By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

The Little League in which my sons have played used to not re-draft players each new season in Majors. Players, once “titled” to a team, stayed on that team the remainder of their Majors careers. At one point, Little League International nearly voted to eliminate titled players as an option for leagues to utilize. Fortunately, while the measure received a majority of votes, it did not receive the two-thirds required to carry. This means that your league can choose to title players. I heartily recommend you do so, and here’s why.

First and foremost, titled players have more fun. There is something about coming back to a new season and knowing that many of your teammates from last year will be there again. Camaraderie and bonding are greater when kids experience multiple seasons together. A few years back, there was a board member in my league who felt titling was unfair, mainly because her son had experienced three losing seasons in Majors. She reported to us, with surprise, that she’d asked her son, who was now out of the league, what he thought. She fully expected him to tell her that he’d hated being “stuck” on the same team. However, when she posed the question, he acted as if it would be ludicrous to consider anything other than titling. His response was, “Mom, titling is the way to go!” 

For seven years in Majors, the team I coached was the Braves. I frequently had former players who had aged out of the league, some were even in high school, drop by one of my practices. I always stopped what I was doing and asked them to say a few words to this year’s team and talk about the history of the team, the championships they’d won when they played, and what it meant to be a Brave. I know that the current kids felt the tradition – felt they were part of something bigger. And I know that feeling had a positive effect that was immeasurable.

Kids get to experience leadership opportunities. At the beginning of each season, I always asked my returning “veterans,” to explain how we did things and what was expected. I would try to pair a “rookie” with a veteran when warming-up. I’ve seen returning 12 year-olds who were not the most talented players on the team turn into confident “big brothers,” because they were taking younger players under their wings. Each year, the “rookies,” got to feel like they were being brought into something bigger than just another new team. And year after year that thread continued from returning player to new player.

Players get a fairer shake. Imagine this: You’re the manager of a team and your son is 10 years-old. You draft another 10 year-old player hoping that he’s going to be a good player for you. Unfortunately, it turns out that he’s not the player you thought he was and it looks like this pick was a mistake. If you know you’re going to redraft next season and let this kid be someone else’s problem, what is your incentive to work with him? But if you know you’ve got him, for better or for worse, for the next three seasons, you’ll do everything you can to develop this player’s fullest potential, since it is in your best interest. I’m sure there are some coaches who never give everything they’ve got to kids since they’re afraid that the next season those same kids will use what they learned against them. I know this is a terrible aspersion to cast, but there is some element that is just human nature. Why not eliminate any conflicting thoughts by keeping the kids on the same team?

Which leads to another point: Kids will develop more quickly if they don’t have to re-learn a new system every year. Each year, my returning players already knew our defensive plays and baserunning plays. They already know all of my drills by name. All I have to do is call out, “Outfield Fly-By” or “0-2 Drill,” and they’re on their way. And once again, when the returning players get an opportunity to teach the new players how to do a drill, time is saved and leadership skills are gained. My league’s all-star teams have traditionally not fared as well as surrounding leagues, which would lead one to the conclusion that we haven’t had the best players. However, our League Champions have dominated in the Tournament of Champions vs. neighboring leagues, because we have the best regular season teams. I attribute that almost primarily to the benefits of titling. 

I believe I’ve heard all of the arguments against titling. Here are the main ones: “Titling leads to managers picking younger players at the expense of older kids so that they’ll have them longer,” and “Titling causes dynasties where coaches can build great teams each year.” I don’t feel any of these hold water.

Typically, when leagues go to draft, there will be an evenly-balanced mix within the ages of the managers’ children. In other words, if there are six managers drafting, there’s a good chance that a couple have children who are 12 and in their final seasons, a couple have 11 year-olds and a couple have 10 year-olds. And while a manager with a younger child may choose a younger player over an older player so as to be able to develop and keep him or her longer, it is counterbalanced by the managers of the 12 year-olds whose only motivation is to pick the best team for this, their final season. Plus, in Little League anyway, now all 12 year-olds who wish to play Majors must be drafted onto a Majors team, eliminating the concern that titling causes managers to pass up deserving 12’s.

As for dynasties, my contention is that a good coach will win, whether the league titles or re-drafts. The way the LL Operations Manual structures the draft is that the team finishing in last place the previous season gets the first overall pick in every round. This is the way it’s done in the NFL to try and ensure parity. Why wouldn’t this also work for Little League? The answer? It does. This is not to say that, just like in football, some guys can’t get the first overall pick and still not win, just as having the last pick doesn’t guarantee a last-place finish. But the scales are balanced each season with this system so that, ideally, a kid who plays on a non-winning team as a ten or eleven year-old should have a chance to play on a winning team when he’s twelve. And one final point to be made here: If you think this system is unfair to the competitive balance of the league, imagine when you have a few returning managers who have been in Majors for several years drafting against rookies whose children are just coming up from Minors. The Majors managers know all of the returning Majors players – the ones who are going to have the most impact. The new guys only know about the younger, Minors players, most of who will only play part-time. If every team starts from scratch and a new manager makes a mistake on his first several picks because he doesn’t know who the best players were last season, the team has the potential for disaster. At least with titling, every new manager inherits a core group of returning players as a foundation; therefore the effect of a few not-so-great picks is substantially lessened.

There is one pro re-draft argument I have heard that does contain some validity. And that is that there may be situations where a sub-par manager is given a team, and now, as long as he has the job, all the kids titled to that team are stuck with him throughout their Majors careers. But my answer to that is that it’s the kids who are titled to the team, not the manager. And in the case where there is a manager who is not fulfilling expectations, it is the duty of the league to find or develop someone better, so that the kids get an opportunity to fully enjoy their experience.

It amazes me how few leagues in my neck of the woods title their players. And I’m equally amazed when I speak with guys from other leagues, sometimes board members, who don’t even know titling is an option. I’ve heard many say, “That’s how we did it when I played!” But, their league continues to re-draft players each year because, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” I encourage you to explore the titled player option in your league. Once you experience it, you, the players’ parents and, especially, the players themselves, will never want to go back to a re-draft.

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.

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports
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The way you say something makes all the difference in the world. A coach might be frustrated with a player who he didn’t think was hustling and say, “You’re always looking for the easy way out!” Something like that can stick with a kid and do long term damage. If the coach would say instead, “You’re taking it too easy today,” the intended message would have been delivered without the risk of the player thinking the coach believed he was just lazy at heart.

After two players watched a pop fly land between them, I heard their coach say, “Did you want to catch the ball…did you not want to catch it?” How is the player supposed to respond to that question? Of course he wanted to catch it! Whenever I hear a coach ask a kid, “Did you want to hit the ball?” or “Did you want to score a goal?” I shake my head in amazement. Letting your frustration come out in the form of sarcasm like this only adds to a player’s fears and feelings of inadequacy. Keep in mind the origins of the word Coach; your job is to transport your players from where they are now, to where they want to be. I believe most players want to be somewhere and will perform better when they feel safe, comfortable and confident.

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

A coach who is over-competitive makes the season fun for his son or daughter, and perhaps one or two other kids who possess better-than-average ability. But he reduces the fun for the kids who haven’t played much in their lives, or kids who don’t quite have the skills mastered yet. This coach puts the best players in the positions that get the most action and sticks other players where it is unlikely they’ll have any opportunities. This coach believes that if his team wins, even if even if all the scoring is done by just one or two players, he looks good. Just ask yourself this question: If your child was the least skilled player on the team and you weren’t able to be there to help coach, how would you want the coach to treat him? That’s how you ought to treat all the kids with lesser ability, as frustrating as it sometimes may be. I know this from experience because I am a competitive guy and was one of those dads who probably was too concerned about “winning” (even though we didn’t keep score!) when my first son began playing T-ball. Though I rotated my players into different positions, I didn’t focus as much as I could have on every player’s improvement. Looking back on that season, I wish I’d spent more time helping some of the boys who hadn’t played much before joining Little League.

But as my younger sons came into baseball I began to realize just how special those first years really are, and what is truly important. Too many parents want their six, seven and eight year-old kids to “skip a league” and play with older players, forgetting that part of the fun at that age is just being on a team with your friends and goofing around a little. Sports, and life for that matter, will be very competitive all too soon. Slow down and enjoy the few seasons you have when it’s not life or death whether the first baseman catches the throw from third or your goalie blocked the shot, when after the game both teams think they won, and the snack is the highlight of the afternoon. Believe me, there will come a time when you’ll miss those days.

​Your job as coach is to make this season a fun one and this should go without saying. However, too many coaches forget why they are coaching youth sports, and fall into negative patterns of behavior. Try to keep the following points in mind:
• Your number one priority, above all else, should be that each player you coach wants to come back and play again next year. If this happens, regardless of any other measuring stick, you were successful
• Your kid, my kid, none of the kids are probably going to turn out to be pro athletes, and even if one does attain that level of success, you won’t be able to tell in T-ball.
• Keeping track of the score is OK. But the younger the kids you’re coaching are, the better it is to emphasize individual improvement rather than individual achievement.
• How well, (or poorly), your team performs on game day is probably not a reflection of your coaching abilities, so take it with a grain of salt. Don’t get angry with the kids.
• Making it fun makes your season go by much faster, and your life a lot easier.

Being a great coach means so much more than winning and losing. And it is important that we all keep that in mind.

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

It is tournament time across the country. This is when league champions are crowned and then square off against champs from other leagues. Soon, all-stars will begin and thousands of kids will put aside those team jerseys they wore all season, joining forces with former rivals to represent their entire league. I’ve shared many great moments during this time of year while coaching my kids. But my greatest coaching moment came long before I had kids when I coached professionally in a recreational league called, "Wildcat".

The league was designed as an alternative to what some thought was an overly-competitive Little League system, and was structured so that anyone who wanted to have fun, learn baseball and be on a team could play, with more emphasis on instruction than on winning and losing. The players didn’t have full uniforms, just a Wildcat T-shirt and Wildcat cap. Most kids wore jeans or sweatpants to games. Boys and girls played on the same teams and the league motto was "Everybody Makes the Team."

Many of the town's Little Leaguers chose not to join Wildcat because it wasn’t the level of play they preferred. However, a lot of good Little Leaguers did play because they wanted to get extra baseball. The league hired high school and college players as coaches. We did not coach any specific team - we rotated and coached them all at various times. Standings were kept, top batting averages went on the bulletin board, but the biggest trophies we gave out at the end of the year were not for the League Champions, but rather for Perfect Attendance.

One summer, there was a twelve year-old boy named Alan, who played on the Astros. Alan was not gifted athletically, but was a nice, quiet, friendly kid who always came to every game. Because he couldn’t hit, field, or throw to save himself, some of the players on the team probably wished he wasn’t always there, but Alan was one of the few kids in the league who had perfect attendance, meaning he’d been at every practice and every game. Despite the other coaches’ and my efforts to improve his swing and his glove, he struck out nearly every time at the plate. He had a lunging chop swing, as if he were trying to fend off an attacking bird with his bat. When fly balls were hit his way in the outfield he’d get far enough away to feel safe, and then stick out his mitt only to have it drop a yard in front of him.

I remember spending extra time with Alan, before and after practices because he was such a nice kid and my heart went out to him. It was pretty obvious that this would be his first and last year playing baseball but at least he was out there giving it a try and doing his best. Still, it appeared that no amount of coaching could turn him into a hitter when a live pitcher threw that ball at him.

His team had a few pretty good players, which was one of the reasons when we coaches divided up the teams to make them fair, we assigned Alan to the Astros. And though we never allowed any negative comments or even groans of disappointment out of the more talented players when Alan was at bat, it was hard not to notice that the team got deflated when it was his turn to hit.

Alan had meekly connected with the ball a few times, but it was always quite by luck, and he had never reached base safely. Even though the pitching at this level wasn’t the greatest, he’d never even been on base with a walk because all the pitcher had to do was throw it somewhere in the vicinity of the plate and he’d take that wild swing hoping to hit something.

The Astros didn't make the playoffs that year, in part because one of their players had the only .000 batting average in the league. In the final game of the season the Astros were playing the Reds, and since this would be the last time we’d see these kids for the summer, we got out the Perfect Attendance trophies to present after the game. The Reds had two kids with perfect attendance; the Astros had one - Alan.

At some point during the game I watched Alan take a swing at a pitch and miss wildly, his wooden bat nearly spinning him around. I called time out, took the ball from the pitcher, and told Alan to get at the plate. I held the ball out in front of me and began walking it, like a slow motion pitch, towards him. I told Alan to take an easy swing when it got there. He slowly brought the bat around as the ball arrived and swung gently to my hand, stopping as the two touched. I tossed the ball back to the pitcher and stood behind Alan, put my arms around his shoulders and grabbed the bat above his hands and swung it hard two or three times, to give him the feel of a good swing. There were a few chuckles because it probably looked funny to the other 12 year-old kids watching. I went back into the dugout and picked up my score book without much hope. It would be nice to tell you that the next pitch was lined into left field and that Alan went on to become a Major League player, but that didn’t happen. However, the next best thing did.

The ball got to the plate, Alan took his best swing of the season, and hit a hard ground ball to third. He stood and watched for a second just like the rest of us, before his teammates started telling him to “Run! Run!” Amazingly, Alan knew where to go and began loping to first, looking only at the base. The third baseman had an easy play and Alan should have been retired, but the fielder expected a hop that never came and the ball skidded through his legs into the outfield. At full speed Alan reached the base, then screeched to a halt, trying to keep his toe on it, forgetting that he was allowed to overrun first. His teammates cheered like they’d just won the championship. At first Alan wanted to act like it was no big deal, but then he couldn’t help it. He smiled from ear to ear and pumped both fists in the air three times. I don't think he even knew the fielder should have made the play, and doubt it would have mattered to him anyway. In my score book it was written down in huge, bold letters as a base hit.

I don't remember who won or lost that game. I do know that when we handed out the Perfect Attendance trophies, I had the honor of presenting Alan with his. I recall watching him ride away on his bike at the end of that summer wondering if I’d ever see him again. I did. He showed up next year at registration ready to play another season of baseball.

Posted by our partners at CoachDeck

The level of success you have this season will depend upon your organization. Your CoachDeck contains 52 great drills to assist you. But the bottom line is, come to practice with a strategy in which all players are constantly active and doing something productive, and you’ll look like a genius and wonder where the time went. Come to games with an organized plan and a prepared player rotation grid, and instead of managing chaos, you’ll be managing a team.

The need for organization goes well beyond what you do on the field. You may want to begin each season with a letter to all of your team’s parents. And don’t try to run the team it all alone. Enlist as much help as you can from other parents who come out to practice. Many of them are willing to help but do not want to “butt-in” and won’t approach you if you don’t ask. Often, once you ask another mom or dad to help out, you’ll have another assistant coach at every practice and game thereafter. But if you don’t ask at the first practice, they may just all figure you’ve “got it covered” and that you don’t want any help.

There are other aspects to your organization as well. It is important for you to set a good example to your team by always arriving to games and practices on time, if not early. You should expect nothing less of your players.

Keep your equipment bag neat and organized and make sure that you’ve got everything stored where it belongs when practice or games end. It’s a great idea to get your players in the habit of putting all the gear away after every event.

Finally, make sure you recruit a good team parent, or, if one person is unwilling to do this job alone, ask two to share the duty. A good team parent makes your life imminently easier as he/she will help you send emails and make phone calls to your team concerning practices, rainouts, game schedules and other necessary items. The team parent can organize your season snack schedule and end-of-the-year team party. I’ve had a team parent so thorough she even produced laminated roster cards for every player and their parents containing players’ names, uniform numbers and contact information, along with clips to attach them to every child’s bat bag. I can’t tell you how often I needed to call a player and used the roster card on my son’s bag because it was handy.

Your organization skills are often the difference between positive parent feedback and negative. And whether you’ve got a ton of experience coaching or are a novice, spending a few minutes ahead of time getting prepared will make you look like a pro.

John Wooden, the former UCLA basketball coach widely regarded as the greatest ever, has written Six Ways to Bring Out the Best in Other People:
1. Keep courtesy and consideration for others foremost in your mind, at home and away.
2. Try to have fun without being funny.
3. While you can’t control what happens to you, you can control how you react. Make good manners an automatic reaction.
4. Seek individual opportunities to offer a genuine compliment.
5. Remember that sincerity, optimism and enthusiasm are more welcome than sarcasm, pessimism and laziness.
6. Laugh with others, never at them

By Brian Gotta, President of CoachDeck
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Six steps to being a good coach, when distilled down are:
• When coaching young players, try to spend as much time as possible on their level, by taking a knee or sitting, to reduce the disparity between you and them
• Never say something negative about a player’s ability, and find something positive to go along with any corrections you need to make
• Blaming your mistakes on players only leads to their confusion and shame, and makes you appear insecure
• Part of being a good coach is being tough now and then
• Don’t tell and yell – show and know. In other words, demonstrating to your players what you want them to do, and having them show you that they’ve got it is better than talking
• Make the season fun by staying out of the traps of over competitiveness and lack of organization.

As I’ve said before…if all you do with your team this year is ensure that every youngster wants to come back and play again next season…you’ve passed with flying colors!

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

As a basecoach, I’m pretty aggressive and pride myself in being able to exploit defensive mistakes. But this story isn’t about my acumen, rather about two different opposing coaches’ reactions to a similar situation.

The first event came during a baseball game, several years ago, when I was coaching my middle boy’s Majors team. There were runners on first and second and we got a base hit to the outfield. My lead runner scored as the throw got away from the catcher and rolled to the back of the backstop. The runner from first got to third and rounded it as the catcher retrieved the ball and covered the plate. The pitcher was there too. The catcher handed the ball to the pitcher and the pitcher walked back to the mound, glancing over at my runner who was still leading off.

However, their catcher’s mask was laying at the base of the backstop, and he headed back to get it. As he and the pitcher walked in opposite directions, home plate became increasingly vulnerable. I quietly coaxed my runner off more, and when the time came that I knew neither player could get to him, he took off. The pitcher and catcher each took a desperate step towards home, then stared helplessly as he scored easily. It was a back-breaking play to surrender defensively.

From the third base dugout, the opposing team’s assistant coach tipped his cap by complimenting me on the play. The manager, who has since become one of my good friends, did what very few coaches would do. He stepped in and took the blame. He came out of the dugout, patted his chest and said loudly enough for players and fans alike, “That was my fault. I should have called time out. That one’s on me.”

Fast forward to just last week. Now I’m coaching my daughter’s softball team and have a runner on third with two out. It doesn’t look like we’re going to drive her in conventionally, so I take a chance. I tell her to get a huge lead on the next pitch and then listen to what I tell her. The pitch comes in and she jumps off base, almost halfway down the line. The catcher has the ball and her coach, as I’d hoped he would, yells, “Get her!” The catcher throws the ball to third and I tell my runner to go. By the time the ball reaches the third baseman and is thrown back home, we score easily. I see the other team’s assistant coach react with disgust and the manager, who told the girl to “Get her,” blamed his catcher. He said, “When I said to get her I meant run at her. When you throw the ball to third she’s going to score.”

How easy would it have been for the coach in the first scenario to yell at his players for leaving home plate unattended? I believe many coaches would have been embarrassed and made the kids accept responsibility by telling them they should have seen that coming, or trying to cover for themselves by saying, “We’ve talked about that before!” But I wonder which coach inspires more confidence in his players and which coach’s players are always nervous and afraid to make mistakes. It seems that the coach who has the self-confidence to be willing to step up and take the blame for his team’s poor performance is the one who will ultimately get the most out of his players.

By Brian Gotta, President of Upstart Sports

I have three boys and a girl, in that order. After coaching boys baseball for ten years, adjusting to little girls softball was, well, an adjustment. My daughter played pretty hard, and was not too afraid of getting hurt, but one little girl, Zoe, taught me some of the most wonderful lessons of my coaching career.

I walked into the first year of girls softball, (ages 11-12) thinking that it would be pretty much like coaching boys of the same age, only with pony-tails. That thinking went out the window when, at the first practice, half the girls came dressed like they were going to a friend’s house to play. Instead of sliding shorts and knee pads, several wore thin, short-shorts and one even donned a skirt! I had planned on covering base running and, by extension, sliding, but that game-plan changed when I saw the attire.

After getting the girls to dress properly, it was still a challenge to make them slide. One girl in particular, Zoe, the most adorable little blonde-haired, blue-eyed sweetheart, just couldn’t force herself to go into the base on the ground.

One game early in the season, Zoe made it to third and represented a critical run in the game. She was my least confident base runner so getting her this far was a minor miracle. I had little hope of getting her to be able to steal home on a passed ball, even though their catcher was having problems. As the pitcher delivered to our batter, I coached Zoe and got her to take a big lead-off after every pitch. I knew I wouldn’t send her home unless the perfect situation arose when she’d be certain to make it safely – standing up.

Then, it happened. The ball got past the catcher and was rolling slowly to the corner of the backstop. I instantly recognized that by the time the catcher would be able to retrieve the ball, Zoe would be easily safe. I yelled to her to “Go! Go!” She took off for home and it was obvious she was going to make it.

But she stopped. She stopped running momentarily and pulled up her sliding knee pad. Then she continued to the plate, arriving daintily at the same time as the pitcher and the ball. It was close, but she was out.

I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. Did she really stop halfway to home? As she came into the dugout I called her over. “Zoe,” I asked. “Did, you stop and pull up your knee pad?” She looked at me sweetly, without the slightest hesitation and said, “Yeah. Sorry.”

So we continued to work on it at practice. One of our CoachDeck drills, “Two Team Slide,” was extremely helpful getting girls to get used to sliding. The whole team, including Zoe, was actually sliding into bases now. Fast-forward to the playoffs and we’re in the semi-finals against a team we’d only beaten once in three tries. They had the lead by one in the last inning and Zoe was on second with two outs. If i could get her to third, I knew there was a chance she could score, even on an infield hit. A pitch went in the dirt and I exhorted her to run, the catcher pounced on it faster than I’d anticipated and made a perfect throw. It was going to be close if we slid. But Zoe was my runner.

Zoe not only slid, she slid so hard she completely dislodged the base from its peg. She was safe. Two pitches later a ground ball which could have been the final out was bobbled in the infield and Zoe scored the tying run. A steal and a base hit later, we won the game in a walk-off fashion. Zoe got the game ball for her slide. I got the reward of a lifetime as a coach. I learned (again) that the true measure of a great coach is not necessarily in wins and losses, but in maximizing the potential of each player on the team. I believe I got the most out of Zoe. I know she got the most out of me.