​Giving players a pat on the back for a good performance is the easiest way to get the most out of them. If players can tell they’re making progress, and that improvement is rewarded often and enthusiastically, they can’t wait to come to practice to get more of it. Be generous in your praise without overdoing it. Kids want to impress their coaches and it makes their day to hear you find something good they did.

When coaching a team with young players, especially if you’re rotating children into various different positions and you’re not keeping score, it is often difficult to determine if kids have been learning what you’ve been teaching. And remember, the best coach in the world can work with a team of six to nine year-olds, run the world’s best, most organized practices, and they will still make mistakes. It is probably not a reflection on your coaching if your team sometimes looks more like the Bad News Bears than the Chicago Cubs. But with patience, hard work and fun, you’ll see improvement from week to week and you’ll finish the year with a group of players and a season you’ll always remember with fondness.

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

I spent eight years on my Little League board, and I am remembering our spring registrations which took place this time of year, when our board got inundated with email requests for six, seven and eight year-old kids to be allowed to “play up,” a division beyond their age group.

Because our league does not begin tryouts until players are age nine, our guidelines state that six year-olds play T-ball, seven year-olds play coach-pitch and eight year-olds are in machine-pitch. What we inevitably hear from parents with children at these age levels is that their sons or daughters are “big for their age,” are “already hitting live pitching,” and are “a little more coordinated and athletic,” than most of their peers. Parents assert that their kids will be “bored,” and “may lose interest,” if forced to play in their designated leagues, and that in fact, it may be a safety issue to allow them on the field with ordinary kids. We even get offers from parents to have letters of reference sent from a private coach who could vouch for the child’s advanced ability. Essentially, what we’re hearing is, “my child is too good to be playing with other kids his age.”

And while I never petitioned the league to allow my sons to play up, I can relate to these parents. When my oldest son came through the ranks I couldn’t wait for him to get through the lower levels and into kid-pitch. I was fired-up about the prospect of steals, standings and league championships. I coached him in T-ball, coach-pitch and machine-pitch, but was impatient to move on to “real baseball.” With my second son, a year younger, I was a little less fervent, but by the time my third boy got into Little League, something began to dawn on me: I realized that each stop along the way was going to be my last. And I began to appreciate things I hadn’t noticed before.

I began to understand that for many of the kids I was coaching, T-ball might be the most fun they ever have playing sports. Instead of barking, “pay attention!” at a seven year-old boy who was dreamily watching a butterfly flutter around him in the outfield, I smiled knowing I might be watching this Norman Rockwell painting come-to-life for the final time.

Sure, league championships are great, all-stars is exciting, but there is also something to be said for those afternoons when kids are playing – and that’s the key word – with nothing at stake. When no one really knows who won or lost, when the fielders make occasional outs, but most of the time everyone is safe. And the biggest suspense is what kind of snack there will be after the game.

One thing I’ve learned from watching hundreds of kids come through our league is that whether a kid plays machine-pitch or skips straight into kid-pitch will have absolutely no bearing on whether he makes the high school team, or, for that matter, even the 12 year-old all-star team. Sometimes I wonder if many “play-up” requests are not more for the parents’ benefit than the kids’. But ultimately, the family and the league must decide what’s best for the child.

So when parents with younger children ask my advice about playing up I tell them not to be in too big of a hurry. Though it may not seem like it now, it goes way too fast. There may come a day you’ll look back and would give anything to have another year in Coach-Pitch. I know I would.

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By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports
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As a coach, when making corrections to young players, it is a good idea try to temper any criticism with something else positive. Think of it as dessert after making a child eat their vegetables. For example, if I see a player field a ground ball off to the side when he could have gotten in front of it, I may say, “Good job getting your mitt down but remember to get in front of it next time.” I’ll typically reinforce the comment by demonstrating what I mean and, in this example, saying, “Not here,” while showing him what he did, (field the ball off to the side), “Here.” (Showing the proper technique).
Though it’s not always easy, do your best to communicate with your team on their level, with an upbeat, positive attitude and remember that for every bite of “broccoli” they have to eat, you should try to also slip in a piece of “apple pie.”

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

I feel that too many coaches see little mistakes in practice and, rather than address them, just let them slide because they don’t feel they are important enough to stop practice. However, by not addressing these we often miss great opportunities to teach. I believe in pointing out the minute details and letting everyone learn from the instruction. When you stop a practice to make a teaching point and have all of your players give you their attention you can often provide valuable instruction that can be used by everyone in a short period of time. Before I do this however, I ask myself if the point I am going to cover meets the following two criteria:
• Does it apply to nearly everyone on the team?
• Does it pertain to something that will likely happen on numerous occasions?
When I feel I have a chance to teach something that gets a “yes” answer to both those questions, I’ll use that opportunity to my advantage. Here is an example of a recent coaching experience I had:

I’d been teaching a group of newly-drafted players how to field a ground ball in the outfield by taking a knee. Some of them had clearly never learned this before and were having trouble grasping it. There were two boys in particular, Steve and Max, who I had to correct several times. At one point in the practice a sharp, bouncing ball was hit to Steve in centerfield. He got down on a knee with nice technique, but the ball bounced over his shoulder to the fence. I’m sure some coaches would have let that go and continued practice; figuring it was just a bad hop. Other coaches might have simply yelled, “Don’t go down on a bouncer like that,” or “You’ve got to knock that ball down,” which would have only confused Steve more.

I stopped the practice for a moment and said to everyone on the team, “When I say I want you to take a knee on a ball hit to the outfield, I mean a grounder, like this.” I then threw a ground ball to Max, who was in left field. He fielded it with a knee, but facing the wrong way. “Steve,” I asked the center fielder, “Why don’t you want to take a knee on a ball that is bouncing up high?” Steve answered correctly that it was because it may go over his shoulder. “What should you do on one like that?” I asked. “Show me.” Steve demonstrated how next time he would get in front of the ball, but not go to a knee. “Good!” I said. “And Max, your knee needs to be facing this way, not straight, so that you cover more area…throw it here.” I threw him another grounder and he fielded it correctly. “Perfect!” I said.

That entire sequence took no more than one minute, but quite a bit was accomplished. Everyone on the team learned which balls we want them to kneel for, and which we want them to stay up on. I found out that Steve understands what he did wrong and what to do next time. Max got two additional practice opportunities, and in the process showed the team the improper way to field a grounder and then the proper way, providing a great learning point. And I’ll bet from now on, Max does it right. Finally, notice how I asked Steve a question and let him answer it, instead of just telling him my point of view and hoping he’s listening. If you ask players questions, just like asking them to show you how to do something, it forces them to think, and reveals whether they understand. Again, it would have been easier to let the play go without comment and maybe tell Steve “don’t worry about it,” but a coach’s job is to correct the small mistakes before they become habits.

Brian Gotta is a former professional recreational youth baseball coach and volunteer Little League coach and board member. He is President of Help Kids Play, a collection of companies whose mission is to further the development and enjoyment of youth sports.