well this seems to be getting nowhere! posted what I thought could help someone maybe utilize their 1st base coach, used a detailed example of pitching, even saying sometimes I wonder if we do to much, and its turned into a your way vs my way, and I avoid those because nobody on here gets anything from it. Good luck in 2009 guys, can already smell the fresh cut grass!

Guys it doesn't matter what you do as long as you do it well. Have a reason, explain the reason and do your best teaching and executing that.

If you want the 1B coach to be responsible for a lot then make sure he is good at it.

If you want the players at the dugout before each inning make sure they know why or it will look like garbage and be a waste of time.

When I got started 15 years ago I was a 20 year old first base coach and by gosh I was going to do it well. I was going to be the best first base coach the state of KY had ever seen. I had the stop watch ready, I yelled back on every throw over, I talked to the ump and 1Bman. I was the man until I one game when I had a mouthfull of sunflower seeds and got choked about the time the pitcher threw over. Needless to say I couldn't speak but the craziest thing happened - he got back safe. It was then I realized the 1B coach was not very important and wondered why we even yelled back. If the runner was waiting on us then he was probably going to be out.

From that moment on I started doing more teaching in practice and kept my mouth shut in the game. It was funny how much better and smoother things got. For the past 9 years I was a head coach and I took that philosophy with me. There were times I had to adjust based on personnel. One year I had a catcher who was a stud but might have been the dumbest player (baseball knowledge) ever. We called pitches and relayed defense coverages in with the 1B and 3B instead of him.

By nature I am a talker and I never shut up. I'm always talking and saying things but my guys really learned to just block me out based on what we taught in practice. They knew what to do, when to do it and why to do it.

You guys that do a lot of talking I am willing to bet that your guys are a lot more prepared than what you think. I'm not saying that you are wrong in what you are doing but if you were to just stop talking to them they would still make plays.

Like I said - whatever you do - do it great.

Great post Coach.

quote:

Originally posted by Coach May:
Larry hows it going? I worked a camp with Jason a couple of weeks ago. I told him I knew you and we had talked about him. He had so many nice things to say about you. He has a beautiful family his wife and kids are just awesome. Jason is building one of the top programs in the state. I know he has two state titles under his belt already but I believe the best is yet to come for him. He really thinks the world of you.

Coach I can tell from your posts you take alot of pride in what you do and the way you do it. Please to not take my posts the wrong way. Good luck with your program. We are never going to agree on everything.

Hey Coach May...hope you and your family are doing well! And I appreciate you passing on the nice words from your conversation with Jason. I'm so pleased to hear he is doing so well.

I get so much satisfaction outta hearing that sort of thing. So many of our former players have gone on to have successful and meaningful lives. Three assistants for our 17-19 club are all former players who went on to play in college. It is so much fun to see these guys grow. I especially love when they gripe about stuff a player does, and then me and the other coaches can remind them of their transgressions back in the day.

Best wishes and talk to you soon.