Need advice - youth coaching strategy

Couple of things come to mind. Teach your kids patience at the plate. Tell them to take pitches, and get on with a walk, or only swing at really fat balls they can hit. Once you get them on, bunt them over. Basically, put pressure on the pitcher to throw strikes.

Tell your pitchers not to nibble but to pound the strike zone and let the defense do the work. This will take pressure off of your pitcher, and you may get more outs this way and fewer base runners.

Now, as to the tournament strategy, there are two ways of looking at this. Throw your best pitching against the best teams and hope your guy can win. Or you can throw your best pitching against the worst teams(stacking) and try and pull at least one or two wins out of the tournament.

Good luck,

I'm not a coach and I didn't stay at a holiday inn express last night.

Thanks Stafford!  Yes, I was thinking about discipline at the plate - make them throw strikes and do not give the pitcher anything.  Defensivley, since we will be playing teams that will hit the ball hard, I was thinking of play the OF deeper than normal to prevent balls getting behind them - field it and get it in.

We will be the bottom seed in a 7-team tournament and will be paired with the #1 elite team in the first game.  I do not plan to use my #1 or #2 pitchwer.  I plan to use our #3 who can consistently throw strikes.  The idea being to let them hit it and let the D do the work - try to stay in the game.  Our 2nd game (should we lose) will be against a lesser team, so I will start our #1 guy and go for the win.  If in it after that, our #2 will start the 3rd game.

Two questions - 1) how much better are these teams than yours and 2) what is your definition of success?

If the teams are head and shoulders better than your's I wouldn't set the expectation bar too high.  Better teams are better because they have better players.  Just a plain fact of the game.

Now if you're going in there to try and win a game or two then how realistic is it because that could blow your definition of success out of the water.  

My advice is create some goals to achieve like Stafford brought up but don't mention win or score because you will probably lose that focus.  I'm all in favor of playing up against better competition but if not careful it could get out of hand and do more harm than good.

Good luck

Great questions 2709. Our team goal for tournaments is to play in as many games as we can.  More playing time, the better.  Our first game will be against a team that is much more talented and I do not realistically expect to win, no matter who I pitch/play.  So the goal for that game will be to play 6 innings (ie...not get run ruled).  There are 3 teams in this tournament that I believe we can beat - I hope to play one of them in our 2nd game - then move onto game 3 and see what happens.  So, I guess the goal would be to play at least 3 games, and the kids would get a kick out of knocking an "elite" team out of the tournament.  I know they are capable of it, just want to make sure I am doing my job as manager and setting them up the best way I can.

I'll disagree about patience at the plate and taking pitches.  Kids this age need to be aggressive.   Most likely the best pitch you'll see is the first pitch fastball down the middle.  If you get it, hit it.  

Second, focus on the small details.  Get the out.  Don't let mistakes multiply.  

Work on pick offs at second base.  Player rarely see it at that level and will be good for an out or two. 

Make sure your catcher is ready to play.  Control the running game.  

Good luck. 

One way to hold down better teams, especially at this age level is change pitchers every time through the order. Start with a fast pitcher. The second time through go with a slower kid to get the hitters on their front foot. The next time through go back to a faster pitcher. It prevents the opposition from ever getting accustomed to a style of pitching. I loved watching opposition get frustrated after popping up from being on their front foot against a pitcher they were drooling in the on deck circle to face.

Make sure the kids have fun.  This will probably take more thought about how you will handle the experience if the boys get thumped badly.  Good luck!

Agree with this I may even start with a slow pitcher since they are an "elite "team then go to the faster kid. But I like the idea of change it up on the mound

Focus on the things your kids can control. Dont give up walks and errors. This will be HUGE when playing up in competition(get outs). If you can limit W's and E's you can hang around longer. Sometimes it may be better to give up the run early and get an out so you may consider keeping the Infield back to get outs and stay away from the 4,5 6 run innings

At the plate perhaps measure Quality ABs or Balls hit hard vs runs scored or hits.

Have fun!! Miss those days

This won't work against decent teams, much less really good ones, giving away strikes and outs will just mean you get run ruled that much faster.

Playing against competition substantially better than you is fairly pointless, IMO, those teams aren't going to have any trouble blowing you out in 3-4 innings and there won't really be much you can do about it.  A little better is fine, and against them you just have to play your normal game better, there's no real need to do things differently.

The greatest challenge for all youth players, through the high school years even, is to play the game hard from the first to the last pitch without losing focus.  Set the bar there.

The next greatest challenge is overcoming the hindrances posed by people don't understand that rising to meet the first challenge is where the true fun really is.  These are the ones who make it impossible to succeed by suggesting that competing in the game is not fun in and of itself, that there need to be other distractions to indulge the kids in their stream-of-consciousness instincts to head off in multiple directions at any given moment, or that setting high expectations is somehow not good for the boys.  You will always have those people in the stands; a growing percentage of your parents think this way.  As a coach, you cannot.

What I would do is say, "You guys wanted to be in this tournament.  OK, we've entered it.  But understand, wanting it requires more of you than just asking for it.  Anyone can SAY they want something.  If you really want it, you have to do what is necessary to compete with these "elite" teams.  That means you dedicate yourselves at our team practices.  You dedicate yourselves to work on your own outside of team practices.  And when game time comes, you dedicate yourselves -- each and every one of you -- to focus on the game, one pitch at a time, until the very last out, whether you're winning or losing and no matter what the score.  If you guys think you are an elite team, then you will do this, because that is what elite teams do."

As games go along, when you see someone in the dugout goofing off and trying to lead their teammates into goofing off with them, look them in the eye and ask, "Are you handling yourself right now like the elite player you told me you were?"  At no point do you yell, abuse, or lose control.  You just make it clear that you haven't forgotten their promises, and you expect them to keep the promises they made to you, to their teammates, and to themselves.

After the tournament, you'll either be congratulating your team on having proved a lot to itself, or you'll know that the next time they ask to play at that level you should ignore them and stick to the more comfortable level of competition.

I'm all for everyone playing the game who wants to play the game.  And there is definitely a place for the purely recreational player.  But there is no place for deluding yourself about being an "elite" player if all you really are is someone who is jealous of the kid who works harder on the other team.  There's a reason why they stratify these tournaments; it's so that teams go where they belong, and so that each team can have the kind of experience that fits its talent level and personality. 

My hope for you is that you discover that you have at least a handful of young men who distinguish themselves at your upcoming event.  In the coming years, you will find that these will be the guys who will lead at every age level all the way up.  Around age 15-16, these will be the guys who will gather together into stronger travel teams, then move on to HS and maybe even college ball while the others have moved on to other interests.  That is, you may well have several "elite" guys in your midst, even if your whole roster isn't at that level.  And it may serve your team well for some of them to find out about themselves that they really do want more of the challenge, more of the responsibility, more of the opportunity for achievement, advancement and satisfaction.   

Thanks for the advice everyone! Very helpful!

Midlo Dad - excellent words! I have a team of 12 that I put together at the beginning of August. Everyone one of them was an all-star on their respective little league team.  However, since we were a new team, I signed them up for the AAA division (one notch below elite).  We have been competing well (11-2), and went to the semi-finals in the Ripken tournament against some very good teams.  I decided to manage this team because my son had a not-so-good experience on his previous travel team - mainly because he and I thought that one practice per week (believe it or not) was not near enough.  So, I have worked this team very hard, lots of practice and multiple BP sessions (my arm is about to fall off...). Parents may get a bit annoyed by the number of practices, but my concern is the kids and the kids only - and they are loving it.

I talked to the kids about some of the stuff you mentioned - I told them if you want to play elite teams, then you start acting and practicing like an elite team right now.  They have responded, and I am just making sure that I, as their manager, do everything in my power to set them up to succeed. I spend a lot of time thinking through positions/lineups/pitchers/practice plans.  We have 2 weeks to really prepare now.  It will be fun to watch them compete, and possibly upset one of these "elite" teams that will inevitably take them lightly (happened at the Ripken tournament)...

Personally, I think competition is the best part of the game, and teaching that competitiveness and allowing it to blossom is healthy for the kids and, alongside being a great role model himself, one of the best services a coach can provide. 

That's my opinion.  But then, probably the greatest thing about youth travel baseball is that it allows each player/family to gravitate to the type of team they want, whether they agree with my opinion or not.

If you want a low pressure, recreational experience, there's someone out there running that kind of a team that'll be glad to have you.  Group A goes to Team A.

If you want to see how far you can get by testing yourself every day, there's a team for you, too.  Group B goes to Team B.

I don't begrudge either side their choices.  What I don't like is when someone from Group A puts their kid on Team B and then starts demanding that the coach run it like a Team A.

And if one thing pushes my buttons, it's when someone says "You have to make it fun."  It's a game, for Pete's sake.  It is fun in and of itself.  That is its point.  If you don't enjoy the game, go somewhere else to find what you love, and do that instead.  Just because a competition sport is not your cup of tea, don't ruin it for everyone else. 

Also, please notice I didn't put a big emphasis on winning your games.  If your players gel as a team behind the competitive concept, you'll win your fair share.  But you're destined to lose some, too.  You've been winning at the AAA level, so trying your luck at the next step up makes sense.  But don't judge your success by the W-L record.  Judge it subjectively, by whether the kids keep their commitments and prove that they belong on the field at that level. 

As the Little League oath says, always STRIVE to win, but win or lose, always do your best.  You STRIVE to win, but you have to also learn the maturity to accept that in any given game, one team takes the loss.  On average, half the time that'll be you.  Play the game right, win with humility, lose with sportsmanship.