My son's first baseball season.

[CLibertarian]

I coached baseball for both my sons and that was some of the best times I have had in my life.

Enjoy every minute of it.

Nothing like coming home from work on a Friday night and coaching a baseball game and then going out for a pizza afterwards. Good times.

I'm thinking about being a helper coach next year.

[Bubba Dawg]

Therapy. I'm not raising a soccer player here.:p

But just for the sake of argument, suppose he came to you one day and said, Mom, I have something to tell you, and I know it will be a shock...but....I'm....a soccer player.

It would be okay, wouldn't it?

[dixierat]

I'm thinking about being a helper coach next year.

If you're serious about helping or being an assistant coach, prepare yourself.

I used this video:

http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,CBV-LV-441.html

To plan my practices around. It keeps the kids learning, busy, miniszes downtime, and preps them to play the game. I had a very successful run as a coach and owe most of it to the practice techniques I learned from this video.

[CLibertarian]

If you're serious about helping or being an assistant coach, prepare yourself.

I used this video:

http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,CBV-LV-441.html

To plan my practices around. It keeps the kids learning, busy, miniszes downtime, and preps them to play the game. I had a very successful run as a coach and owe most of it to the practice techniques I learned from this video.

Thanks for the link. I have found in the 35 years since I played youth league baseball, many rules have changed. Before I could be anything more than an assistant-assistant coach, I need to learn more about these changes. At the games, I find myself asking the other parents about various umpire calls and other practices that seem totally foreign to me. However, techniques in actually playing and practicing still seem to be close enough for me to give it a try.

[dixierat]

Thanks for the link. I have found in the 35 years since I played youth league baseball, many rules have changed. Before I could be anything more than an assistant-assistant coach, I need to learn more about these changes. At the games, I find myself asking the other parents about various umpire calls and other practices that seem totally foreign to me. However, techniques in actually playing and practicing still seem to be close enough for me to give it a try.

The video in the link will show you how to properly organise and run a practice. The method keeps the kids busy the whole practice and focuses on fundamental skills. I'd of loved to have had that kind of coaching when I was a kid.

I coached the 9-12 age brackett for 6 years. My first 4 years, not using the practice methods in the video, I was a .500 coach in regular season (100 games 50W - 50L). After adopting the method of coaching in the video, my team over the next 2 seasons was 47-3, including a 25-0 season. The method made a huge difference, but I had a lot of good talent those last 2 seasons as well.