Confidence problem

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Originally posted by Hit it hard:
I have a very talented group of Sophomore baseball players who are used to being successful on the field.

Ask them. Are they picking each other up or apart ? Did they get outworked in the offseason ? Challenge them as a team.

OR is it something in the coaching which is affecting the team chemistry and spirit?


Or perhaps the competitiion has gotten a lot better

Sounds like burnout to me based on what information you have given. I suggest using drills in practice you know they enjoy and make it a competition between them for a while.

One drill: During batting practice have your infield and outfield in place. Start with a runner on 1st. Your batter is trying to execute a hit N run on the first pitch. Runner on 1st goes on first movement of the pitcher and the hitter has to try and put the ball in play.

Next that same runner holds at 2nd. The next pitch to the batter has to be put in play on the backside to advance the runner from 2nd. The runner on 2nd is put into a postion to make a decision as to whether to advanced based on where the hitter puts the ball in play.

With a runner now on 3rd, the hiiter is now required to hit a deep fly ball or get a base hit to score that run from 3rd.

This drill will work hitting situations, base running and pitch recognition to be able to hit to certain parts of the field.

The last 5 pitches thrown once the runner from 3rd has scored. I would challenge the hitter to hit the ball where you as the coach believes he has the hardest time adjusting to certain type pitches and taking the ball to that area of the field.

Once the hitter has completed his at bats, he then moves to 1st and you recycle. This may help you with your clutch hitting situations.

Also this drill you need to find somehow to make it a competition between your players. A suggestion if you dont have an idea.

I use to have what I called the golden drill of the day, amoung the many other drills I ran. Whoever I thought performed the best I would select that player and he was allowed to select 5 other players he thought performed well that did not have to do conditioning after practice.

By allowing your player to select other players this enforces leadership skills. If you have a team of leaders, you have a team full of confidence. It also without the players really knowing it, causes them to pay more attention and focus on their teammates.

Hope this helps.

Having coached Freshmen baseball for years now I have one speech that I give ealy in the year and refer to throughout the season.

Confidence is built in one of two ways.
1. Success: If things are going well then you feel good and build confidence in your abilities. This to me is a result oriented way of establishing what we are looking for and I tell my kids that results are out of our control. I am a process oriented coach so I put little emphasis on this one.

2. Preparation: You CAN build confidence by knowing you are prepared for a situation. This is a process oriented way of establishing confidence. This is a point I drive across in every conversation I have on the mound with a pitcher, in between innings with a fielder, or during an at bat with a hitter; "You have prepared for this moment with all the hard work in the off season and in practices. You know you are prepared for this moment. You know you are going to be successful because of all that you have done up to this point."

Remember that baseball is a game of failure so if you live and die on results, you will die more times than not. If you are process oriented you can step back after a failure and say, "Yes, I did that the correct way." No matter the result you can still have a sense of success and in doing so, build some confidence.

With a talented team if you are doing things the correct way, playing good baseball and winning will take care of itself. If not, you, as a coach, need to look at how practices are structured to see if you are putting your kids into game like situations. This will allow your kids to build confidence in games through the preparation of practice.

Thanks for the advice. We are definitely going to continue to focus on the PROCESS. I (and the kids) often find myself getting overwhelmed by the results, which results in me having a failure to communicate.

We had a good practice yesterday and will continue to get better. We drilled bunt coverages, pick offs, and 1st and 3rds. We also spent some team time doing a 3 man weave drill where if they dropped the ball the whole team would have to do 10 pushups. As the drill went on, we continued to mix up the 3 man teams to have various teamates work with each other. As the drill went on, much of the gripes went to positive support which was nice to see!

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have come via errors (20 in 6 games),

Get the fungo out and start hitting

Will- we do!!!!!! If it was that easy, I wouldnt be on here picking your brain.

I am sure you do. confidence is something that comes with success. I always found who my best players were by how they reacted to failure. I think the same can be said about how coaches approach things. Although it is tough sometimes you have to try to stay positive. Maybe do something in practice that loosens them up. something humorous. I remember one time we lost a real tough game the kids were really down. The next day we did our infield and outfield opposite hand(right handers threw left lefthanders right) We won 7 in a row after that. I learned if you are tight the kids pick up on it.

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One drill we have started this year that has really helped our infield defense is live ground balls. Get a screen you can dart toss from and have your outfielders hit ground balls to the infielders. They learn to see it off of the bat and have much better tempo than they do off of a fungo. If an outfielder hits a fly ball they go get it. Also, helps with approach at the plate and bat control