Teaching Your Child as a Baseball Coach

Most Dads don't start off thinking they are Joe Torre or Terry Francona. They just get there quickly when they realize how unprepared today's young ballplayers are to participate in the sport of Baseball. It is amazing the things we learned watching Johnny Bench on "This Week in Baseball".

I am a father of four boys. All have played or are still playing baseball at some level. All have been coached by me. I am also a certified hitting instructor and coach college baseball. Some of the things I have learned along the way will probably help those of you just starting out on what could be a magnificent journey full of memories that will be cherished for a lifetime.

I must confess that most of these tricks were not learned from my father / coach in my playing days, but through my mother and wife who put their two cents in whether it was asked for or not. The most important thing to remember is that you are that child's parent. Don't forget it! The game will last for an hour or two maybe three some days and you are the coach, but the game will end and everything you do or say will be remembered by that young man or woman driving home with you in the car. Most important teach them the sport the same way you would teach them manners. Be kind and fair. They are your offspring. You have made mistakes and they will too. Use these mistakes as learning tools. Try not to point out to everyone when they make a great play. Congratulate them like you would any other player on the team. The Dad standing on the bench in the dugout screaming, "That's my boy!" looks really foolish in the eyes of the other parents and players. You will lose credibility plus it draws a lot of attention that your child may not want when they do make the aforementioned mistakes.

Another very important mistake that parent / coaches make is to hold their child / player to a different standard than the other players. This is understandable. You get to spend more time with your child you know what they are capable of. You know the, careful this gets ugly, POTENTIAL of your son or daughter. Potential is great but nobody reaches their potential simply by putting on a uniform. It takes time be patient. They will grow as players at the same rate as everyone else. A lot of times you can get a better assessment of potential from someone else. Ask your assistant coaches, providing they are not related, where they think your child should play or bat. Be open minded about the answers. If you don't like the answer ask another teams coach where he / she would play your child if they were on the other team. You are not helping your child be the best they can be by pushing them into something they can't achieve in front of their peers. If you are playing them at a position that another player would be better than them at their friends know it and will hold you against your child elsewhere.

You can criticize your child for doing things that you don't want to see. Missed assignments on cutoffs or coverage's, missing a sign or doing something that they have been told in practice or a game that is not acceptable. What you can't do is yell at them. You wouldn't yell at the other kids on the team. Their parents would have a problem with that! You yell to them you pull them out and sit them down to talk it over you might even make them run some laps after practice or the game so don't " DAD" your child on the field " COACH" him or her.

Remember that your coaches and parents were there when you were learning. You may only remember that they were big and mean and didn't take anything you thought or felt into consideration when you were younger. You don't remember the wisdom that they imparted on you... or do you, which is why you are able to coach your child's team now. We all learned this game somewhere. Thank the people who taught it to you by passing it on to the next generation.

The last thing I will leave you with is this Little League Baseball distributes rule books to every registered Little League in America. Read the rule book cover to cover and understand it. You wouldn't play any other game without reading the rules first and there are a lot of rules that you forgot since the last time you played. Even if you played today!