I'm managing my 1st Little League team this year

[DJBeasties]

I know that's a random update but I wanted to tell someone that might care so I figured I'd tell you all since maybe some of you have coached before, too.

Little League has slowly expanded to include an intermediate, junior, and senior league allowing kids to play up until age 16.

I'll be managing the intermediate team which is 13 year olds and played on a slightly larger diamond (50/70). I've coached a lot since my son started at age 6 and enjoy it. We have kind of a rag-tag, sandlot team which will be hard to compete against some of this other programs. Our kids don't also play travel and AAU baseball so it's kind of a stark difference at times. Regardless, I will make it fun and teach them how to play the game the right way. I've known a lot of these kids since they were little boys so I feel a badge of honor doing this.

Thanks just wanted to celebrate for a minute.

[Gregg]

Sounds great. I hope you all have fun!

[ironfist]

Awesome, I've been managing my kids' teams the last few years and it's a lot of fun. Going to take part in my first draft on Monday and not sure what to expect - should I bring up Chris Sale in the first round?

[revo]

My oldest son, who will be 13 in May, tried out but didn't make his JHS team, so we just signed him up for the 50/70 league. We moved to PA so we're new to this league after 7 years in Ripken. They LL seems to have a ton of kids, but not sure how many are in this division. They held their first clinic this past Friday night.

[overkill94]

Very cool! My dad's been coaching the same youth baseball team (10-12 year olds) since back in my first year in the league (1991). He loves the hell out of it and has seen some of the kids he coached play in the majors. I haven't done any coaching of my own but here are a few things I've noticed from watching my dad do his thing for so long:

- make sure the kids show respect not only to you but other players/coaches; nothing worse than being the coach of a bunch of little jerks
- be patient with the kids; yelling at kids for making mistakes will just make them more nervous
- emphasize having fun but make sure they're staying focused on the game

Good luck!

[swampdragon]

I know that's a random update but I wanted to tell someone that might care so I figured I'd tell you all since maybe some of you have coached before, too.

Little League has slowly expanded to include an intermediate, junior, and senior league allowing kids to play up until age 16.

I'll be managing the intermediate team which is 13 year olds and played on a slightly larger diamond (50/70). I've coached a lot since my son started at age 6 and enjoy it. We have kind of a rag-tag, sandlot team which will be hard to compete against some of this other programs. Our kids don't also play travel and AAU baseball so it's kind of a stark difference at times. Regardless, I will make it fun and teach them how to play the game the right way. I've known a lot of these kids since they were little boys so I feel a badge of honor doing this.

Thanks just wanted to celebrate for a minute.

sounds great

as a former coach and a current middle school teacher make sure you add fun to the game
and
if a kids makes an error scowling/yelling etc at them and then immediately telling them how to improve and do it right doesnt work - calmy telling them is a thousand times better - so just take a breath first - no kid ever listened to instructions after being berated.

Here is a great way to have fun (and cause chaos) - switch positions around all of the time - they really like that - my own son was a left handed pitcher, catcher and first baseman until high school - lefties really liked have him on their team because he had a lefty catchers mitt and they had a chance to catch for the first time (ok some hated it but did like the chance to do it)

lastly - embrace their goofiness

[Whitey]

make sure you add fun to the game ... embrace their goofiness

That's pretty much it.

[revo]

I was an assistant coach for a year. Give them all nicknames. They love it. There was one kid Anthony who I always called "Antonooch" and he always smiled.