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Youth Coaching Resources
At Big Fish, we're passionate about supporting the dads and moms who coach youth baseball and youth softball. There are SO MANY resources out there that it's easy to become overwhelmed. Remember - the culture you create through your encouragement, support, and willingness to give your time is the real difference-maker for kids.
The below ideas and resources come from a variety of sources. There is no "one way" to coach youth baseball and youth softball. Keep it positive, keep them moving, and ensure they are enjoying playing the game. If you have questions or want to talk more about what you see below, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at bigfishperformance@gmail.com
We can't post these ideas without another set of shout outs to Team Mustard and to the Driveline youth academy. They both have extensive and helpful free resources and ideas for youth coaches.
Team Mustard Blog, "The Squeeze"
Driveline Youth Academy Blog
The below ideas and resources come from a variety of sources. There is no "one way" to coach youth baseball and youth softball. Keep it positive, keep them moving, and ensure they are enjoying playing the game. If you have questions or want to talk more about what you see below, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at bigfishperformance@gmail.com
We can't post these ideas without another set of shout outs to Team Mustard and to the Driveline youth academy. They both have extensive and helpful free resources and ideas for youth coaches.
Team Mustard Blog, "The Squeeze"
Driveline Youth Academy Blog
Phases of the season
The most common question we've had from new coaches goes like this:
"I'm just not a 'baseball person' or 'softball person' - how do I even structure a practice?" But first, zoom out further and think about how you structure your season.
For us here in the northland, there are three phases to the season in youth baseball and softball
Onboarding (4 weeks) - mid-April to Mid-May. The overarching goal is to set up your expectations and your routines. During this time you'll teach the specific drills you'll use for the season.
Train to Train (8 weeks*) - mid-May to the 4th of July. This is the meat of your practice time for the year. This is where we back off on some/most of the mechanical instruction and let the drills do the work. (Make sure you read about external cues vs. internal cues, that's important.)
*In Twin Cities metro youth softball, this phase is more like six weeks, with their state tournaments coming in mid-July.
Train to Compete (2 weeks+) - after the 4th of July break for baseball, end of June for softball. This part of the season tends to be a ton of games and end of the year tournaments. Any practice time should just be focused on helping your players feel successful.
"I'm just not a 'baseball person' or 'softball person' - how do I even structure a practice?" But first, zoom out further and think about how you structure your season.
For us here in the northland, there are three phases to the season in youth baseball and softball
Onboarding (4 weeks) - mid-April to Mid-May. The overarching goal is to set up your expectations and your routines. During this time you'll teach the specific drills you'll use for the season.
Train to Train (8 weeks*) - mid-May to the 4th of July. This is the meat of your practice time for the year. This is where we back off on some/most of the mechanical instruction and let the drills do the work. (Make sure you read about external cues vs. internal cues, that's important.)
*In Twin Cities metro youth softball, this phase is more like six weeks, with their state tournaments coming in mid-July.
Train to Compete (2 weeks+) - after the 4th of July break for baseball, end of June for softball. This part of the season tends to be a ton of games and end of the year tournaments. Any practice time should just be focused on helping your players feel successful.
Practice Planning
As they say, "An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of not having the kids run amok." Or something like that.
Three overall keys here:
Blocks of Time - 90 minute practice*
5 minutes - Dynamic Warm up
20 minutes - Throwing Block
40 minutes - Small Group Hitting Station, Small Group Defense Station (20 minutes each and rotate)
20 minutes - Full Team
5 minutes - Team strength and wrap up
Please click here for our main three practice templates
Please click here for an example of one that's been filled out
*You will find others who advocate for two hour practices. We think that is too much on a regular basis for kids and family schedules. However, we have also found that 1-hour practices are great for small group training but not enough for a full team. And remember - all this time for different blocks is negotiable and is a starting point. Consider the age of your team and their age appropriate attention spans.
Three overall keys here:
- Plan your practices into blocks of time. Template below.
- Short lines - anytime you can break your team up into two lines of 6, or three lines of 4... do it. If you ever have them all lined up they will start tackling each other and kicking dirt.
- Compete. You can literally take any activity and say "One point for this, two points for that..." The kids will enjoy this and levels of focus will increase.
Blocks of Time - 90 minute practice*
5 minutes - Dynamic Warm up
20 minutes - Throwing Block
40 minutes - Small Group Hitting Station, Small Group Defense Station (20 minutes each and rotate)
20 minutes - Full Team
5 minutes - Team strength and wrap up
Please click here for our main three practice templates
Please click here for an example of one that's been filled out
*You will find others who advocate for two hour practices. We think that is too much on a regular basis for kids and family schedules. However, we have also found that 1-hour practices are great for small group training but not enough for a full team. And remember - all this time for different blocks is negotiable and is a starting point. Consider the age of your team and their age appropriate attention spans.
Defining those blocks of time
Dynamic Warmup
The old days of standing in a circle and stretching are gone.
Depending on the age of your team, a dynamic warmup can be anything from a 5-minute game of tag to a structured warm up. For older teams, we love to have coaches pick a set of exercises and stick with them. It becomes a great chance for kids to have some leadership and autonomy.
Throwing Block
This is dedicating time every day to throwing. In our template, we delineate between which kids are going to play regular catch and while kids might throw a bullpen session to a catcher or to each other. This is all dependent on where your team is at in their season, who has thrown when, etc.
This is also a time when you can insert some throwing games, like 21 or relay races.
Small Group Hitting Block and Small Group Defense
Again about the old days - one kid hitting and 11 shagging is mostly out the door, at least until we get closer to the end of the season or we're talking about pregame. If you have the ability to split your team in half - and seriously if you are the only coach, ask some of the moms and dads for help - your players will get a lot more swings and repetitions in the small group.
There are a lot of great hitting drills out there, so just consider your space. If you don't have a cage or net to hit into, get some plyo balls and run the drills with those for easy pickup.
On defense, being able to split the group up helps you to specialize when you can. Maybe you have a group that really needs to focus on ground balls and another group that really needs outfield work - make those two separate groups for a day. Similarly, incorporate working with your catchers for 20 minutes and split your groups into three instead. Have 6 hitting, 3 working with a coach on catching drills, and 3 doing infield work. Again, a lot of this depends on your available resources.
Full Team Time
This is the classic things you do with all teams - team defense, short screen scrimmages, cut offs, relays, competition games... 1000 things you can do.
Strength and Wrap Up
The classic method of conditioning at the end of practice - running conditioning - may be another thing of the past. The five minute wrap up is a great place to reinforce the need for functional strength with kids. Push ups, sit ups, regular and side planks... all are some quick finishing exercises you can end with.
The old days of standing in a circle and stretching are gone.
Depending on the age of your team, a dynamic warmup can be anything from a 5-minute game of tag to a structured warm up. For older teams, we love to have coaches pick a set of exercises and stick with them. It becomes a great chance for kids to have some leadership and autonomy.
Throwing Block
This is dedicating time every day to throwing. In our template, we delineate between which kids are going to play regular catch and while kids might throw a bullpen session to a catcher or to each other. This is all dependent on where your team is at in their season, who has thrown when, etc.
This is also a time when you can insert some throwing games, like 21 or relay races.
Small Group Hitting Block and Small Group Defense
Again about the old days - one kid hitting and 11 shagging is mostly out the door, at least until we get closer to the end of the season or we're talking about pregame. If you have the ability to split your team in half - and seriously if you are the only coach, ask some of the moms and dads for help - your players will get a lot more swings and repetitions in the small group.
There are a lot of great hitting drills out there, so just consider your space. If you don't have a cage or net to hit into, get some plyo balls and run the drills with those for easy pickup.
On defense, being able to split the group up helps you to specialize when you can. Maybe you have a group that really needs to focus on ground balls and another group that really needs outfield work - make those two separate groups for a day. Similarly, incorporate working with your catchers for 20 minutes and split your groups into three instead. Have 6 hitting, 3 working with a coach on catching drills, and 3 doing infield work. Again, a lot of this depends on your available resources.
Full Team Time
This is the classic things you do with all teams - team defense, short screen scrimmages, cut offs, relays, competition games... 1000 things you can do.
Strength and Wrap Up
The classic method of conditioning at the end of practice - running conditioning - may be another thing of the past. The five minute wrap up is a great place to reinforce the need for functional strength with kids. Push ups, sit ups, regular and side planks... all are some quick finishing exercises you can end with.
External Cues versus Internal Cues
This might be one of our most important topics for in season youth coaching. It also might be one of the hardest things to do: stop correcting so much.
It's so tempting to work with kids' mechanics and make comments in a team setting. However, it is really hard for kids based on those verbal instructions to make the changes you are asking for. When we tell an athlete "Keep your back shoulder up" - that's an internal cue. They have to be able to visualize that in the correct way you're describing, and then figure out (internally) how to get their body to do it. That's can be really, really hard for kids. Ultimately, that kind of correction leads to less confidence, more frustration, and seeds the idea of "I can't do it."
Instead, think about using external cues as much as possible. "Hit the ball off the back of the cage," "Hit the ball to right field," "throw a strike on the outside half of the plate" are all external cues. It requires the athlete to figure out what adjustments they need to make on their own to do that thing you're asking. (The buzz word for that is "self-organizing" if you want to impress your friends.)
Now, let's slow down a second - this is not a black/white, either/or situation. Some mechanical instruction is good and necessary. We're just saying - keep it simple, and let's keep it 80%/20% external cues versus internal cues.
It's so tempting to work with kids' mechanics and make comments in a team setting. However, it is really hard for kids based on those verbal instructions to make the changes you are asking for. When we tell an athlete "Keep your back shoulder up" - that's an internal cue. They have to be able to visualize that in the correct way you're describing, and then figure out (internally) how to get their body to do it. That's can be really, really hard for kids. Ultimately, that kind of correction leads to less confidence, more frustration, and seeds the idea of "I can't do it."
Instead, think about using external cues as much as possible. "Hit the ball off the back of the cage," "Hit the ball to right field," "throw a strike on the outside half of the plate" are all external cues. It requires the athlete to figure out what adjustments they need to make on their own to do that thing you're asking. (The buzz word for that is "self-organizing" if you want to impress your friends.)
Now, let's slow down a second - this is not a black/white, either/or situation. Some mechanical instruction is good and necessary. We're just saying - keep it simple, and let's keep it 80%/20% external cues versus internal cues.
Some of our favorite drill resources for youth coaches
Hitting Drills from Driveline.com - foundational drills that will be great for youth coaches
The Hitting Vault - Best Team Drills - blog that has a ton of drills to do
USA Baseball Mobile Coach - this has an extensive drill library
USA Softball Fundamentals and Resources
You might be saying "Why aren't you just telling me what drills to do?"
Any good curriculum is personal. Think about who your kids are and what they need. Then, use those resources and collaborate with your assistants to find some drills you'll be comfortable teaching. USA Baseball does have pre-made practice plans. And then if you still need "Just tell me what to do" - email us at [email protected] and we'll help. We love talking about this stuff!
The Hitting Vault - Best Team Drills - blog that has a ton of drills to do
USA Baseball Mobile Coach - this has an extensive drill library
USA Softball Fundamentals and Resources
You might be saying "Why aren't you just telling me what drills to do?"
Any good curriculum is personal. Think about who your kids are and what they need. Then, use those resources and collaborate with your assistants to find some drills you'll be comfortable teaching. USA Baseball does have pre-made practice plans. And then if you still need "Just tell me what to do" - email us at [email protected] and we'll help. We love talking about this stuff!
FAQ: What to focus on and when to focus on it
When it comes to coaching teams, we prefer a developmental model that looks like this:
8-9 year old teams - exposure to fundamentals, low risk, take it seriously but above all, keep it fun!
10-12 year old teams - train to train - the idea here is that we are teaching them that training is important. We put in a lot more drill work and emphasize that the work at practice and outside practice is what leads to success.
13-14 year old team - train to compete - this is where you'll start to see the need for more strategy, team defense, and mental approach to at bats. At this point, we can make a safer assumption that athletes who are serious about their sport are doing some training outside of the team setting. Again, slow down a second... that's not either/or. Some of the kids who end up being the best players in high school and beyond still aren't doing anything outside of team practice and are just better biological athletes.
8-9 year old teams - exposure to fundamentals, low risk, take it seriously but above all, keep it fun!
10-12 year old teams - train to train - the idea here is that we are teaching them that training is important. We put in a lot more drill work and emphasize that the work at practice and outside practice is what leads to success.
13-14 year old team - train to compete - this is where you'll start to see the need for more strategy, team defense, and mental approach to at bats. At this point, we can make a safer assumption that athletes who are serious about their sport are doing some training outside of the team setting. Again, slow down a second... that's not either/or. Some of the kids who end up being the best players in high school and beyond still aren't doing anything outside of team practice and are just better biological athletes.
In game management: Lineups and game planning
You'll see coaches do all kinds of variations of how to set up their lineup, from the simple (making up positions as they go) to complex (magnet boards, elaborate rotation systems).
We prefer setting your lineup and game plan for positions well ahead of the game for a few important reasons. Most of these reasons are to avoid the emotional pull of wins and losses. (More on that at the bottom...) Setting up who will play where, and when:
Here is a template we've used for the past few years. MS Word DocX | PDF
Wins and losses - this is another place where the middle road is the right path. As coaches, you have a crucial role in providing the players and their families with important context. It's not the "moral victories" part, but it's more like "Yep, losing doesn't feel good. But today you/they did (this thing) better than last week, and let's celebrate that."
Again, it's a balance - winning isn't the only thing, but it's not irrelevant either. Make sure to set the expectation that while you will have a lineup plan and stick to it, there will be that 10% of the time you might deviate in the late innings to pull off a victory. To quote Josh Eidem's B-squad basketball coach in Rochester, Mark Glaeser, in about 1996: "Boys, we don't have to win, but when you win, the pizza sure tastes better."
We prefer setting your lineup and game plan for positions well ahead of the game for a few important reasons. Most of these reasons are to avoid the emotional pull of wins and losses. (More on that at the bottom...) Setting up who will play where, and when:
- Helps you stick to a plan of kids playing in multiple positions during the game
- Reduces the anxiety of unknowns for your players if they know where they are going and when later in the game
- Reduces the amount of questions and requests they have of your coaches during the game
- If you keep the sheets, it leaves you a paper trail of data to easily review. "How much has X player been in the infield over the past two weeks?"
Here is a template we've used for the past few years. MS Word DocX | PDF
Wins and losses - this is another place where the middle road is the right path. As coaches, you have a crucial role in providing the players and their families with important context. It's not the "moral victories" part, but it's more like "Yep, losing doesn't feel good. But today you/they did (this thing) better than last week, and let's celebrate that."
Again, it's a balance - winning isn't the only thing, but it's not irrelevant either. Make sure to set the expectation that while you will have a lineup plan and stick to it, there will be that 10% of the time you might deviate in the late innings to pull off a victory. To quote Josh Eidem's B-squad basketball coach in Rochester, Mark Glaeser, in about 1996: "Boys, we don't have to win, but when you win, the pizza sure tastes better."
Increasing Self-Motivation for Your Team and Players
Just a last note about building your team culture and keeping your team motivated. Self-Determination Theory, which drives our internal motivation, is based on three things: Autonomy, Belonging, and Competence.
Autonomy: I have some choice over what I do - what positions I get to play, or what fun game we play at practice, or which cheer we're going to do when we take the field. It doesn't mean everything's a choice though. The coaches still have authority and final say. But the more you can make your kids appropriately part of the process, the more ownership they will feel.
Belonging: In the team atmosphere, this can be the easiest and the hardest. The easy part is having them feel that what they are doing together matters. "We are the Tigers!"
The hard part is making sure it extends to all the times they are together. When the team is at the restaurant between games, pay attention to how they treat each other. Are the kids sitting together? Are cliques developing? Think about ways to you can team-build, reinforce expectations, and positively connect your players beyond the game itself.
Competence: This element is about pushing your kids but also putting them in places to be successful. Competence is about things being appropriately challenging and having the belief we can achieve our goals.
Let's take an example of a player who really wants to be a catcher, and their parents want them too also. But... you know they aren't ready - they can't block pitches, or they are missing easy pitches to catch. Under pressure, it's tempting to put the player back behind the plate in a game just to prove to them, and maybe their parents, that they aren't ready. However, that's a huge de-motivator for everyone. The other players don't enjoy it, the team isn't successful, and at the end of the day, who's job is it to teach the player to be a catcher? Right...
Instead, work with the player and/or their parents on what an appropriate level of challenge would be to help them improve. What are the metrics you need to see before they can catch in a game? Is it catching 9 out of 10 catchable pitches? And then incorporate that into practice.
Autonomy: I have some choice over what I do - what positions I get to play, or what fun game we play at practice, or which cheer we're going to do when we take the field. It doesn't mean everything's a choice though. The coaches still have authority and final say. But the more you can make your kids appropriately part of the process, the more ownership they will feel.
Belonging: In the team atmosphere, this can be the easiest and the hardest. The easy part is having them feel that what they are doing together matters. "We are the Tigers!"
The hard part is making sure it extends to all the times they are together. When the team is at the restaurant between games, pay attention to how they treat each other. Are the kids sitting together? Are cliques developing? Think about ways to you can team-build, reinforce expectations, and positively connect your players beyond the game itself.
Competence: This element is about pushing your kids but also putting them in places to be successful. Competence is about things being appropriately challenging and having the belief we can achieve our goals.
Let's take an example of a player who really wants to be a catcher, and their parents want them too also. But... you know they aren't ready - they can't block pitches, or they are missing easy pitches to catch. Under pressure, it's tempting to put the player back behind the plate in a game just to prove to them, and maybe their parents, that they aren't ready. However, that's a huge de-motivator for everyone. The other players don't enjoy it, the team isn't successful, and at the end of the day, who's job is it to teach the player to be a catcher? Right...
Instead, work with the player and/or their parents on what an appropriate level of challenge would be to help them improve. What are the metrics you need to see before they can catch in a game? Is it catching 9 out of 10 catchable pitches? And then incorporate that into practice.