Another Season / New Team

As another school year and a new fall season approaches, coaches’ young and old hold high promise for the upcoming season. Even though a team may have returning players, every year a new team evolves. Last year’s chemistry is gone and a new set of team dynamics begin. Whether your team was a winner or not last season, it is time to evaluate why you were or were not successful. Coaches who realize that winning are a byproduct of the relationships forged between players and their coaches have the best chance for success. Players ultimately win games whereas coaches usually lose games. It is a coach’s job to sell his concepts and affirmations. Too many coaches demand rather than exhaust and show the patience to teach. Today’s players require more than a “do it because I say so”, attitude. The ground work for success must be set early and reinforced often. Setting team goals high only shows the team the confidence that the staff has in them. Shoot for the moon with realistic but lofty goals then proceed to make those goals a reality. “We will be champions, we will go to the playoffs and we will run the opposition out of the park”. Coaches who gain their players trust and respect have a far greater chance for success than those that rule by fear. An environment that is free of tension and full of positive reinforcement is far more conducive to learning. That is not to say that coaches cannot be stern when needed. But for learning to take place, players must be relaxed, reassured and confident for the learning to transpire. For true learning to occur players must be free to play the game and not fear mistakes. An aura of encouragement to push their limits in all phases of the game and to be fearless and react instinctively will only serve to permeate positivity.

The pressure of winning coupled with the fear of being second guessed may be the culprit that increases a coach’s inability to trust player’s to make decisions. Unwittingly, coaches are making robots of their players. Once that occurs and players are afraid to do anything that they are not specifically told to do, instinctive actions never occur. I have had coaches tell me that they would never entrust their career in the hands of their player’s ability to make decisions. Wake up boys, players make our careers. A conservative approach allows coaches a buffer from criticism. Sacrifice bunting in the first inning is now the norm. If the team loses because it did not hit, it is easy to place the blame on the players. Fear of being second guessed only serves to make coaches less likely to take risks. The world needs more risk takers and playing everything close to the vest will not encourage taking risks. There is a fine line between being aggressive and reckless. Athletes who are unafraid and encouraged to take calculated risks will learn not the cross that line.

There is far too much negativity in baseball. It is the hardest game to play mainly because it is the only game that when a team is on offense, they don’t control the ball. Coaches need to find ways to make the game less negative and failure dominated. The game should be fun and aspire to excite the fans not put them asleep while awaiting that big hit. A higher emphasis should be placed on productive outs rather than hits. Outs are precious. The only acceptable outs for us are those that score runs or advance a runner to third with less than two outs. The game is far too hard if the major emphasis is on hits. Allowing pitchers to settle in and concentrate solely on throwing strikes only makes the game harder. Putting the ball in play on the ground or line drives, moving runners and scoring runners without hits are the aspects of the game that should be celebrated and commended. Coaches can reduce negativity and lessen the amount of pressure on their team by instilling a philosophy of getting runners to third base with less than two outs. The game is won by scoring runs not the number of hits. Scoring runs without hits is an art form. Putting the ball in ball is an art form. Hits are luck and the byproduct of putting the ball in play consistently. Waiting for that two out hit with a runner or runners in scoring position happens far too seldom. Waiting for that big hit will send your team home a loser more times than not and the failed hitter feeling miserable. That is why we prefer to bunt and steal and put our team into motion in order to get to third base with less than two outs. Now we can score with a productive out. The hitter who has scored the runner on a productive out comes away feeling positive compared to the hitter who has failed to get that elusive two out hit with a man or men in scoring position.

Baseball is a percentage game. It is also a game for smart guys not dummies. We instill in our hitters the importance of eliminating the three easiest outs in baseball, the strikeout, popup and the lazy fly ball. That instilment comes from hard work on swing development to greatly decrease the amount of easy outs. We also work tirelessly on our bunting techniques to acquire confidence and instill a desire to bunt. Being a percentage game, we believe that we can produce bunters who can be successful better than 60% of the time as opposed to 35% with our best hitters. Bunting is always our lead option.

A major emphasis in our program is that with each at bat the hitter evaluates the defense and chooses an option that gives him the highest percentage for success. Sometimes that means a drag or push bunt. Other times, hitting the ball to the opposite field is the high percentage play. Above all staying out of double plays is imperative. Make your players think and take responsibility for winning. A coach’s responsibilities are in the preparation that gives a team an edge and places the team in a position to win; winning games is the players’ responsibility. Keeping your team out of double plays is another responsibility that most coaches fail to do. Once again that negative thought process of being second guessed forces coaches to sit there and allow their teams to hit into double plays over and over again. One can see that on the major league level every night. It is a partnership that is bonded by mutual respect and trust. It is the players’ team and coaches who feel that it is a humbling experience and an honor to coach and not a right will have a far more satisfying experience than those who do not.

Pressure, the creation and threat of pressure is a real game changer. It should be the number one objective both on offense and defense. Offensive pressure is created by the threat of bunting and once on base creating havoc with a running attack. It is imperative that we get the opposing pitcher out of his comfort zone and into the stretch as soon as possible. The threat of bunting forces infielder to move up defensively thus opening up more holes for ground balls to get through. Once on base the threat of stealing, run and hit or the slash can greatly impact the pitcher’s ability to solely concentrate on the hitter. Defensive pressure is the ability to hold runners. The treat of picks at all bases can be a real deterrent for many teams running and bunting game. Too little time is spent holding runners by most teams especially, at second base. Stealing third base is very risky for most coaches. However, it is our main staple to scoring runs without hits. With our philosophy it is imperative that we get to third with less than two outs. Third base is the easiest base to steal being that most teams do a poor job of holding runners. This is especially true with two outs. Regardless of the number of outs, if we are given an opportunity to steal third base, we take it. There are more ways to score from third than any other base. Stealing third base takes less speed than stealing second base requires. Runners can get bigger leads of second than off first. Runners at second can get more momentum toward third prior to the pitch than they can get from first base.

There are so many advantages to allowing your team the freedom to be aggressive and expressive that far outweighs a conservative approach. When a team is known for their pressure causing and disruptive nature, their reputation precedes them. Not only is this a psychological advantage but opposing teams become devoid of the time to work on their own practice needs in order to prepare for us. From our perspective it is well worth the effort to allow players to be reactive and instinctive rather than robotic when playing the great game of baseball. Stop sacrificing and replace that practice by aggressively running the bases and watch the fun and excitement it creates.

Coach Marty Berson is currently the lower level coordinator at El Dorado High School in Placentia, Ca. This is his 53rd year of coaching. He has previously been a varsity coach on every level including the independent pro level. The bulk of his career {26 years}was spent at Santa Monica College