a topic only to turn it over to your athletes and they are unable to execute what you just taught them?  Frustrating isn’t it?

Another scenario we have all seen is, we introduce a technique or tactic and they “master” it during a drill in practice.  We get to our next game, the exact scenario we just covered arises and they fail to execute.  At this point we assume it is the players fault since we “taught” it to them.  Right?  Wrong!  It doesn’t matter what we teach our athletes, it only matters what the athletes learn.  If an athlete gave an honest effort during practice and did not learn what we taught them, then we need to take a closer look at our methods.

Rome was not built in a day

Sometimes what we teach the athletes is sticking, but we get impatient because they cannot immediately transfer what they did in practice to competition.  When put in situations of stress (competition) athletes will revert to what is natural and what is most comfortable.  It takes time (and correct reps) for new techniques to take hold.  Be patient!

Appeal to a wide variety of learners

A good teacher in the classroom will carefully craft their lessons to meet the needs of auditory, visual, and tactile learners. Teaching by having athletes explore a skill, then answer questions about what they did is a good way to incorporate tactile and auditory learners.  Visual learners can be reached by having another athlete (or coach if necessary) demonstrate the skill correctly.  

In reality most of your athletes will learn best when the information is presented in a variety of different ways, however if you can learn which of your athletes learn better by which method, you will increase your chances of reaching them.  

Use technology

With technology being readily available to so many of us, it makes sense to use it to our advantage as coaches.  The simplest way to use technology is to video athletes attempting the skill, and playing it back for them to critique.  This method will reach visual and tactile learners very well.  Combine the video with a verbal critique of what they can to improve and you have now reached all three types of learners. 

A more advanced way to teach with technology is to post videos on a website or blog, or send athletes the URLs of videos you want them to view.  The videos can be of you teaching a skill, of an athletes performing the skill, or any other instructional video you find on the internet.  They can view these videos at home and come to practice prepared to discuss the video and try the techniques.  This method also reaches all three types of learners. 

Have them teach someone else

Think about how much more you understand about the game of baseball now that you teach it.  Coaches have the ability to give their athletes a taste of this by having them teach techniques their teammates, or to a younger team (I do this every Friday when we have our Sophomore team practice with our Varsity).  This will not only give your players a deeper understanding of what they are doing, but it will give them ownership over the technique they are teaching.  

If you want to get more advanced, have your athletes go home and view a video of your choosing online.  Tell them to come to the next practice ready to teach what they saw in the video their teammates.  Allow them to use notes if necessary.   

Summary:

Being an athletic coach is not unlike being a classroom teacher.  If teaching and coaching were as simple as telling people what to do, anyone could be a a great teacher and coach.  The real art of coaching lies in the effectiveness of conveying your message by any means possible.  

Do sports reveal character or do they develop it?

Chances are, every single athlete you coach will earn a living doing something other than playing sports.  Regardless of the profession they eventually choose, having good character and leadership skills will be a must in their professional career.  As a coach, realize that your job not only consists of teaching your athletes the game, it also includes teaching athletes skills they will use outside of the sports area.

I have heard people discuss, and have seen articles debating whether sports reveals character or develops character.  Most of those arguments take one side or another.  I see no reason why it has to be an absolute on either side.  My research and experiences indicate that sport can both reveal and develop character.

Sport reveals character through the various situations an athlete encounters during practices and games.  Regardless of the sport you coach, you have seen the player who you thought would rise to the challenge crumble under pressure, or blame others when times get tough.  Likewise, we have also been surprised by the one athlete who we consider to be  “gamer.”  This is the player who never fully showed their true positive characteristics and leadership skills until they faced adversity in competition.  These situations show you and the athlete where their strengths and weaknesses in character and leadership lie.

In addition to revealing an athlete’s character, participating in sports allows them an opportunity to work on character deficiencies and enhance character and leadership strengths.  Sports are the perfect forum to develop these characteristics under pressure in an environment where the consequences for failure are minimal.

For many coaches being a role model who can effect an athlete’s development as a person is a very daunting task.  The single most important factor in how your athletes develop character will be your behavior as a coach.  It does absolutely no good to tell your athletes to behave in on manner when you do something completely opposite.

Negative characteristics your athletes will mimic

1. Arguing with officials
2. Bad sportsmanship
3. Placing blame on uncontrollable factors such as officials, weather, field contions or bad luck
4. Blaming one play or player for the outcome of a game
5. Tying self worth/self confidence to wins and losses
6. Berating or talking bad about others (opposing coaches, players, parents ,officials)
7. Breaking or even “bending” rules in the name of winning

Avoiding these negative behaviors will set a good example for your athletes, and will give them a positive role model to mimic.  Regardless of your team’s wins and losses, if you are able to help athletes develop positive traits and leadership skills, your season will be a success.

My next post will give some tips for how to identify and develop leaders on your team.

Pitcher Safety Part II - Post Pitching Recovery

Similar to the controversy surrounding the use or over use of pitchers, the debate of whether pitchers should use ice after a start or not rages on in some circles. Many pitchers (including myself) just iced because it’s what we are supposed to do.  Many pitchers ice because they are afraid not to.  Some truly believe in the benefits and some will never know pitching without it.  On the other hand, many pitchers do not ice after starts.  Some pitchers don’t ice because they do not have access to it, some don’t like the way it makes their arms feel, and some don’t do it simply because they are lazy.  No matter what your personal belief on icing is, if a player requests ice, you should give it to them.   

I should again preface this by saying that I am not a doctor, athletic trainer, or physical therapist.  The findings I am reporting in this article are simply based on the research of others and are based on my reading and experiences as a player and a coach.

 
It is important to note that if the player has an acute injury to his arm such as getting hit by the baseball, a ligament sprain or muscle pull, they should be highly encouraged to ice.  It is true  that ice may be more effective for acute injuries such as those, and it may not be as effective for eccentric injuries (repetitive deceleration).   Understand that the type of injury that occurs after after pitching is a delayed onset muscle soreness, which is essentially micro-tears of the muscle.  This type of soreness usually peaks 24-48 hours after use and is characterized by stiffness of the muscle and joint.  

It makes sense that if stiffness is a problem, and ice causes constriction and stiffens the muscles and joints by constricting blood flow, it may not be the best modality to use after pitching.  There are several other options a pitcher has to decrease the amount of time that he is sore after and extended outing.  

1.) Proper warm-up prior to throwing (in order)

a.) Start with an activity that will get the heart rate up

b.) Dynamic stretching (most done at 10-20 yards)

i.) High Knees

ii.) Butt Kicks

iii.) Karaoke 

iv.) Lunge Twists

v.) Skip Series

vi.) Side shuffles

vi.) Jog to sprint series

c.) Warm-up your core

i.) Core twists

ii.) Twisting yoga poses

iii.) Med-Ball exercises

d.) Arm tubing

i.) Internal rotation

ii.) External rotation

iii.) Scap Squeeze

iv.) Iron Cross

2.) Refuel your body

a.) Eat something high in carbs and protein within 30 minutes of pitching

b.) Eat a balanced meal within 2 hours of pitching

3.) Next day stretching

a.) Shoulder girdle stretches prior to any activity

b.) Shoulder tubing prior to any activity

4.) Monitor post pitching practice and game activity

a.) Give your two-way players lighter throwing work loads in the two days after pitching

b.) Give a day off or game off if possible

c.) Try to avoid allowing pitchers to catch on a regular basis

Research shows that there are more (and possibly better) ways to recover from a start than to ice.  Encourage pitchers to experiment with their post throwing routines to find the one that works the best for them.  

References:

Yeager, D.W. (2011). An alternative to ice: A more comprehensive method to post pitching recovery.  Retrieved from www.baseballstrengthcoaching.com.

ASMI position statement on youth pitching. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/position_statement.htm.

Lyman S, Fleisig GS, Andrews JR, Osinski ED (2002).  Effect of pitch type, pitch count, and pitching mechanics on risk of elbow and shoulder pain in youth baseball pitchers. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 30, 463-468. 

Baseball Coaching Philosophies Moving!

I apologize for not having a post up recently, I have been working on a new project recently and will be transferring my blog over to my other website.  I will still be putting my posts up here for those of you who have been reading and would like to continue to reading on blogger.  The new website for the blog will be... www.cornerstonecoachingacdemy.com/blog.

Thank you again for all of you who have been reading and I look forward to more discussions with you about baseball and other coaching topics.

Look for Part II of the Pitching Injuries post to come up shortly.

Coach Nelson

Baseball Coaching Philosophies First Thanksgiving Blog

I know it is very cliche to write a “things I am thankful for” post on Thanksgiving, but this is my first Thanksgiving with a blog and I have a lot of things I am thankful for.  I have decided not to get very personal on this blog since the topic is baseball coaching, but I would be remiss not to mention how thankful I am for my one year old daughter, my wonderful wife, my parents, her father and all of our wonderful family.  They have given me so much support over the past several years and are helping to make some of my current projects possible.

The main topic of my post is a brief list of things I am thankful for in the game of baseball as a coach, former player (hitter, fielder and/or pitcher), and fan. 


In no apparent order:
1.) Bunt singles
2.) Throwing strike one
3.) Entering a new major league stadium for the first time
4.) Saving $2 by buying your peanuts outside the stadium
5.) Taking pitches
6.) Swinging at a good pitch to hit
7.) Hitting a ball so pure you don’t even feel it hit the bat
8.) Watching a player be great for one day
9.) Putting up a crooked number
10.) Watching someone make their major league debut
11.) Watching a player perform something you taught them perfectly
12.) The intensity of opening day
13.) A perfectly executed hit and run
14.) Getting out of a bases loaded nobody out jam
15.) Properly defending a trick play
16.) 7-2 or 8-2 or 9-2 double play
17.) Laying off a low and away slider
18.) Breaking the cleanup hitters bat
19.) Correctly executing a play you have never practiced
20.) Dog piles

Thanks to all of you who have been regular readers.  I have been pleasantly surprised at the number of people who read and by the feedback I have gotten.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Part II of my Keeping Pitcher's Healthy post will be coming shortly...

Pitcher Safety: Part I - What coaches can do to help prevent injuries

    There are few hotter topics in the baseball world than how to handle pitchers and keep them injury free.  This topic was pushed in to the national forefront when the Washington Nationals shut down Stephen Strasberg in early September and potentially lessened their chances of reaching and winning the World Series.  Everyone has an opinion on how to best handle pitchers and why they seem to breaking down more than ever.  In spite of having a significant shoulder surgery myself, I am not a doctor, nor to I pretend to know enough to about the anatomy of the shoulder and elbow to add any significant medical information to a discussion about pitcher safety.  I do believe that a little research along with an athlete centered coaching philosophy can give you the assurance that you are doing as much as you can to keep your pitchers healthy.

Here are a few of the things we know about pitching injuries:

1.) 1 out of 20 youth pitchers will have a major throwing related injury
2.) Pitchers who throw more than 100 innings in a year are 3.5 time more likely (may be as high as 10 times more likely) to sustain a major throwing injury. 
3.) Pitchers who also play catcher may have a higher risk of major throwing injury
4.) Pitchers who participate in a longer season and play in more games have a higher risk of injuries
5.) Pitchers who participate in more showcases have a higher risk of injury.
6.) Pitchers who throw with more velocity have a higher risk of injury.
7.) There appears to be no significant relationship between injury risk and private pitching coaches, exercise program, frequency of relief appearances, or ages at which types of pitches are thrown (I have read conflicting articles on this last one). 

Some of the things I have been reading, specifically the one about “no significant relationship and the age at which pitches are thrown” are conflicting. I am planning on doing more research on this, but my personal belief is that kids simply do not have enough arm strength at a young age make a curveball break without throwing improperly and significantly risking elbow injury.  Some of the studies I have read do in fact say that there is a relationship between the age someone starts throwing a curveball and throwing injuries.  For the time being I will err on the side of caution and try to discourage kids under the age of 15 from throwing curveballs.

With the plethora of information available, here is a brief overview of what you can do as a coach do to help minimize throwing injuries in your pitchers.
   
1.) Realize that sometimes things just break - You can be as cautious as possible, put your athlete’s safety first, count every pitch, limit innings, and still, sometimes things just happen.  Do not take a single injury to mean that what you are doing isn’t working.  If you have been taking the proper precautions keep with what you are doing.

2.) Research - Do as much research as you can on this topic.  There are constantly new  studies coming out in the medical community about pitcher safety.  The decisions you make on how to handle your pitching staff should be based on these, not what you hear on sports talk radio, read on a message board or remember from your youth baseball experience. 

3.) Count pitches, count innings, and count days of rest - The American Sports Medicine Institute has published the following recommendations for days of rest based on age and pitches thrown:









4.) Encourage your players to only pitch for one team in a season -  With the currently travel baseball scene, it is not uncommon for someone to play for more than one team at a time.  Research has shown that pitching for two or more teams is a bad practice as many times proper rest time is not monitored and pitchers are often overused. This can be a particularly difficult thing to do especially if your team is the one a multi-team player decides not to pitch for. 

5.) Put the athlete first - Remember that pitcher safety is more important than winning.  Everyone’s first temptation is to do anything to they can to win.  It may seem like just a few extra pitches, just a few extra innings, or just one game on short rest.  Realize that he may not suffer an injury while you are coaching him, but he may suffer one down the road because of those few extra pitches, those few extra innings, or that one game he threw on short rest.

6.) Develop more pitchers than you think you’ll need - If you want to help protect yourself from overusing pitchers,  make sure that you have more than enough to get through your season and every tournament you enter.  It is much easier to put someone into the game and have confidence in them if you have taken the time to work with them and develop them as a pitcher than if you have never worked with them.

7.) Work pitch counts up slowly - Many coaches are cautious at the very beginning of the season to limit pitch counts, but then just turn their pitchers loose after a start or two.    Remember that pitches in a game, and pitches in a bullpen session are different.  The pitches in a game are often thrown under much more stress with more intensity.  Also a 100 pitch bullpen session is often exactly 100 pitches.  A 100 pitch 7 inning outing in a game will also consist of 20-30 warm-up pitches in the bullpen prior to the game and 38 warm up pitches between innings.  That pitcher who was up to 100 pitches in their bullpen sessions may have just thrown 168 pitches in their 100 pitch game for a 68% increase in work load. 

As with any sport, there are inherent risks to participating in athletics.  The risk for being a pitcher is that you may have some sort of an arm injury.  The coach’s job should be to minimize this as much as possible by using his pitchers responsibly. 



Bibliography

Fleisig, G.S, et. al. (2010), Risk of serious injuries for baseball pitchers: A ten year prospective     study. American Journal of Sports Medicine.

Lyman S, Fleisig GS, Andrews JR, Osinski ED (2002).  Effect of pitch type, pitch count, and     pitching mechanics on risk of elbow and shoulder pain in youth baseball pitchers.  The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 30, 463-468.

ASMI position statement on youth pitching. http://www.asmi.org/asmiweb/position_statement.htm, Updated June 2012.

Effective Communication with Parents Part II: When you have to have a tough discussion

    No matter how meticulous you are in developing relationships with parents, athletes and the community, you will always have parents who disagree with your coaching philosophy, your in game strategy, and your decisions regarding playing time.  These are inevitable.  If you don’t want to have these discussions, you should find another line of work. 
    It is important that you draw the lines very clearly about what you will and will not discuss with parents, and when you will and won’t discuss it.  Your preseason parent meeting is a good time to set these ground rules.  If you are not currently having a preseason parent meeting, I highly recommend you implement one.  It sets the tone for the season and lets the parents get to meet the coaching staff.  During this meeting, you should establish your guidelines for what you will and will not discuss with parents, as well as when those discussions will take place.  I encourage you to tell parents that you have an open door to discuss matters such as academics, safety, and social concerns.  These can be very serious topics such as rehabbing injuries, academic troubles, hazing or bullying.  You absolutely want these issues brought to your attention and you may learn a lot about your team by listening.  Nobody is perfect and perhaps someone may bring an issue to your attention that you have overlooked, or simply were not aware of.  These can be very positive, trust building discussions to have with parents. 
    On the flip side of this are the other two topics that coaches are generally not as excited about discussing.  It is my opinion that under no circumstance should you discuss in game strategy with a parent.  I do not say this because I think parents don't understand the game.  In many instances they do.  The problem is, it really compromises your integrity as a coaching staff if you are taking input from a parent or group of parents when it comes to in game strategy. 
    If you have been coaching for any time at all, you know that the majority of your parent complaints will be about playing time.  It is very easy to say that you will not discuss playing time with a parent, but that is difficult to follow through on.  I have tried this approach and its biggest drawback is that it develops negative relationships, and fosters hostility between the coaches and parents.  I tell parents at our preseason night that conversations about playing time should be had between players and coaches.  This is part of the maturing process, helps them develop into adults, and can be very beneficial to the coach/athlete relationship.  In the event that a parent does end up contacting you about playing time, my response is always to set up a face to face meeting with the athlete present.  This is done for a few reason: 1.) Most of the time, the parent is contacting you behind their son’s back and doesn’t want them to know they are contacting you. 2.) I would not want someone having a secret meeting about me behind my back, I would want to be there to share my side of the argument.  Athletes should be afforded the same respect.  3.) It is easy for someone to say something derogatory, hurtful or personal behind the vial of a computer screen. 
    In addition to making sure the athlete is present, you may also want to ensure that another coach or administrator is present.  It is a sad comment on our society that this should be done for personal safety, but it seems like just about every month you read a story about a parent attacking a coach somewhere in our country.  It is also beneficial to have someone else there so you are not accused of saying or doing anything you didn’t say or do.  You should also make sure you give at least 24 hours after a game to cool off.  Emotions run high at games and it is best for all parties if these discussions are had when everyone involved has a cooler head.

    Here are a few tips for how to handle the discussion itself:

1.) Listen first -Many times they are just looking to get something off their chests and will feel better after talking.
2.) Don’t interrupt - Give them respect.  (The only exceptions are if they begin to get profane, aggressive, or begin to badmouth others.  These are reasons to end the meeting)
3.) Once they have spoken, give your side, remain calm, clear, and concise.  Stick to the issue at hand. 
4.) Once each side has had their say, end the meeting.  Do not let the meeting drag.  The topic will meander and the longer this meeting goes on, the more likely it is that it will have a negative outcome. 
5.) If no resolution is agreed upon (agreeing to disagree is the most common resolution) refer them to your superior.

I hope this two part series has helped you gain some insight into how you can establish positive relationships with the parents in your program.  While some parents are simply unreasonable and will complain no matter what happens, a great majority of parents can be positive assets to your program if you can establish positive relationships with the community. 

Effective Communication with Parents, Part I: Establishing the ground work

     If you ask any coach what the most difficult part of their job is, most of them would say “dealing with parents.”  I have talked to coaches who have been coaching for several decades, and they agree that today’s parents can be more difficult and demanding than they have ever been.  There is little doubt that while a good group of parents can make your season pleasurable, a tough group of parents can make the season a living nightmare for you and your players.  You will never be able to totally eliminate all parent problems, and no matter what you do, you will never be able to eliminate problems from the most extreme parents.  There is just no reasoning with unreasonable people.  However, there are several things you can do to minimize parental problems and use parents to your benefit as a coach. 
    I feel that we have been fairly lucky at my school to not have a large amount of parental complaints and problems.  I have heard some horror stories from coaches in our surrounding districts and I assumed that our parents were just different from theirs.  It was brought to my attention that there are parental complaints in our district and they can be significant, but they are rarely directed toward our program.  While I do believe that the parents in our district are knowledgeable about baseball and are very supportive of our program, I know that for the most part they are no different from the parents in other district, or in the other programs in our school.  So why small amount of problems with our program?
    It dawned on my as I was writing the first two paragraphs of this post, that this has not always been the case in my coaching career.  I was a very young head coach during my first few years (I became a head coach at 23 years old) and I think we had problems at that time because parents did not know me and simply did not trust me.  Having recently become a parent myself, I realize that your kids are the center of your life, and you always want to the best for them.  So if a significant portion of their life is being controlled by someone they do not know or do not trust, problems may ensue.  Many of the problems at the beginning of your coaching career are simply unavoidable.  I do feel that as your coaching career moves on, there are several steps you can take to have more effective communication with parents and prevent many problems before thy start. 
    Start by give parents a significant role on the team. I believe that most parents want to be supportive of their kid’s athletic programs and want to help out in any way possible.  Some may do this with the expectation that it will help their son gain more playing time.  Make it very clear that a parent’s involvement in the team will have no effect on their playing time.  Then do the more difficult thing which is to make it true.  It very difficult to sit the kid of the parents who help make major improvement to your field, but if they are not one of your best nine, you have to sit them.  The integrity of your program will be better off in the long run. 
    With that being said many parents do simply want to help, and they truly mean it when they say “let me know if there is ever anything we can do to help.”  Your goal should be to find a way to have them enhance your program.  We establish parent committees every year at our spring meeting.  We have a Double Header Food Committee that is responsible for supplying food for each team between games of a double header.  We also have a Spring Trip Snack Committee.  This committee is responsible for supplying healthy snacks for team each year for our four day trip to St. Louis each April.  Additionally, we have a senior day committee and a banquet committee.  While we have several parents signing up for multiple spots, it gives our parents a way to become involved in our program and lets them contribute in a positive way.  There are several other ways to get parents involved including field work and team dinners just to name a few.  This approach can have two very positive affects.  This will grow trust between the coaching staff and the parents, and you will enhance some aspect of your program, or take some of the work away from yourself.  Remember, always make it clear that their participation in parent committees does not guarantee their son’s playing time, their son’s performance will determine that. 
    Getting parents involved is a fantastic way to alleviate many parent problems in the short term, but if you want long term success with parents in you have to start building a relationship with them before they get to you.  Getting involved in the youth organizations in your area is a great way to start to build positive relationships.  We have implemented many youth camps and clinics that help build that trust between our coaches, our players and the surrounding community.  The biggest benefit to this is when you have do have to have a difficult discussion with a parent (and it will happen) they will be familiar with your philosophies and there will hopefully be some level of trust built up.  It makes those conversations easier to have. 
    Some of the things we have done in past include, a winter, summer, and early spring youth camp. This camp allows young kids access to our players and our facility as we teach them the things they will need to know as they progress toward high school.  If your facilities allow for it, invite parents to watch.  We have also implemented a youth coaches clinic.  This is one of my favorite days of the year.  We host youth coaches from our organization, as well as from surrounding youth organizations to attend a free coach clinic.  We usually try to have one or more guest speakers talking on a number of topics as well as having our staff present a number of various skills and coaching philosophies.  This gives parents an insight into what will be taught at the high school level, as well as lets them see what your program is all about before they get there.  This has been one of the biggest factors in developing trust between our program and the community. 
    As successful as the other camps and clinics we have implemented have been, by far the biggest hit has been our father-son camp.  Dads and sons attend for 2 hours on two separate Sundays.  At this camp we do not coach the kids at all.  We coach the dads and let them coach their sons.  We run through a variety of different offensive and defensive drills with the dads, and allow them to coach their kids throughout the camp. We also have father/son competitions where they can win official gear from our team.  This has been a tremendous hit and it is a very enjoyable to day for the parents, staff, our players, and most importantly, the young players who attend. 
    Implementing the above ideas and developing positive relationships will not diffuse all parent complaints, but it will help to limit them.  Some people are unreasonable and will find things to complain about no matter how great of a job you are doing.  In the next section I will discuss the best ways to manage parent complaints in season and how to handle difficult situation when they arise. 

Developing an athlete centered coaching style Part III: Troubleshooting

Sorry it has been a while since my last post.  We moved back to Illinois from South Carolina and school began again (my real job).  I wanted to write a quick post on some trouble shooting within developing an athlete centered coaching style.

When I began coaching the answer to any issue we were having on the team had two components, yelling and running.  This was a very effective short term motivator and many times the behavior was corrected almost immediately.   At the time, this was the only means I knew and I thought it was very effective because I was seeing results.  What I noticed was, while I was changing the short term behavior, we were having the same issues every year.   We were not making any long term change in our programs behavior. That is when I knew I needed a new approach.  The teams were becoming "my" teams, not the athlete's team.   I needed to make a change and take the team from my team to our team, then to the kid’s team.

Transitioning to an athlete centered team will not happen overnight.  In fact, if you try to make the transition extremely quickly, it will probably fail.  The players my first few years were so used to me running everything and telling them exactly how to behave in every situation that they would have fallen flat on their face had I suddenly turned it over to them.  The transition needs to happen slowly (usually a couple of years).  The most difficult question for me to answer as I was making this transition was “how do I discipline my athletes without yelling and conditioning?”

Below is a quick list of actions that can be taken to discipline athletes without conditioning.

1.) Communicate.  If there is a problem, simply talking to athlete, listening to their side and expressing your concern over a behavior goes a long way.  If the athlete knows you have their best interest in mind, a simple conversation will take care of 90% or more of the problems on a team and you will be surprised what you can learn by listening.
2.) Take a breather before making a decision.  Many times discipline is dished out during an emotional time and this is when mistakes can easily be made.  Do not let the problem sit too long, but make sure you are calm and collected and you have carefully thought through your actions prior to taking them.
3.) Take away a privilege.  The obvious one in this realm is playing time in games, but I know coaches who take away practice time as well.  We used to make kids run and do extra field work if they were late to practice, now we simply have kids sit out a portion or all of practice.  Our tardies have decreased significantly (even at our before school practices in the early spring) since we switched away from conditioning as a punishment.
4.) Lean on your athletes.  If there is a discipline matter that can be discussed with the entire team or with your captains, listen to them and get their take on the situation.  We often think of peer pressure as a negative influence, but it can be surprisingly positive as well.  If you create a feeling of family on your team, athletes will not want to let their fellow teammates down. 


There are many other ways you can deal with discipline other than the traditional yelling and conditioning.  I challenge you to be creative.  The traditional means of discipline are easy because we are familiar with them and they do change behavior in the short term.  Instead of short term behavior change, try to change the culture in your program to where certain behaviors are unacceptable because they will let the team down, not because they face the threat of conditioning or verbal reprimand. 

Developing an Athlete Centered Coaching Style: Part II

If you read my last post, you know that I am a huge proponent of a coaching style that revolves around the athlete and not the coach or coaching staff.  I know that there are many different styles, and many people have success with all kinds of different methods.  I don’t even know if an athlete centered style is the best way to get the most out of an individual team in a given year.  It is very possible that a much more demanding “motivate through fear” style may very well work better in than an athlete centered coaching style in terms of wins and losses.  So why, if I am not sure that this method gets the most out of players, and if it may be possible I could have more successful teams in other methods do I believe that this coaching style is best for me and my teams?  It is the best method for me because it is the best way to teach young athletes how to be problem solvers, how to think on their feet, how to play under pressure, and how to develop as people. 

Before I get to some of my tips for how you can foster this on your team, I want to give you a few examples from our past season that will give you an idea of the reasons I chose this type of style.  At the beginning of our season, our coaching staff had several discussions about the lack of heart we were seeing, about the lack of leadership among the players, and about some of the off field decisions that were being made amongst some of our players.   A prime example of this took place at the end of our Spring trip.  We were to leave at 7am the next morning and we had a 5 hour bus ride ahead of us before playing a game against a very talented team.  On the bus ride up, it came to our attention that several of our players had stayed up well into the early morning hours in their rooms the night before.  We came out very sluggish, and played very sloppy baseball that next day.  We did actually win that game, but keep in mind that this coaching style is not about wins and losses, it is about how do you play on a given day, and what can you do to make yourselves better. 

After this game, several others like it, a few disciplinary issues, and a few of those sloppy games that turned into ugly losses, we were at a crossroads in our season.  It seemed as though this group was not capable of developing leadership, and was not developing the internal motivation that is necessary to be successful under an athlete centered leadership style.  As a staff we discussed abandoning the athlete centered coaching style and taking more control of the team.  The players on the team were very talented and we would have been able to have a successful season from a wins and losses perspective had we turned to a coach centered style.   And while we did take a few steps to correct some of the minor disciplinary issues we were seeing, we ended up going in the opposite direction.  At our next practice I publicly challenged each individual player and coach, including myself, spelling out exactly what that individual needed to do to make us a successful team.  After doing this, we stepped back further as a staff and let the players make or break their season.  To my surprise, the players that we challenged to be come leaders did.  They began holding others accountable for their effort, their off field actions, and their contributions to the team.  The effort in practice was elevated, the level of play on the field was elevated, and we focused on our play on the field, not the results or what other thought of us.  In the end, it turned out to be arguably the most successful team in our school’s history, and certainly the best success story of a team coming together that I have seen as a coach. 

The second example of how an athlete centered coaching method worked for us this year was on display in one of our biggest plays of the season.  In the Sectional semifinal, with a runner on third and one out in a one run ballgame, our opponents attempted a suicide squeeze.  Our pitcher threw a pitch high and inside forcing the batter to abandon his squeeze attempt, and leading to their runner being out in a rundown between home and third.  This was the absolute correct play by him, but he had never once practiced that in practice and had never done it before in a game.  Why was he able to make a play that he had never practiced before in the highest leverage situation of our season?  I believe it is because he was not afraid to make a mistake.  We had discussed that situation, and every time we are simulating suicide squeezes, I jokingly told our pitchers that if they buzzed the tower on me (I simulate the hitter in our bunt defenses) it would be the last last thing they did.  This obviously stuck in his head, and combined with the fact that he knew that if he took a chance, and it didn’t work, I would not breathing down his neck dwelling on his mistake, and he would not be blamed for a loss, led to him making our play of the year.  

Here are a few of the things you can to do move toward this athlete centered coaching style.

1.) Clearly define roles for each player (and coach) at several points during the season. 
2.) Give each player a path to success for they to maximize their potential, then put the ball in their court to follow through on it. 
3.) Have athletes (not just captains) lead as many activities as possible in practice. 
4.) Create a competitive atmosphere in practice where players have to make decisions, and make plays, not just follow the coaches instruction.
5.) Put pressure on players in practice, make it game like
6.) Treat mistakes as learning opportunities, not as punishable offenses. 
7.) Allow athletes to make choices whenever possible, listen to their input, and take what they have to say seriously.
8.) If you raise your voice, make sure you do so at a meaningful time.  If you constantly yell, it will lose its effect, and your messages will be lost. 
9.) Discern between mistakes that are made because of a lack of knowledge, a lack of skill, or a lack of effort.  If a mistake is made because of a lack of knowledge, teach.  If a mistake is made because of a lack of skill, practice.  If a mistake is made because of a lack of effort, motivate. 
10.) End practices and/or games on a light note.  We end ours with a joke because no matter what happened in that practice or game, there are more important things in the world than baseball, it should be kept in perspective.  I believe this also helps with players not being afraid to make mistakes.   

I will have one more quick post on athlete centered coaching which will cover trouble shooting an athlete centered team.