Best Tips for a New Little League Manager / Coach

This includes the umpires, the other coaches and you. But more importantly, it includes the kids on the team, including their own kid. There is nothing worse than a kid who cannot listen to his coaches because his parents keep bugging him from the stands. If you have to approach a parent, be cordial but explain that the manager and coaches need to have the kids attention and ask them to be respectufl of that.

Once you get a set lineup, stick to it. Some managers have lots of random ways to pick the batting order. draw names from a hat, who gets here first? whose parents complained the most last week? All those are out the window. Your lineup should be: leadoff - best batting average hitter with good speed who can steal bases. second best bunter/speedy kid third - best overall hitter 4th - cleanup hitter, good combination of batting average and power 5th & 6th best power hitters left who are not in the top five Once you get those spots filled, only make changes to those spots when a kid goes into a slump, ges injured, or misses a game for some reason.

Fortunately, there are pitch counts established in Little League these days, but those only take into account game day. If you plan to pitch Jason in Saturdays game, don't use him to pitch batting practice on Friday night. Sounds trivial, but kids don't get the idea to take it easy. They are always going 100%. And when the best kid on the team is hitting Friday night, Jason just might kick it up to 110%, resulting in either injury or just overall soreness on Saturday morning.

Get a team mom to take care of stuff like scheduling parties, ordering trophies and even which parents will bring the snacks to the game. Once you have established those type of responsibilties are for the team mom to take care of, let it go. If she forgets something, help her out, but don't feel like it's your job. You are their to manage a baseball team and part of that is delegating tasks to other people who help you.

We all want to win, but it's more important for your team to play well and get better each week. Playing well includes playing with good sportsmanship and being fair to the other team, but it also includes not making silly mistakes. Be stern with your players when you need to be, but have a soft playful side too.

Umpires, whether paid or volunteer, do the best they can to see everything that happens on the field. They make the best decisions they can based on what they see. Remember that with every single call through out the game, one team or the other is going to hate the call. Be a team player and respect the umpires decisions. If there is a bad ruling or interpretation of a rule, sure, go talk to the umpire. But be respectful and don't make a habit of it.

You're going to have a mix of kids who need more help than others. Give it. But you're also going to have kids who get it quickly. They need help too. Make it a goal of your season to make all of your kids better ball players - if you focus too much time on the kids who are struggling, then the kids who are doing well will not be improving.

Too many coaches think hitting is the most important part of the game. Maybe it is. But it is only 1/4 of the game, when you incorporate baserunning, pitching and defense. Don't focus 50% or more of your practice time on hitting until the other 3 items are up to par.

You have the overall say-so for your teams decision making process, but get your coaches involved. Ask them who they think should start at pitcher/catcher/leadoff batter, etc. Take their inputs as advice and don't be a fraid to change your original plan if their inputs make sense.

During Practice Sessions, Hold Batting Practice twice. Kids love hitting. 1st - early birds batting practice. Kids love hitting. Early Batting practice will help motivate your kids to get there early. Last - Hold team wide batting practice. Kids love hitting. This will prevent parents from dragging their kids out of practice 15 minutes early because the kids will reply, "No Mom, we can't leave yet, it's almost my turn to hit!"

(and discourage humiliating behaviour towards opposing team)

If you have a kid who can't throw strikes, it makes no sense to have him try to pitch in a game. He will feel bad when he cannot complete the task successfully, and the other kids on the team may not be as supportive as the coaches. Instead work with the player in practice to get him ready.

Don't try to do this yourself as it will bog you down and it's too much.

Celebrate the player of the game every time, win or lose. Even in a bad loss, one of your players did something great. NOTE: Try to rotate it, But don't keep a checksheet making sure everyone got one before someone got a second one. It will all work itself out by the end of the season as long as you recognize the kid who did well that day.

It's hard to get ahold of 10-12 parents in a short time. If you need to get the word out about a schedule change or cancelled game, it's nice to make 2-3 phone calls vice 10-12.

Sings can be as simple as crossing your arms to tell them to bunt, or putting your hands on your hips to tell them to steal a base. But explaining these signs early in the season and using them all year long can help your kids feel like they are on a well run team, they respect you for knowing your stuff. And it can really help when you need something to happen and you don't have to explain it out loud or call time out to talk to your players.