Baseball Coaching Digest: 5 Solid Tips for Taking Your Team From Worst to First in Batting Stats

Baseball Coaching Digest: 5 Solid Tips for Taking Your Team From Worst to First in Batting Stats
By guest author: Nick Dixon

There are five things that I recommend baseball coaches do to improve a team's offensive numbers. These are changes that coaches must put into place if they are looking to take their team to a higher level in hitting statistics. This article explains those five things that I suggest that you make a part of your regular team routine.

Your team can become a better hitting team. I am 100% confident that you can be the reason that your team has a better hitting season this year than last season. The number one thing you must remember is the saying, "Stupidity is never more evident than when a coach has his team do the same thing over, and over and over, but expects different results". If you want your team to be better than they have ever been, you have got to plan, coach, instruct, teacher, work, and organize your practices better than you ever have.

Here are three things I recommend for helping a team become a better hitting team:

1. Change Your Attitude - Teams always emulate the attitude of the coach. If you expect the team to hit better and do all of the work and preparations to do so, then the players will expect better results. Make it known that "thing are changing around here". Make it known that you have a new system, a new approach, and a new commitment to getting the job done at the plate. Let the team know that "everything counts". Every practice swing must be performed, reviewed, assessed, and critiqued. Make it known that every fundamental will be given the attention necessary to make the team better. Sub-par practice will not be accepted. We will practice like we play and play like we practice, with a stated purpose and with total focus.

2. Sense of Urgency - Make sure that your team and staff know that improvement is a must. They must realize that last year's or season's numbers were bad for a reason. Those numbers are unacceptable and unexpected this year. And explain to them that the reason for those bad numbers last season was a lack of work, a lack of commitment, and a lack of performance. The players and staff must realize the importance of making improvements. When a coach becomes better at teaching a skill, the team just got better. When a player becomes more knowledgeable on a baseball task, the team just got better. All players and staff must know that they must be committed to doing more than normal to help the team improve. Players and staff should be willing to stay after practice, come in before practice, or find extra time, outside of team practices, to work and improve on fundamentals. A player must know that the team "chain" is no stronger than the "weakest link". If a player is weak at a particular skill, until that player improves, the team will not be as good as possible.

3. Repetition of Quality Swings - Practice repetition for the sake of practice repetition is useless. Swing the bat is useless if the swing is a bad practice swing of less than game speed or game quality. You team needs to have a commitment to numbers and quality if your team's hitting numbers are going to drastically improve. My "rule of thumb" is that I want every player in my program to take at least 300 practice swing a day. Those swings must be purpose driven with no tolerance for "playing around", "goofing off" or "less than perfect execution". I don't care how the swings are performed. They can be off a batting tee, a training machine, live-arm in the batting cage, or simply a soft-toss drill. The key is to take enough swings every day to allow the player's swing to become instinctive, smooth, and as powerful as possible. The more quality swing a player takes, the more confidence that player will have.

4. Improving Knowledge - To improve quality of play, improved knowledge must take place first. Player must know what a good swing looks like. They must know what makes a stance a good stance. They must know and be able to identify good and bad hitting mechanics and fundamentals. They must hear the correct words and terminology when it comes to instruction, teaching, and practice. A coach must do his homework when it comes to learning the fundamentals of playing and coaching the game. Read books, articles, and everything else that you can get your hands on. Visit the Baseball Coaching Digest, the Youth Baseball Digest or the Baseball Today Coaching Journal to access free drills, tips, and coaching articles. Watch videos on YouTube of batting drills and coaching tips.

5. Truth and Consequences - Never lie to your team. Tell them honestly when a drill is good and tell them when a drill is bad. Have a consequence for poor drill performance. I try to keep my drills and instruction periods short at no than 10 to 15 minutes. But, if a drill is done sloppy or poorly, I have told my team that I reserve the right to always to have the team do a drill over or do a "start over". I want my players to know that we have a commitment to quality not quantity.

I hope that you found this article to be informative and useful. You may read more articles like it at the Baseball Coaching Digest, Youth Baseball Digest, and the Baseball Parent Guide. Thanks for reading this article. I wish you and your team the best of luck in the coming season. Have a great day, Nick.

The Baseball2u.com Baseball Store has a great selection of 1400 Baseball Products. Check out the BatAction Hitting Machine baseball pitching simulator. Available now for just $119.95 + S&H.

Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, a sports training company established in 1999. Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Dixon coaches at Boaz High in Boaz Alabama. Dixon is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association and Alabama Baseball Coaches Association.

Dixon is better known as the inventor of the BatAction Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Target Trainer, the SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and the SKLZ Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is considered an expert in baseball training and skills development. Dixon also serves as an active consultant to baseball equipment companies and other sports product inventors.

Dixon is also a contributing writer for the Baseball Coaching Digest, the baseball Coaching Digest Blog, the Youth Baseball Digest, the Youth Baseball Digest Blog, the Baseball Parent Guide, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, and Blog4Coaches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Dixon

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Little League Digest - Instantly Make Yourself a Better Little Coach With This Quick Self Evaluation

Little League Digest - Instantly Make Yourself a Better Little Coach With This Quick Self Evaluation
By guest author: Nick Dixon


Little League Digest: You Can Make Yourself a Better Little Coach Instantly with this Quick Preseason Evaluation

The quality of a Little League Team's play depends greatly on the quality of coaching the kids receive. Coaches spend most of their team assessing and trying to improve player skills and performance. The theory is simple, improve your player's talent and you improve your team. I have a different approach. I say, improve your coaching skills and your Little League team will definitely play better baseball. How do you improve your coaching skills? I have a simple evaluation that will help you become a better coach instantly.

Ask yourself these the three simple questions listed below. Depending on your answer, chose the recommended approach and set your standards for this coming season.

Question #1 - "Coach, are you a good a planner and organizer when it comes to Little League Baseball Practice?"

If you answered YES...Congratulations! Your planning and organizational skills should help your team have high quality practices in the coming season. Move on to question #2.

If you answered NO....Make a commitment now that you will spend at least 20 minutes pre-planning every practice and write your practice plan on paper. Carefully plan each drill and activity with specific start times and end times. Make sure that drills are short with time periods restricted to 10 minutes are less. Make a commitment to make a copy to give to each assistant coach that you have helping you.

Question # 2 - "Coach, do you value time and punctuality as much as you should?'

If you answered YES...Congratulations! You are a coach that knows the value of time and punctuality. Your players are lucky to have such a coach. Move on to question #3.

If you answered NO....Make a commitment now that you will be the first person on sight at every practice and game. It is bad policy for Little League coaches to arrive late at a practice or game. If you expect your players to always be at practice on time, you should set a good example and be the first person arriving each day. Make it your personal goal to not be late for a single practice or game. Always plan and give yourself extra time to arrive at practice.

Question # 3 - "Coach, do you really know enough about the baseball fundamentals and the rules of baseball to adequately teach your players?"

If you answered YES...Congratulations! Your knowledge of baseball is commended. You are a coach knows baseball fundamentals and knows how to teach them. Your baseball knowledge will definitely give your team an advantage in the coming season. Congratulations! You have completed this coaching self-evaluation.

If you answered NO....Make a commitment now to commit time and effort to improving your knowledge of the rules of the game of baseball and the fundamentals of baseball that your players must be taught and master. The internet is a valuable resource for finding free baseball coaching articles and drill videos. Three great sites for free articles are the Baseball Coaching Digest, the Youth Baseball Digest, and the Little League Digest.

Every Little League Coach has a responsibility to put effort in learning more than they know. How can we expect players to improve their knowledge of the game if we refuse to? Not knowing baseball is not the ultimate sin of a baseball coach. Refusing to become a student of the game is the ultimate sin. If you knowledge is limited and you do not wish to increase your knowledge, you might be doing your team a favor to offer your time and effort as a Little League volunteer in another capacity other than coaching.

How did you score?

One Yes Answer - You are definitely an honest person and honesty is a strong virtue of a good Little League Baseball Coach. You now know what two areas you in which you need to improve. You are commended for taking the first crucial steps toward improving your qualities as a Little League Coach. Improvement will come with the right commitment and continued effort.

Two Yes Answers - You should be proud that you only have one area where improvement is required. You are close to being a top notch Little League Coach. You should focus all of your effort into eliminating the weakness that you have identified. Set your goal now to improve your qualities as a coach in that particular area.

Three Yes Answers - Congratulations! You are a top quality Little League Coach. With your skills and talent, you should be able to help every player on your team improve and become a better player. You team should have a great.

I hope that this evaluation helps you improve as a coach. Enthusiasm is one trait this quick evaluation did not address. Along with the qualities evaluated here, you must possess and display a high level of excitement and enthusiasm for the great game of baseball. Thanks for taking the time to read this article. Good luck in the coming season! Have a great day, Nick.

The CoachesBest Baseball Store has a great selection of 1400 Baseball Products. Check out the Joe Mauer Quick Swing batting practice machine.

Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, a sports training company established in 1999. Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Coach Dixon is better known as the inventor of the BatAction Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Target Trainer, the SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and the SKLZ Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is also a contributing writer for BaseballCoachingDigest, the Youth Baseball Digest, the Baseball Parent Guide, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, and Blog4Coaches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Dixon




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• Articles from the Youth Softball Coaching Clinic Blog
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• Articles from the Coaching Fastpitch Softball Hitters Blog
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• The Fastpitch Softball Training Equipment Blog