Understanding what it takes to be a great baseball coach

Coaching baseball and/or softball is one of the most rewarding and purpose-filled roles you may ever experience in your life. The impact you will make and the relationships you will build over time will play a significant role in your life.

NOTE: Just because you were a great player does not mean you will make a great coach and just because you were a bad player does not mean you will make a bad coach.

Below we have outlined what we feel are the six main elements of what it takes to be a great private baseball coach, in this order:

✔️ Care about your clients

✔️ Love of mentoring, teaching, and coaching

✔️ Scheduling and reliability

✔️ Patience and positive energy

✔️ Playing experience/number of years in the game

✔️ On-going education

Truly care about your clients. This is the best way to make a positive impact on them as well as get them coming back to schedule lessons with you time and time again. It is generally very easy to notice a coach who genuinely cares and these are the types of coaches we desire to have on our team.

Be in love with the game of baseball/softball and be in love with coaching!

For the majority of your clients(ages 6-13), you are a mentor, teacher, and coach, in that order. This is dependent on the age, skill level, and goal sets of the player you are working with.

If you are working with an adult, you will obviously approach things as more of a teacher and a coach.

For your youth clients, it is key to view your primary role as a mentor who is helping your youth players cultivate a love for the game by inspiring them and motivating them to take ownership of their attitude and to create great habits in a fun and positive way.

When it comes to working with a private baseball coach, trainer, tutor, or any other one-to-one training service, easy scheduling and reliability is half the battle. To be a great coach, you must be an extremely reliable person and you must be great at properly and consistently maintaining your schedule so that you are always minimizing rescheduling and cancelations optimally.

We make the scheduling part very easy, you just have to take pride in showing up for your lessons on time and always being prepared.

Maintaining your patience and positive energy is a skill. It should always be something you are aware of and something that you take great pride in, regardless of how challenging your client may be to work with.

Always be patient and positive and be great at making every lesson fun!

Learn and understand your player’s personality, skill level, and goals. Doing so will help you to know how to properly meet your player where they are in their journey. Patience is vital, especially with younger players who are extreme beginners.

There is no substitute for experience. In order to truly have a high baseball iq and be able to communicate and teach baseball mechanics and concepts effectively, one must have a great deal of experience playing the game.

The more years you have played and the higher the level at which you have competed, the more likely you will have a higher baseball iq and be able to understand the complexities of the game, and skillfully simplify them to those with a lesser understanding and lower baseball iq.

Be hungry to learn more and always be sharpening your sword. There is always more to learn and there are so many great coaches and teachers from which to gain insights, inspiration, and ideas.

Actively and consistently be working to grow your coaching knowledge so that you are able to keep things creative, engaging, innovative, and fun for your clients.

Prioritize expanding your ability to effectively communicate with players of all ages, skill levels, and walks of life. Your job as a coach is to understand how to get through to every type of player in a fun, positive, and productive way.

We have also outlined four things that we believe are NOT NECESSARY to be a great baseball. To be a great baseball and/or softball coach you DO NOT need to do the following:

❌ Train all of your players as though you are trying to help them play in high school, college, or the major leagues

❌ Obtain immediate results

❌ Be too hard on your players

❌ Be too soft on your players

One size does not fit all. Some clients that sign up for lessons with you are simply scheduled by their parents as an extracurricular activity. You will not push this client with an agenda of improving their game at a rapid pace. You can and should take things slowly and prioritize good energy and fun.

Any seasoned athlete who has worked hard at their craft knows that failure is the best teacher. It is ok if your player is failing. It is your job to keep things light and positive and to do your best to implement ways to help them succeed, while teaching them to understand that failure is a part of the game and something that should be embraced.

Again, not everyone is out here to play baseball in high school, let alone college and/or professionally. It is not necessary to approach every client you work with as if it is vital that they maximize every single opportunity. Save that for the players who show up early and make it clear to you over time that they have big aspirations to continue. These types of clients are rare, and they are normally the most fun and rewarding to work with because they will want to be a sponge to everything you teach them.

Always work to strike a healthy balance and understand your client.

Most of the players we work with need us to push them. They simply need to be taught that “they can do hard things.” We do not coddle. We do not make everything easy. We make it fun, challenging, and productive.

Always work to strike a healthy balance and understand your client.

At the end of the day, it is about being someone your clients trust because they know that you are knowledgeable, passionate, reliable, kind, and caring. This is not about simply coaching, this is about fulfilling part of your purpose as a human and impacting your community in a positive and significant way through the amazing game of baseball!