Last year I had a running bet with our strength coach. We were trying to see who could be the first to throw BP with their non-dominant hand. I throw enough BP in a week that I am concerned my right arm won't last my entire coaching career; he just thought it was a good challenge.
​I think coaches can sometimes forget how difficult it is to learn a new skill. That was certainly true for me! It can be even more difficult to change an ingrained movement pattern. Here are a few other lessons I was reminded of during my quest to be a switch-thrower:

"Lead-in" drills are important
One of my most consistent messages to my players is related to starting their next training session from where they left off at the end of their last session. To help refresh their minds and movement patterns, we have players complete "lead-in" drills at the start of their session to remind them of their best mechanics. Provide your players with enough information to choose these drills on their own and guide them through a process for daily implementation. This should be used for throwing, defence, and hitting.

Different drills work for different players or in different situations.
There is a tendency for coaches to label and classify drills as either “good” or “bad”. Of course there are drills that are simply not effective. But in reality, a specific drill is more likely to be effective for some players and ineffective (or even detrimental) to other players.
If you ask Google if towel drills are effective for teaching pitching mechanics, you will see a myriad of opinions. We don’t typically use towel drills for our pitchers, but those drills were a critical part of my left handed learning process.
Drill selection should likely differ depending on what stage the player is at:
-skill acquisition: learning a new skill
​-skill development: improving a learned skill
​-skill modification: changing a previously learned skill

Don’t underestimate the power of a mirror
It is my belief that players need to be able to feel a movement pattern before they can change that movement pattern. Seeing yourself perform a skill in a mirror can help a player develop the feel that is necessary for change.

Breaking a skill down vs. maintaining the full movement pattern
There are certainly some advantages to breaking a skill into it's components in order to teach it effectively. However, coaches need to weigh the cost of taking a complex and dynamic skill and removing all fluidity of that motion in order to teach it. Pitching and hitting are highly dependent on rhythm and timing and that can't be developed when the skill is broken into segments. At the very least, consider breaking a skill down only during the off-season and remember to give a player time to "reassemble" the skill with some rhythm prior to putting them into a competative situation.
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It is easier to teach when the learner is motivated to learn
When players are young, most coaches realise that they need to explain the "why" for everything because players don't have a deep understanding of the game. They need to learn where each skill fits on the diamond.
​Explaining the why is still necessary as a player matures, but it is usually for a different reason. Making a skill or concept relevant to them is crucial. Their investment will be low if they don't think what they are learning is relevant to their immediate performance.
​For me, I know my right arm is going to give out on me sometime soon, so no one needs to waste their time convincing me it is important - I am highly motivated.

Coaches...Are you still challenging yourself to acquire new skills? We place demands on our players to constantly be learning, so we need to stay in touch with how difficult that process can be.

I enjoy hockey. I think I enjoy it more because I can just be a fan. I am “Hockey Night in Canada educated” and this allows me to simply watch my son play and enjoy the game for what it is...fun for him.
I am also a teacher, a coach, and a life long learner. Last year during the Timbits season I was reminded of some key coaching tenants that I feel are forgotten or labeled as unimportant as players get older. As coaches move to higher levels and work with older players, I think some basic coaching principles get lost. Here is what I was reminded about through our first season of Timbits:
​Know everyone's name and use it
​People like to hear their name. It's a simple thing, but I was very aware of the fact that names were used much more frequently during a Timbits practice. Our coach greeted every player by name when they came in the dressing room, used their names with praise during practice, and went around the room and spoke with every player as they took their gear off.
​Split practice into stations
Stations are critical to an effective practice, but I feel like coaches think they are more necessary with younger athletes so they can keep their very limited attention spans. The reality is that a player's attention span is probably just as limited as they get older. Make use of stations so practice is more efficient and engaging.
Always include a game
Regardless of age, players love to compete. You may not be playing a full-size 9 vs 9 game, but include some sort of competition at every practice. Make it fun and at the end of practice make the players want to come back. That should be goal #1 because you can’t help players who don’t show up.
Focus on the positives
Coaches tend to praise younger players more often. As coaches start working with older players, I think there is a tendency to identify everything that a player is doing wrong. Don’t forget that players need to know what they are doing right in order to repeat it.
​Ask players about their favorite part of practice
As I mentioned above, goal #1 is making sure players want to come back tomorrow. Coaches need to understand what players enjoy most about practice so they can develop more engaging practice plans.
​Back to basics
​I think it is a common mistake for coaches to assume their players have certain skills mastered. Players are then progressed from a skill level that is beyond their capabilities. Basic skills need to be reviewed on a continual basis and this doesn't change regardless of what level the players are competing at.

Have a look at my pre-season checklist from 2017

Take offense in groups of 4 hitters.
Challenge your leadoff hitter in every inning to get on base any way they can. Get hit by a pitch, walk, drive a ball to the wall, reach on a dropped strike 3...it doesn't matter how. Get them to keep it simple and not try to do too much.
​Have your second hitter in the inning focus on getting the leadoff hitter 90 feet closer to home plate. If the leadoff man is on 1st, give them the freedom to bunt if they think that is their best option. If the runner on first can run, make sure they understand they need to take a pitch early in the count to give them a chance to steal a base. If the leadoff hitter is on second base, move them to 3rd with a single, a ball to the right side, anything that gets them to 3rd base with 1 out.
Ultimately, you want to put your team in a situation where there is 1 out and a runner at 3rd base. The 3rd hitter in the inning focuses on scoring that base runner and putting one run on the board. A single run in every inning will get your team 7 runs in a game and that should give you a chance to win most nights.

​Have your infielders change their routine between innings.
​We have all seen the typical routine for infielders that takes place between innings - the first baseman rolls a ground ball to one infielder at a time before receiving the ball back and repeating with the next infielder in line. It tends to be slow, largely ineffective at getting an infielders hands and feet going, doesn't always get the arms loose (especially on a cold spring night in Alberta), doesn't engage the first baseman, and is only done because it has always been done this way.
In 2004 the head coach of our team implemented a new routine for between innings and I think it paid huge dividends:
-everyone takes a ball onto the field except the fist baseman
​-beginning with the 3rd baseman, infielders will take turns starting with the ball in their glove, setting their feet in a typical fielding position (ball straight at them, ball to the backhand, ball to the forehand) and making double play feeds
-the middle infielder will turn each double play
-after receiving the last half of the double play, the 1st baseman lobs the ball back to the fielder who started the double play and the next infielder can go through their double play feed
-after all three infielders have gone, the 1st baseman takes his turn and shadows a fielding position, feeds the short stop to start a double play and the cycle begins again

​If you play in a cold climate, consider giving your infielders a bit more of a thorough warm up between innings by having them play 30 seconds of “quick hands” catch at 35-40 feet. This will get their arms loose and warm quickly as they come out of the dugout.

​Approach your pre-game like a mini practice.
​Most teams need more practice time. As coaches, it seems like we never have enough time to teach on the field. This year, I challenge you to adjust your approach to your pre-game preparation. Try looking at your pre-game more like a short practice session and less like a progressive lead-in to game time.  While preparing your players defensively, take them through a few simple drills.  The infielders can do a star throwing drill and the outfielders can work on their outside turn footwork.  You can also run a few relays while doing fly ball work and discuss positioning and communication.  In the cages, make sure players use the tee and hit front toss rather than only hitting live during their pre-game.

Have a look at my pre-season checklist from 2017

Parents are your ally...engage them
During my first years as a head coach I thought that it was important to keep parents at arms length of the baseball operations. First, I thought this was the only way to teach players to be accountable. Second, I was worried that unrealistic expectations around playing time would stem from relationships that I developed with parents and I certainly didn't want playing time decisions to be influenced by how well I got along with a parent.
​In reality, the closer a coach is to his/her parent group, the easier it is to create a successful environment. You can help players develop better personal accountability by keeping the message consistent at the diamond and at home. In addition, consistent, clear communication will help to maintain realistic expectations around playing time and on-field opportunities.
​See an earlier blog post on effective communication for the pre-season information that I discuss with my families to ensure consistent communication.
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Encourage mistakes
So many players are playing this game afraid. They are so afraid of failing that their main objective during the game is to avoiding making a mistake. My main point of emphasis on defense has been to shift our focus to a "make plays" mindset rather than trying to "avoid errors". I`m constantly telling our base runners that if we aren't getting thrown out once in awhile, we are being aggressive enough.

Return on investment for practice time is important
I think back over my first 5 years as a head coach and realize that I spent hours each year practicing the wheel play as part of our bunt defense. One year I stopped putting it into our playbook when it dawned on me that we had never run the play more than one time in a season and were only successful in getting a lead runner once or twice in my entire coaching career. At the level I was coaching, the reality was that the quality of the bunt almost always dictated a defense's ability to throw out a lead runner. I am not saying teams shouldn't use the wheel play, but I am saying that we spent a lot of time working on a defensive play that we rarely used and that provided little value when we did use it (how did it work for the Rangers against the Blue Jays during the 2015 playoffs?).

Time everything
Having some times from game play will help make your practices more realistic. Numbers will obviously vary depending on the level you coach (age of athletes and diamond size), but here are a few examples:
Pitchers - keep them between 1.2 and 1.4 seconds to deliver the baseball when they are working from the stretch in their bullpen sessions. This is time from first movement to the time the ball hits the catchers glove.
Outfielders - challenge outfielders to get to every baseball on the ground in 3.3-3.7 seconds during live BP. If you can stay in this range, 3rd base coaches will send fewer runner to score from 2nd on a single. Time starts when hitter makes contact and time stops when the ball touches the defenders glove.
Infielders - have all infielders make plays to first in 4.0-4.3 seconds. This will give them the ability to throw out most base runners on a ground ball. Time starts when the hitter makes contact with the ball and time stops when the ball is caught by the 1st baseman.
Catchers - the most obvious time to challenge catchers is POP time (time from receiving a pitch to ball getting to middle infielders glove), but I would also encourage coaches to time their catchers as they are working on their bunt footwork. Times for batter-runners on bunts tend to be slightly faster than the numbers above for ground balls and significantly faster for left handed bunters.

Use stations in your practices
​This statement is self explanatory, but this concept is certainly not simple. My primary motivation for using stations in practice is to keep players moving and engaged in practice. Remember: if players think practice is boring and they don't come to your practices, you can't help them. The second reason for using stations is to provide an efficient environment for quality repetitions. Not a mass number of mindless repetitions, but quality ​repetitions.
One of the key components to efficient station work in practice is a daily drill menu for each position. A drill menu is a list of fundamental drills for each position that have already been taught to the players including set up, main focus, and number of reps. Unless you are lucky enough to have a handful of coaches, you want all players to be able to get into their drill work without a coach having to explain and set up each drill. Another key element to station work is enough equipment. Make sure you have enough cones, throw down bases, and baseballs to keep everyone moving.  Have a look at our outfield drill menu, or form package, here.

The players you coach might not be the player you were
The world is constantly changing and much has been made about how leaders can best relate to Gen X or Gen Y or the Centennials. The bottom line...the generation that we lead as coaches will be different than our generation. Rather than bemoaning everything that is wrong with the the ìnstant gratification generation that we coach and how short their attention spans are, just realize that your players won't all be like you. And that is OK. I wasted a lot of time and energy early in my coaching career wondering why players weren`t more invested or why their work ethic was so erratic. Eventually I realized that just because a player doesn`t approach the game the way I did when I was in high school, doesn`t mean that it is wrong.

What have you learned since you started coaching...Leave a comment and share your lessons!