Things Every Coach Needs to Communicate to Their Players
Like everything in baseball – becoming a great coach doesn’t happen overnight. Like your players – you’ll be continuously cultivating and developing new skills and figuring out new ways to push the right buttons in order to ensure success.
A trait that all great coaches share is an ability to communicate effectively. Great communication isn’t all about delivery and content. Instead, it’s more of a result of your willingness to understand and learn about your players. While each team is different, there are things that successful coaches communicate on a regular basis that can serve as a solid foundation to sustained success. Today, we’re happy to share some of those things every coach needs to communicate to their players. Let’s jump right in!
Everyone has a responsibility
– Everyone on the team needs to feel that if they don’t do something, it won’t get done. People succeed when expectations and responsibilities are clearly defined around pre-existing strengths. Your job as a coach is to identify those strengths and deploy them as resources in order to enjoy success. While working on the things we’re not so good at is important on the side – when it’s game time and the lights are on, it’s important that you focus in on the things each of your players do well. Their success will not only build confidence, pride and a sense of being important to the team themselves; but also develops a sense of confidence in you. So when it comes time to work on those things that need improvement, they’ll be more likely to listen and retain what you’re trying to teach them.
Tell them you care – Take interest in all your players, not just the good ones. Encourage them when they do well. Look for good behaviors like encouraging another teammate or when one takes another aside to help them with something. Reward listening. And most of all – demonstrate patience. Baseball is a simple game – but it’s also incredibly hard to master. It’s a process, not something that happens over night. Be supportive and always try to be the wind in the sails.
Baseball demands respect – Every player should know that they should respect the game (coaches and officials); respect their teammates as players and individuals; and respect their opponent. Without an opponent, there’s no game to play. Make sure that’s communicated to the parents as well. They need to remember that they’re an example to their kids and that the best way to teach is, well… by example.
Reward behaviors, not outcomes – Outcomes are your responsibility as a coach. Behavior is the responsibility of the player. Did they follow their regimen’s 90% of the time and didn’t miss any practices? That should be worthy of a reward – regardless of the outcome – because it’s a behavior that’ll lead to success.
As a coach – you should track and monitor your players’ behavior in addition to tracking outcomes. By teaching behaviors, tracking them and rewarding them – success is virtually guaranteed!