10 Things Every New Youth Baseball and Softball Coach Should Know

During the autumn months, as local Little Leagues operate training and development programs such as fall ball, many parents and other volunteers take their first steps into coaching. Dan Spring, a 2003 draftee of the Detroit Tigers, and currently a youth baseball instructor with more than 10 years of experience offered his list of 10 things that both rookie and veteran coaches should remember when working with youth athletes. 

1. Your players are children playing a game they are still learning. 
2. Use mistakes as an opportunity to teach, not to punish. 
3. Yelling at a player is the best way to make sure he doesn't have fun playing baseball. 
4. Yelling at a player is the worst way to make sure your message is heard. 
5. Win with class.
6. Lose with grace.
7. The umpire is human and is going to make mistakes.
8. Your player's attitude will mirror your own. 
9. Have Fun! 
10. From Jim Leyland in a personal letter he wrote to all the Tigers players after he was announced as the manager in 2006: "I demand a lot from my players yet I want my players totally relaxed and having fun. This is not life and death, but simply a competitive game. -

--- Dan Spring has additional training and educational resources available on gamechanger.com. 


Originally published by Little League University