How To Establish A Winning Culture With Your High School Baseball Club
Coaching a high school baseball club is such a reward for people who love the game. You get to be around baseball all day as your profession, while also helping to guide the lives of young men. The difference between winning and losing and creating a positive experience for your ballplayers is all about how you approach the job. In this article, you will learn how to start your high school baseball club off on the right note and in a way that will get them ready for the next stage of their lives.
Hold off-season conditioning workouts to establish the culture and weed people out early
In high school sports or any serious sport for that matter, the season is won in the off-season. You can't always control the quality or skill of ballplayers that you get on your roster. You can always control the level of conditioning that your ballplayers show up with. Schedule an offseason meeting for the high school baseball club and set the tone for expectations for the season. You can hold this meeting in the fall or winter, far before official tryouts happen. Let them know that you will be holding a rigorous conditioning schedule in the offseason and that you expect attendance from anyone who expects to play during the season.
During conditioning, make sure that they are doing plenty of long-distance and short-distance running. This will help them on the base path and will make sure that they have the energy to keep their legs under them during 7 innings of baseball. It is also during the conditioning sessions that the ballplayers should begin throwing. It takes some weeks to get your arm baseball ready. It's a big mistake to start cold on the first official practice. Starting early with conditioning will give you a jump on the rest of your district.
Learn about the strengths and weakness of your players and drill the fundamentals hard
The best coaches focus on fundamentals and working with what their players do best. Take plenty of time each and every day to do batting practice in the cages, on tees, and at the plate. You can still do batting practice indoors if it rains outside so that you're not losing precious time that could be used to get reps and build skill. Always be grading your players and figuring out how to help them improve. Play around with the batting lineup and position rotation to always put your players in a position to thrive.
Use these tips to establish a winning culture with your high school baseball club.