Well, a new season is underway and it’s way too much fun. I’m helping out with a AAA team (9, 10 and 11) and a Majors team (10, 11 12) and its really something to go from one practice / game to another and see the difference in almost real time. Kids really grow a LOT between age 10 and 12 both in size and strength and in maturity.
However, we should all remember they are still kids.
The best coaches I see are the ones who are not coaching much during the game, they work hard in practice. They keep things running at a fast pace in practice and they generate a LOT of quality reps.
In games, they have a scripted warmup and again things move quickly.
In our first AAA game we weren’t all that crisp with the warmup and our defense did next to nothing.
In our majors game, we had a great warmup and gave up one run all game with no errors in the field. We had two coaches hitting grounders–one hitting balls to 2B that threw to 3B and one to SS who threw to 1B. After 6 minutes we sent half the players to the OF and one coach hit flies to Left and the other hit flies to Right. Trust me, I’ve seen other teams with fast-paced warmups and I’m not suggesting anything novel here, but I do get calls from coaches that say “Hey send me a good warmup for x level” so there you have one for “Majors”.
For AAA you can do the same thing, just maybe a more shallow fly to the outfield.
For AA I like to have one coach hitting grounders to second to throw to third and another hitting grounders to the pitcher who throws to first and skip the OF altogether.
Warmup may not be everything, but I think it made a difference. Feel free to send me your thoughts. Also I have written a coaches guide 20 pages for new coaches and I’m looking for proofreaders — if interested send me an email.
