Tips on Coaching Youth Baseball With Dan Clemens: Having Fun Vs. Hard Work
Channel: Mental Toughness Trainer
Date: 2013-03-22

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Coaching Youth Baseball: Having Fun Vs. Hard Work Part 2
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The myth out there is we want the experience to be fun for the kids, so they can go off and do what they want to do.  A fun practice might be some kids are over playing in the grass, looking at the ants, digging in the dirt, and you got other kids doing whatever they want to do.  You got a group talking about girls, cars, or video games.  

Pieces of that may be fun, but I think kids play the game, because they want to learn the game.  They want to be with their friends and learn something.

I talk about meaningful fun or productive fun and try to equate the fun that we are going to have to the goals that they have as individuals and the goals that we have as a team.  

Usually, we can all blow off steam and crack a joke and that sort of thing.  But if you build your team around just doing that, then I think the kids at some point during the season are going to say, "Well, okay, yeah this kind of fun going to practice, but we don't really do anything. " 

You lose a lot of your better players very quickly saying, "Hey, I want to get better.  Teach me something Coach."  If you can have fun in that regard, then it's meaningful and productive.  I think that is the sweet spot.  

Kids always love making things a competition. Baseball is my sport. When we are warming up, if I see that they are goofing around, I'll jump in and play catch with one of the kids and we will say, "Alright, it's a game now.  

Let's work on our good throwing mechanics, but you get one point if you throw it and your partner catches it in front of his chest.  That is worth one.  If he catches it in front of his face, that is worth two points.  

So really concentrate on making good throws and good catches here."   Very quickly things change.  The dynamics are going to focus on trying to get better here or "I am going to try to beat Coach."  

Another good one when they are warming up with baseball is to do some quick toss.  When they get warmed up, get out your phone timer and say, "Let's see how many good catches and throws you can make in 30 seconds." They are practicing good foot work.  They are practicing good throwing fundamentals and the kids then really focus in and they have a lot of fun.  They are joking about it.  

 To me that is a lot better than saying, "You kids have got to learn to focus.  You guys aren't doing what you need to be doing.  You know you're supposed to play catch the right way."

Half of the time the ball is thrown over the fence or they drop it and they have to run back and start counting all over again.  They are laughing about it, but they really do take it seriously.

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