By Maureen Dracup I received this email from that U10 girls’ coach I worked with; an update after their last game. “Before our game on Saturday, I started off with telling the team that we were going to try something different today. They were going to coach themselves. I was going to watch, make substitutions [...]
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By Maureen Dracup Over the past couple of months, I spent time attending coach education events; a licensing course in Chula Vista, California, the NSCAA convention in Baltimore and the USYSA workshop in Pittsburgh. While the classroom and field sessions are an invaluable venue to pick up new ideas and grow as a coach and [...]
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We received this email from a coach who is struggling with disgruntled parents on the soccer team she is coaching: I am the coach of a u11 academy girls soccer team. I have been getting a lot of flack from parents about playing time. This is from, of course, the parents of the weaker players [...]
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By Todd Guilliams Our objective in a nine-inning ball game is to hold our opponents to four-runs-or-less. This goal provides direction for our defense during the course of a game and practice. Once the goal has been established (four, five, six runs or whatever works in a specific program), then the players have to understand [...]
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In leagues everywhere over the next several weeks, coaches will sit down and determine the fate of their seasons by selecting the players who will make up their teams. Want to make sure you don’t make a mistake with one of those critical first picks? Would you like to find that late round “diamond-in-the-rough” steal? [...]
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By Tom Turner Would any good team coach have his or her players…. Hit for the fences on every at bat in baseball or softball? Throw “Hail Mary” passes on every down in football? Shoot every puck into the attacking zone in hockey? Throw every inbound pass the length of the court in basketball? Would [...]
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There are two things that kids want from practice. They want to get better, and they want to have fun. There are many coaches who are great at teaching fundamentals, but don’t have much fun doing it. And there are other coaches who run fun practices, but don’t teach much in the way of skills. [...]
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One of our partners, the American Baseball Foundation (ABF) presented its summary of research related to youth baseball pitching to the Development Commission of the International Baseball Federation at its world congress held in Dallas, Texas on December 2 & 3, 2011. Identifying the relative importance of causal factors affecting youth pitchers, David Osinski detailed [...]
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By Ryan Sienko, Owner of Catch and Throw Ball!!! How many times has that four letter word frustrated pitchers, managers, and fans that thought the pitch was a strike? We all understand that the umpire’s calls are part of the game, but that doesn’t soften the blow of a ball thrown right down the middle [...]
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