May 19, 2018: Coaching

posted in: Cubs | 0

I love coaching… at least I do now, with these 4, 5, and 6 year old kids.  I really enjoyed myself last year; I look forward to more fun this year.

I haven’t researched anything; maybe I should… maybe I will as my son gets older, and hopefully I can move up with him and remain a coach.  For this age group, it’s all pretty basic… like listening for the kids and patience for the coaches basic.

The first thing I do is get to know all the kids’ names.  I think that’s important; I’m assuming everybody does it.  By the end of the first official team practice, I will know all their names.  Again, this year was a little easier since I had some returnees, but still.  We went around and introduced each of the kids to each other, because not only do I want to know their names, it would be cool if all the kids knew each other’s names too.  This may take a bit longer… but, we’ll integrate that into each and every time we’re together.  Going through this experience, for some of the kids it will be their first in a group setting, with each other… the bonding… the camaraderie… that’s a big part of it all.

Leaning on some of my experience from last year, one of the first things we focus on is base running.  It’s important to teach each kid what each base is.  It’s important for them to run hard and touch each base.  We practice base to base, one at a time.  That’s how it will typically go in the games.  The kids just can’t keep running around the bases, so… when you’re at bat, you focus on getting to 1st base.  When you’re standing on 1st base, you’re focused on getting to 2nd base, and so on.  Although we did run all the bases as well.  I lined up all the kids and they ran the bases together, again, ensuring that each base is touched, while not passing the person in front of you; that part was kind of hard.
Chain cipla levitra smokers are at higher risk of impotence as smoking narrows arteries, which further affects blood flow. For the treatment of erectile dysfunction you have to order viagra devensec.com visit to a physician for making a prescription. Not a proper heavy balanced diet, Poor sildenafil cost sleep, lack of workout and smoking can impact your sexual desire and function. In most of the developed, the OAE test in Kolkata. levitra prescription
After the base running, we practice throwing.  Some kids already know it, some don’t.  I think that will be part of the challenge this year.  Teaching the basics to the newbies, while trying to keep the other kids, including my son, interested.  So we practice throwing… and then the basics of catching.  We start off with ground balls, as I show each kid how to position his glove.  Then, one of the things I didn’t practice before the first game, is actually throwing to 1st base.  This is a very important skill obviously, one that took a lot of time to get down pat last year.  So we’re starting that early…

That was pretty much it for the first official practice.  Batting will come next week.  Of course all the kids will want to bat… and bat first.  Setting up a rotation in the batting order was key last year; I plan on doing the same.  Same with the field though too… I didn’t really get cracking on that until later in the year, but we’ll be on that from day one this time.

And after practice was over, we did another important team ritual:  hands in the middle.  This has to be fun.  Yes, they will learn how to play baseball, but they will have fun doing it, and they will enjoy playing with their team.  1, 2, 3, Go Cubs!  Yes, of course I get to bring the team name back too…  That works out pretty nicely, considering I have about 20 Cubs t-shirts I can wear to the practices and games… Ready to get rolling… Go Cubs!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *