Baseball Fundamentals: Communication: Coach-to-Coach

Team work starts long before you get to the ballfield. Your "coaching staff" will likely be fellow fathers and mothers. Always brimming with eagerness to pitch in, they will only sometimes come equipped with a sound knowledge of the game. Not to worry: at this level expertise comes quickly, and authority is a given. Know your practice plan, provide each of your assistants with direction and a role, and turn 'em lose.

It's quite possible that some of your coaches are as unsure about their performance as your players are of theirs. Take the time to teach, reassure, and (when necessary) correct them. This last, correction, should always be done quietly and supportively and face to face - away from the players.

We are, ourselves, a team. We, the grown-ups, are for two hours per practice a team of teachers and nurturers. Our surface task is teaching fundamental baseball skills. But we're also always teaching basic coping skills, willingness to risk failure, capacity to handle success graciously, persistance, compassion for one another, and - above all - the genuine value of every kid who's wearing the glove (or forgot it... again...).

There are more specifics that go with fundamental coach-to-coach communication, and I will address them. But the foundation is the same as the first principle you teach your players: we're all in this together.

Remember always: the kids are both our point and our purpose. And, if you have to choose, the order of importance is always this: kids first, baseball second. It's Little League baseball. Baseball is the third word.

Am I not cut-throat enough to generate winners? Gang, I lived by this ethic for the seven years that I coached - teaching baseball fundamentals to kids who were the children of my friends and neighbors, who were friends to my own sons. In that time, we had seven championships - and seven teams worth of 13 or 14 happy kids, eager to get to the ballfield. Our practice attendance was almost 100% throughout that time span. One year we even claimed a State Championship. And, lemme tell ya: we had a blast doing it!