Excerpts from Gordie on Baseball

Excerpts

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What It Takes To Be A Good Coach # 4 - Patience Chapter 1, pgs. 11-12 The gift of patience – what a virtue! The ability to go over things time and time again, never losing your enthusiasm, is an absolute for a great coach. Every great athlete had a mentor, a friend who had the patience to teach him the fundamentals of the game. Ted Williams, Roger Hornsby, Babe Ruth, all had someone who took the time to teach them to hit. Vince Lombardi, one of the great football coaches of all time, had this vital quality. The Green Bay Packers would run the Green Bay sweep fifty times at every practice and Vince would be teaching the “little things” that made it work each time they ran it. This is why they were champions year after year. Vince was a patient man. One of the greatest joys of coaching is to see the least talented suddenly blossom, and all because you never gave up on him or her. The youngsters will never forget how they became successful and will take the same values into their lives. They will help someone else along the way, becoming a mentor themselves, inspiring their protégée as you treated them. The Team That Practices The Best, Plays The Best Chapter 2, pg. 19 When the season begins, the team that plays the best wins the most games. And the team that plays the best is the team that practices the best. In short, the team that practices the best wins! The primary considerations for successful practices are intensity and concentration at all times. Team Outfield Defense: Movement on the Count Chapter 7, pg. 88 Adjust the outfield positions according to the count on the hitter. We will play percentage baseball, with a positive count in the hitter’s advantage and a negative count in the pitcher’s favor. A positive count, the hitter is more likely to pull a pitch – with a negative count, he is more likely to hit to the non-pull side, or to the middle of the field. Hitting Concepts Chapter 10, pgs. 127-28 To develop confidence a player must conquer the fear of getting hit with the ball. Youth league baseball has encouraged the fear factor. The biggest and the strongest youngsters are the pitchers and a majority of the little leaguers are actually petrified when they get in the batters’ box. In witnessing many games that my children and grandchildren have played in, I have watched many youngsters who never took a swing at the ball in the whole game. We’re they afraid? Absolutely, and I can’t blame them, the pitchers were fast and wild. Because of the fear factor, a lot of youth players call it a career before they have had a chance to develop their hitting skills. Youth baseball would greatly aid the conquering of the fear factor if they used softer balls. Wiffle balls, rubber balls, tennis balls are far more productive in gaining confidence. Our college team hits waffle balls and rubber balls all season long. The bulk of our batting practices are done with these type of balls. Our pregame practice is wiffle ball hitting in the outfield with six batting practices going on at the same time, and every player gets about 100 swings in half an hour. This is better than “6 swings an out,” the usual pregame practice.  Return to Gordie on Baseball