Baseball Coaching

Baseball Coaching - What You Need To Know About Stress

By Jon Doyle.

Baseball Coaching, no matter what age, can be a very difficult task. With that said the feel of helping young men (and women) succeed is priceless. After many of my readers had asked me for advice I decided to write it down for all.

When coaching baseball you must balance some key factors. Managing can be very stressful, even if you're not Joe Torre or Terry Francona.

Your ability to deal with stress will determine just how effective you are as a baseball coach, and ultimately how much your players learn from you and take from the experience. If you handle stress poorly so will your players. Every baseball coach has a different way of handling pressure, but there are certain rules you should follow.

First always have a plan for each situation. Know what you’re going to do next. That way when stuff hits the fan, and it ultimately will, you’ll know what to do. It’s baseball coaching 101, but most coaches simply do not follow this golden rule. Why? Honestly they are too lazy. Put your best effort into this and your players will follow suit. If you don’t care it will show and they soon won’t care. Remember, you’re their leader.

Handling stress doesn't just mean in-game decisions. It means how you handle a player outburst or pouting on the sidelines. How are you going to handle this? Are you going to give certain players more slack that others? That's not always a bad thing, but you need to know how you're going to handle it. Again, it's not if it will happen, but when.

Most successful coaches handle players the way the players handle themselves, not based on skill level. If your star player shows up late, has a poor attitude or shows disrespect to you or teammates you better handle that situation fast or you risk losing the rest of your team. Give the last player on the bench, who always shows respect and gives 100%, more slack than the superstar who has poor attitude. Of course this is just one example, but a common situation to explain just what I meant.

How are you going to handle unhappy parents? In the field of baseball training this is also a matter of time. My suggestion is to meet with parents as a group before the season and tell them what is expected of them. Give them rules, both verbally and written so they act accordingly. If you wait until the season begins and these situations start popping up your baseball coach career will be short-lived, either by your own account or others.

Lastly, but certainly not least is how will you handle yourself. If your job or family life is causing you stress you certainly do not want to bring that to practice. In baseball training you must be about the team first, after all what are you preaching?

These quick, but critical tips on how to handle stress should not be overlooked. Be prepared and stress level plummet and the baseball coaching experience is much, much better for all.