How do you ?

As a player, I'm not really sure you can teach those things. I was never taught any of those, I just pick things up during the game by paying close attention and studying the other team. Actually, this summer I'm planning on bringing a notebook to games a record what I see in it. It would serve as a scouting report.

Mr3000

You dont have coaches who talk to you about situations as they evolve during a game?

For the most part, not really. Our coaches here just make lineups and that's about it. The elite team and college team I played for, our coaches once in a while would tell us where to play in the field based on where the team's been hitting. Very rarely would that happen though. After a few times I'd ask the coach myself where he wants me to play and ask questions about certain situations.
So in that sense, yeah I was learning how to read situations, but it wasn't like the coach was teaching me how to read situations. I learned myself pretty much.
I guess if you're a coach you should encourage your players to ask you questions about certain details and situations-i think it would get them involved in the game more and help them develop their baseball smarts.

we constantly discuss these things with our players during practice, scrimmages, games, team meetings, etc.
i have thought about having our kids keep a notebook. i know alot of college basketball coaches do this.

raider

The notebook sounds like a great idea but during the game I wnat the kids concentrating on the game

What we do though is have our coaches meet with the players after a game. we have gone from anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hrs going over things that happened in the game

We do a lot of teaching during the game in the dugout, in between innings etc--- sometimes it may look like we are taking a kid to task but really what we are doing is discussing the play in question while it is fresh in his head---then we hit upon it agin after the game-We like reps

the notebook would be a team meeting, pre/post practice thing. during the game our guys are standing on the front row of the dugout going to war.
we do alot of ingame talking and teaching. we are going to be really young this year so will probably do more than ever.
we dont meet after game. we do our running and they do their field maintenance responsiblities. we'll meet as a coaching staff after the game and then as a team before practice the next day to discuss the previous nights game. we've found theres too much emotion involved immediately afterwards. you tend to be too disgusted with a loss and too happy with a win. we think its important to take a step back and really evaluate what went on and then go to work on it the next day.

Something that worked very well for us over the years…

Every single person on the roster had assignments before and during the game.

We actually won some games based on what someone who was not playing did.

Some would use stop watches to time and record everything conceivable. Others would chart everything conceivable from pregame to the last out. Some would have assignments that included trying to steal signals. Some would send signals to our players. Some would take notes for later discussion. One very smart guy was called the “corrector”; his job was to give a verbal sign if the coaches ever made a mistake. Then you would have your standard bullpen guys and other normal duties.

By the way, the “corrector” once helped one old coach from making a big mistake in a playoff game. I was coaching 3B and gave the bunt to the hitter with a runner on 2B in extra innings. Don’t know how, but I had gone brain dead and thought there were no outs. I gave the sign and heard the corrector yell out “WILLIE”. That was our universal verbal for calling off, what ever was on. I thought for a second and put the bunt back on and heard him yell “WILLIE” again. Hearing this, the hitter stepped out again and I called time, talked to the hitter and looked in the dugout. The corrector was holding one finger telling me there was one out. He knew I wouldn’t want to bunt in that situation. I felt like an idiot, and took the bunt off. The hitter drilled a line drive to the gap and we won the game. The guy most responsible didn’t even play in that game. You could see the pride in his smile after the game, as I said thanks and he said my pleasure coach! He is now an assistant coach in the Big 12.

This system not only helped us gather valuable information about the opponents and ourselves, but I think it made everyone feel important and part of a winning team effort. It also kept everyone real busy, so we didn’t have any negative talk or dissention in the dugout.

It‘s amazing how many of these former players are now coaching. Some at top level DI programs.

Wow PG,

That was an outstanding post.

Enjoyed.

Off to the closet.

Good Night Board,
Shep

Something told me to sign back on after communicating with my HP. I stopped praying, hustled back over to my desktop, and responded to the boss, MN-Mom.

The spirit told me to do this the last time when the plane flew over by answering Fungo, so something is happening here.

Shep

bbscout

I am glad to know that going "brain dead" is not unique to yours truly.

Good topic TR. I coach a youth team, this season I'm including tagging up as one of our 'stations' at practice. We'll have a coach hitting flyballs to the outfielders as one station, and a simultaneous baserunning station where the runners will learn to react appropriately to fly balls.

At each practice we'll do a short talk during a water break where we discuss mental aspects of the game. Things such as what the on-deck hitter should be doing, the power of positive mental attitude, paying attention to what the opposing pitcher is doing, etc. I get ideas for many of the things to discuss and work on from this forum, so keep 'em coming.

TR- I think a lot of it comes down to setting up situations in practice. I can't remember the last time I conducted a practice in which we didn't go through situations either offensively or defensively. We NEVER take B.P. or infield without going over situations with live runners and rewards/consequences attached to the outcome.
Players, I think, are a lot more focused when something is "on the line" - simply telling them is one thing...making them focus on how they would actually DO it is another. I've found in my coaching career that players tend to react how they've been TAUGHT to react - preparation is a huge key.

When I coached travel ball (9-13), we had a couple of ways we taught field sense.

We always used situational games. The main benfit was for defense and baserunning. Simply all the players in positions with others running bases. Pitcher in fielding position, and the coach tossed the ball and hit it somewhere. We take time to discuss what was done--and what SHOULD have been done.

We also cross-trained our players. All the players went through both infield and outfield drills. We found it helped the players understand everyone's assingments. If we had time, we even had everyone ocassionally go thru pitchers fielding practice, since most of our players pitched in their wRECk leagues.

During games, we tried to point out what to watch for--making the kids focus on the game. It kept them active, and players even started looking for the nuances.

Right on Coach Knight. We have always incorporated offensive, defensive and strategic work together. During BP we have situational hitting first and baserunners must react correctly to each situation. We also play a 21 out defense with extra players working baserunning and base coaches involved as well.

A while ago there was a heated debate here about whether practice was neccessary. I guess this thread goes a long way to answer that question.
A well coached team is a thing of beauty. All the players following their assignments like a well drilled team.
My son's team had atleast 4 hour practices 3 times a week. They even had classroom for part of the year with hand outs they had to read on all aspects of the game. The practices put the theories into play. The practices usually ended in controlled scrimages with live pitching or coach putting the ball in play to force a situation.
One of the main reason Elite ball became so popular here is because the instructional practices were so intense and comprehensive.

Bobblehead, I posted in General about practice. You make a pont I was looking for. Regardless of the level and whether it be travel or school ball, intense practices where all aspects of the game are covered is something we do everyday.

Simulation in practice,speaking with players in dugout during an inning, brief conference prior to hitting, brief notes as reminders to discuss at a later time situations that arise in a game.

When my older son was playing ball, he had a couple great coaches. They spent time talking about plays and the why's and why-not's of situations.

The beauty of it was that my younger boy was 6,7,8 Y/O during that period, several years younger than the team, and the coaches always let him sit on the bench and when some play went down, one of them would go over, sit next to him and ask about the play, see if my son could offer an explanation why. Then he'd elaborate and give him alot of the 'hidden game' theory or why something happened the way it did. They'd do this once or twice per game, and over the course of the seasons he picked up alot of good info that some team-mates his age still have no clue about at 14 Y/O. They made him feel important and taught him valuable lessons at the same time - and he wasn't even on the team.

Practice Parctice

do situations at practice.

With baseball there is always something to talk or coach during practice.

Some very good suggestions in this thread. I can see there is a great deal of knowledgeable baseball coaches here.

I think baseball smarts comes from being around the game, both playing and watching.

I point out the small things to the team during games and urge them to watch the Pros. If someone is passionate about baseball they will pick up a good deal of baseball smarts. If the passion is not there, I have found baseball IQ to be lower. There are exceptions of course, but this seems to hold true for the majority.