Team Handbook

I use one with my team. I include the following things.

1. Team philosophy
2. Offensive approach/team over individual
3. Offensive signs
4. Cutoffs, pickoffs and bunt coverages

1. Team Philosophy
2. Expectations/Disciplinary Rules and guidelines
3. Tips
a.Mentalities
b.drills-the how to's and do nots
c.hitting philosophies
d.pitching philosophies
e.team leadership
4. bunt plays/ cut offs/ team plays
5. schedule all the way to state championship

This is what a our book has without going into greater details. I would send you one but the file is to big to send in e-mail. I could send you a couple of pieces if you send me a PM.

For both HS and Summer teams we have kept it very simple...

1. Team Philosophy
2. Rules
3. Offense
4. Defense

Everything else such as drills, leadership etc, we cover in practice. We go over a lot of it every single practice so it is drilled into their heads from day 1.

I did this once. Then, the young man's parents moved to a rival conference school. I'll never do it again.

coach96, I was about to email you a copy of a 56 page notebook I just completed for my team, but then I looked at your profile and see that you coach in the same state that I do. Lol, I had better not send it to you just in case you are close enough to me that we would play one day.

I included:
1. Bunt Coverages
2. 1st & 3rd Coverages
3. Pick Plays
4. Catchers
5. Infielders
6. Infield/Outfield Communication
7. Baserunning
8. Pitching
9. Hitting
10.Bunting
11. Hitting Drills
12. Practice Ideas (if/when they coach one day)
13. Conditioning
14. Responsibiliy of each spot in the lineup
14. Baseball definitions and jargon (teach the game)
And more....

I tried to go in pretty good detail with what we teach and how to execute it. It's not great, but my players had never received anything like this before, so hopefully it will help them. I really hope they will get it out years down the road if they coach the game or are working with their kid.

Save on paper.

1.You are the coach
2 you make the line up
3 listen to coach
4 be on time
5 work hard

I don't believe in giving out handbooks for baseball. It sends the wrong message. It tells the players that the game is complicated (which it is). I want the players to think the game is simple. Show up on time. Work hard.

I do believe it's very helpful to write a lot of stuff down in an organized way so that you, the coach, can keep referring back to it. In other words, if you create a handbook, use it for yourself--to help yourself organizing your practices and keeping the ship on track through the fog of war during the season.

Also, I admit, I'm paranoid that coaches in neighboring towns could get ahold of a handbook containing the fruits of baseball wisdom that it's taken a lifetime for me to learn.

About 10 years ago, early in the season I attended a game being played by our high school's arch rival. I rummaged in the garbage can for a spit cup. Sitting right on top of the trash was a copy of our arch rival's handbook, including their offensive and defensive signs.

If you use the same signs year after year, beware of putting them down on paper and handing it out to your players.

I wasn't coaching our HS team. I was tempted to share the signs with our HS coach, but I did the right thing, I threw the handbook away.

quote:

Show up on time. Work hard.

Freddy 77

Can't be any simpler than that. I think you learn more being on the receiving end of a bucket full of balls and a fungo than a handbook or whatever those who think they have reinvented game come up with.

KISS Keep it simple stupid

I do the handbook and I understand why people don't and this isn't a criticism but I think my practices run smoother by giving them out. Basically the first day of practice after cuts I hand it out and spend a few minutes going over it. After that I never see it again. They are expected to take it home, put it in the bathroom beside the toilet and read it when they let mother nature take it's course.

I do it because after Monday's practice I tell the guys we're going to cover bunt defenses tomorrow and they need to look over what we do. Next day it seems to go a lot smoother in teaching it. We only got 3 coverages so it's not very complicated.

If they read it then great - if they don't then oh well. It's not going to stop progress and I'm not going to give them some sort of written quiz. But it does give them a chance to prepare early and come to practice ready to hit the ground running. I got some kids who have never played the game before and this can possibly help them get acclimated to the sport quicker.

I could care less if the other team knows my signs or not - we still have to execute and so do they. Baseball is a simple game - you play someone enough you will figure out their tendencies and if you don't there are times when you do certain things. Go out and defend / execute them.

It's just another way of helping your baseball club. It's no different than a football or basketball player receiving a playbook from a coach. I do not want players who only play the game well physcially. I want players who play the game well mentally also. I know our football coach commented that my players were looking at their notebooks in his class. They were only looking at the baseball jargon section ("can of corn," "busch league"), but at least they were thinking about baseball.

quote:

Originally posted by Nicholas25:
It's just another way of helping your baseball club. It's no different than a football or basketball player receiving a playbook from a coach. I do not want players who only play the game well physcially. I want players who play the game well mentally also. I know our football coach commented that my players were looking at their notebooks in his class. They were only looking at the baseball jargon section ("can of corn," "busch league"), but at least they were thinking about baseball.

My own sons are/were pretty serious about the game, and very respectful of adults, but when their Legion coach provided them with a baseball handbook, let's just say it was met with a roll of the eyes when they got home rather than an increase in their respect for the coach.

IMO, for some reason the handbooks work better for football and hoops.

As a coach, I avoid like the plague giving out mixed messages. I preach KISS and make the routine plays. If I gave out a handbook enumerating 15 different areas of the game, it would sabotage my prime message.

The best bunt coverage is being blessed with having an athletic pitcher on the mound and a high IQ third baseman who delights in playing head games with the opposing third base coach.

freddy I've read your post several times and it seems to me that each time I read it it becomes more and more condescending. If you don't mean for it to be that way then I apologize but you took a very narrow look at the whole point of playbooks.

Ok so your sons didn't need the playbook - that's great but what about the other 20 some guys on the team? Maybe they needed it - maybe they don't have the knowledge of the game like your sons - your quote raises a few questions

quote:

let's just say it was met with a roll of the eyes when they got home rather than an increase in their respect for the coach.

Did it lesson the respect your sons have for him? Was he a total joke as a coach and this was just another indicator because the stuff he put in the handbook was wrong? Could this have been an opportunity for your sons to have their respect for him grow because he was doing what it took to try and reach more players in being prepared?

I'm like you in that I don't want to send mixed messages and I want to KISS as well but I don't see how handing out a handbook makes things more complicated. You know what / how your going to teach in practice - all a handbook does is put in writing. I agree the best bunt coverage is an athletic pitcher and smart 3B but what if you don't have them? Do you just chalk it up that the other team will be successful in bunts or do you prepare other type of bunt coverages? What's wrong with saying in practice "hey guys we're introducing bunt coverages tomorrow so take the handbook and look over them so you got an idea of what to do in each of them" then go out the next day and have a head start. Now you got the guys thinking baseball and you might turn that average IQ 3B into that high IQ 3B we all want. A handbook will sabotage your prime message if what you teach in practice is different from what you put in the handbook or if you put something in the handbook expecting it to do the job of teaching it and not covering in practice.

If coaches don't want to hand out a handbook that's fine. I've went a few years without handing one out and it just seemed like my guys weren't as prepared. There was one time when I had a team that had the handbook and the vast majority of them came back and I didn't hand one out. Nothing was changing so I figured wouldn't need it. The players wanted it because they liked reviewing it before the next practice. Almost all the great head coaches I've been around or got to know hand out handbooks. Ron Polk took a handbook and turned it into a best selling book.

Kids are different today than what they were 20 years ago. We can stand here and beat our chests and talk about how much of a travesty it is all we want but it won't change a thing. Kids today overall like stuff like this and will rely on it. They would like it even more if we could figure out how to text it to them or write it in text language. It is what it is and a handbook is only as good as what you make it out to be. It's like a drill - if you allow the kids to do a drill half *** then it's going to get half *** results. Do the handbook half way then you get halfway results.

freddy I do apologize if you didn't mean for your post to come across as I took it but it does sound condescending. Maybe I'm being too sensitive or something and if so I apologize.

Apologies for the tone of my post. It was unwarranted.

You make a heck of a good case for handbooks.

i'm going to jump in on this thread, after lurking a bit....whether or not you pass out a handbook, have the players take notes in meetings, just teach on the field, etc isn't really what i want to address (to each his own).

part of the problem with baseball is that we have way too many coaches who just do the "line up and take fungos" approach.....the problem is that if they don't know how to do it right then all you are doing is reinforcing bad habits that will in 9/10 cases come back to bite them later on when their inferior technique catcher up with them.

that might be what kids want, and it might be easier to coach that way but at a certain age you either learn to do it right or you get passed by.

I totally agree with the previous post! Baseball is a much more detailed game than most coaches realize. It's a game of technique and fundamentals.

I totally agree. Baseball is a game of fundamentals and correct technique. It's a game of detail.

quote:

part of the problem with baseball is that we have way too many coaches who just do the "line up and take fungos" approach.....the problem is that if they don't know how to do it right

Right? Wrong?

as with everything a matter of opinion.

Let me clarify by saying this, I am sure that the Coaches are well-meaning people who have actual jobs/families/lives that keep them from devoting themselves fully to learning the finer points....however in many things (fielding a ground ball, throwing, basic pitching/hitting mechanics, etc) there is a right/wrong way to do it.

However, there are many things that can be done more than one way that would include areas of the swing/deliver/etc).

Not meant as attack on any Coach or way of thinking, but there is a reason that many people are able to charge so much for lessons....much of it works and makes you a better player.

I'll preface my remarks by saying that the majority of you have likely forgotten more baseball than I'll ever know, but I think handbooks are a good idea.

I don't think it needs to be terribly difficult and filled with every single detail of the game, but I think they can be very useful for things like bunt coverages, 1st-3rd defenses, pick plays, and signals/signs.

IMHO, I think it helps prepare players for skill specific practices, similar to reading a any subject matter in preparation for the next day's discussion in class. Practice time is precious, so if players attend practice with a general understanding of the topic of the day, think about how much smoother practice will go and how much you can accomplish.

P4G

No man can climb out beyond the limitations he places on himself.