High School Coaching Ideas for Baseball Practice

High school is a time when the lives of young people are shaped by the people with whom they interact and the things they do. A high school baseball coach spends a lot of time in contact with his players, and he has the ability to help them develop as players and as young men. Well-run practices teach young athletes how to become better players and also better people. There are a number of things coaches can do to make sure that practice time is used efficiently.

  1. Stress the Basics

    • The coaching tendency is to work on the fundamentals of fielding, throwing, swinging the bat, bunting and position play during preseason practice, but as the season progresses to focus more on strategy and less on the small things. The thing that make teams successful is utilizing basic skills during the game, and the repetitive reviewing of things like the mechanics of throwing the ball or the parts of a good swing make teams more successful on game day.

    Less Talk, More Action

    • Players learn by doing things. There is only so much that can be accomplished by talking about strategy and skills. The big improvements come as players get out on the field and work through drills and practices. Brief explanations followed by lots of work on the diamond are the best use of practice time.

    Use Assistant Coaches

    • Good assistant coaches make all the difference to a high school baseball program. The administrative part of the job for the head coach makes his assistants incredibly valuable, especially during practice. Assistant coaches can take the time to break down what is happening on game day and work with individual players on the things that they need to work on during practice. The time to get better at things is not during the games because what happens there is largely instinctive. Practice is the time to put in the repetition that leads to improvement, and assistant coaches play a key role there.

    Be Organized

    • Practices that are just thrown together are not nearly as successful as those that are planned. Coaches should come to the field with a timeline and a plan for accomplishing what needs to happen that day. An organized practice delivers results in a shorter period of time than one that is not planned well. It can be easy to just come out, hit a few grounders and throw some batting practice and call it good, but there always are skills that need to be worked on, and the plan should include time devoted to doing that.

    High Expectations

    • Coaches who expect players to joke around during practice likely will get just that. It is OK to have high expectations for your players and demand that they work hard during practice. All players on the team should live by the same rules, regardless of skill level and should be expected to respect each other during practice.