Touching All the Bases: A Complete Guide to Baseball Success on and off the Field

By Mike Greene

What Im trying to do with this book is give coaches as much information as possible to be a complete coach. What drills to use, how to handle a pitching staff, how do I incorporate baserunning into practice and many things I slowly learned coaching baseball .
This book was put together in the hopes of saving a lot of trial and error by youth and high school coaches who may have some questions in a few areas, and to give insight into what it takes for your child or players to get to the college level or beyond. This book explains in detail what I have learned over 25 years of coaching the greatest game ever invented. This book is for all levels 10-20 years old. It will explain what it takes to put together a solid practice plan, offensive and defensive drills and strategies, coaching all 9 positions with daily fundamentals and drills, baserunning, nutrition, and strength and conditioning outlines. How do I keep a practice interesting? How do I coach my catchers if I never played catcher? What do you do for outfielders at practice? How do I defend bunts and first and third situations? What do college coaches look for in my high school player? How do I coach pitchers?, and what is the best way to deal with parents? This book will answer questions that I wished I had known I started out coaching baseball.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499033939

Book preview

PART 1

PRACTICE PLANS

CHAPTER 1

Practice Musts

T here are many ways to setup a practice plan and many variables that go into making one. What is the age of your team? What facilities do you have available? What part of the season is it? What are your teams strengths and weakne sses?

I have learned that the best coaches don’t complain about what they don’t have, and concentrate on the facilities that they do have. If you have a great indoor facility, that is great. If you don’t then you need to learn to improvise. There are so many quality drills and practice plans that can be made up with some square footage, baseballs, whiffle balls and throw down bases. Don’t hurt your players by complaining about what you don’t have. Be a good coach and be creative.

Start time

I like to state the time we will all begin practice. If I say that is 2pm, then you better be dressed and ready to go at 2pm. There are a lot of coaches who say you are late if you aren’t 30 minutes early, etc….well then why don’t you say 1:30. Is it a trick? Are you trying to see who shows early? Or do you want a uniform practice that starts on time? If early infield work or hitting work is asked of players, then tell them 1:15 or 1:30. If you leave it up for interpretation, don’t get upset when someone who is ready for your 2pm practice isn’t ready at 1:30.

CHAPTER 2

Stretching Routine

Y ou can start with group stretching or a team run before stretc hing.

Here is a list of stretches I have used in the past.

Skip with low knees

Skip with high knees

Butt kickers

Karaoke

Short burst then jog

Over the fence stretch

CHAPTER 3

Throwing Routine

S ome coaches believe in a slow warm up with many steps to get your arm loose and some go straight into throwing. I believe it is important to have a throwing routine, especially with younger players and with players who are getting back to throwing at the beginning of Fall or coming back from break. I will outline a throwing routine and you can take all or part of it for your own.

Wrist flips-players will start by flipping the baseball with just their wrists. Hold elbow still while doing this. This is from just a few feet away.

On a knee (close)- players will play catch from a knee. This forces player to use proper form, and use their core to throw.

On a knee (extended)- backup a little once arm is starting to get loose and throw from knee.

Trunk rotations- emphasize rotation. Stand with feet facing target. Reach back and use your trunk and core and throw. Feet will not move besides getting up on their heels a little.

Figure 8- players make a figure 8 with hands and then throw. Same start as trunk rotations. Players make the figure 8, then use core to make proper throw.

Regular throwing- Start close at figure 8 position and start using whole body to throw.

Long toss-Depending on what your plans are for the week have players get to 90, 120, or 150 feet and throw. The key to long toss is to throw hard on a line. Players need to take a couple big steps toward target that is ok. Long toss will help strengthen the arm, and should be used as a tool to improve arm capabilities.

Warm down-After reaching max throwing distance, start shortening up the distance until you finish up around 15-20 feet from each other.

CHAPTER 4

Practice Plan Examples

A fter your team is stretched and their arms are loose there are many ways to structure a practice. Some coaches like to do some baserunning daily, defensive work, offensive work, team scrimmages, game like situations and pitchers fielding prac tice.

I will outline some practice plans and give you some ideas for practices. Structuring a practice can be very personal for a coach and only you know what your teams strengths and weaknesses are. A good principle to live by is this……keep your strengths and work on your weaknesses. What that means is that you can practice only on your weaknesses and start losing your strengths, or you only work on strengths and try to ignore your weaknesses. Your team will usually be good in some facets and need more work in others. If your team is weak defensively, but a great hitting team, you will still need to hit and keep that strength while devoting time to becoming better defensively. I have always used another rule while making and sticking to a practice plan….it is ok to deviate slightly from the plan. Let’s say you are working defensive situations and getting great work done and with good intensity and effort. Well if it is something you need, don’t stop because your schedule said 4:00-4:45 and bunting at 4:45. Rework bunting into your next practice and keep going. Also if you finish what you were working a few minutes early, adjust the plan and get more of something else done or end practice a couple minutes early. Make a plan, but be flexible to change it up a bit. That is called coaching. Some days you will find you are getting so much from something and it’s productive. So be flexible to changing a practice plan if need be. The job you have is to make them better, so remember a practice plan is an outline to follow, but as the coach you are allowed to adapt to needs.

CHAPTER 5

Defensive Work Options

1st and 3rd defensive plays

Bunt coverages

21 outs- in 21 outs, which could be 18 or 27 outs also, what you do is hit to your defense 21 routine plays. Hit a ball back to pitcher, hit a fly ball to centerfield, a ground ball to short. Just routine plays and see if your team can make 21 consecutive routine plays. If they make an error, you start back at 0 outs. I have coached teams that went through 42 outs on regular plays and teams where we would have to stop because it wasn’t going to happen that day. It is game like and a competing situation. The pressure gets high when you are 3-4 outs away and hit a ground ball to someone. That is what you want.

Run downs

Cuts and relays

Infield/ outfield

Pitcher fielding practice

Pick plays

Live steal situations

CHAPTER 6

Offensive Work Options

O n field batting practice- keep this fast paced and to 5 swings a round. Don’t do the old fashioned 10 swings batting practice. Have a few guys in a group and have them do a few rounds of 4-5 swings. Keep it moving and practice defense with the players in the f ield.

Hitting stations- There are hitting stations and drills listed in chapter 8 in the book. Once again, switch stations often to keep players working and interested.

Live vs. pitchers- hit live vs your own pitchers. To keep it moving fast you can start with a 1-1 count, 3-2 count, anything to keep the practice moving.

Live scrimmage with bp pitcher- you can play a game with a bp pitcher. Divide into 2 teams. This will be fast paced.

Baserunning progressions

Live bunting vs your pitchers- this is discussed later in the book. But the best way to really practice bunting is live.

PART 2

HITTING

CHAPTER 7

Principles of Hitting

Constants:

1.   Be relaxed

2.   See the ball / track the baseball

3.   Use the whole field

4.   Be confident

5.   Know the situation you are in and execute

Mental Prep

PRE-AT BAT

1.   Watch pitcher warm up.

2.   What pitches does he throw and which for strikes.

3.   What is his rhythm.

4.   If hitting later in lineup - know what he has thrown. ASK!! WATCH!!

5.   Know what situation you may face this inning. (score, outs, runners)

AT BAT

1   Execute your plan.

2.   Look for your pitch.(Know what that means)

3.   Don’t miss your pitch.

4.   Only positive thoughts.

5.   Understand what pitcher is trying to do.

2 STRIKE APPROACH

1.   Look slider and fastball away. Adjust to off speed.

2.   Extra concentration on tracking the baseball.

3.   Know that you can put ball in play.

THE STRIDE AND SWING

1.   Slight weight transfer and rotation.

2.   Short (pickup and put down) or no stride.

3.   Be quiet as possible.

4.   Lead with hips.

5.   Firm front side.

CONTACT

1.   Strong position at contact. Double L

2.   Hands inside the baseball.

3.   Arms remain close to body.

4.   Bat head is on an arc.

5.   Hands above bat head at contact.

EXTENSION AND FOLLOW THROUGH

1.   Front elbow moves up and around the body.

2.   Finish high.

CHAPTER 8

Hitting Drills

T here are many different hitting drills and variations of hitting drills. I will give you samples of different hitting drills for individuals and for teams in stations. The best way to get better at hitting is to hit. But drills should be done with a purpose and with correct technique. If players take too many swings in a row there swing will start to suffer. Keep stations and drills in