I volunteered to be the assistant jv coach for my high school this year. I love baseball, but have no coaching experience whatsoever. Anyone have any ideas of where I need to start? I have almost two months before regular practices begin and want to be ready and have some knowledge of coaching before I officially start. Any advice, links, or info will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andy
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Do you have any colleges in your area? You could try and get in touch with one of their coaches and pick their brain. I know my college baseball coach had a great relationship with the area high school's coach. Another tip would be to get with the full time coach and see how he likes to run his practices. Does he have a plan for each days practice or does he kind of wing it each day?

http://baseballtips.com/instruction.html
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Lots of good info at that site. It looks like it focuses more on little league, but I bet there's some good info for me as well. If I have time, I'll check out my local college. There's two within 20 miles of my house. Thanks.:-)
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Andy...here are a few pages that might help. Just remind the kids it's a game and to be enjoyed!! Have fun. :-)

http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/tips_to_be_a_coach.htm

http://www.baseball-tutorials.com/
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Thanks, Mac.:-)
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http://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Baseb...0743247&sr=8-1

:-)

Might focus on little league, but never know.

Goodluck.
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Thanks, Jordan:-)
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Andy, if you need any help or have a question let me know. Feel free to pm me. Played a very long time, with 4 years at the college level.
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Andy same thing goes for me. I have also played all my life and 4 years at the college level.
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Here's a question for you Andy, at what skill level would you say the JV squad is at.
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Thanks guys:-) I'll probably be PMing you both shortly.
I'm not sure as of right now. I haven't seen them practice. The ninth grade and JV teams last year didn't look too good, so that's what I'll have this year.
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I would go back to hammering the fundamentals early on in the first two weeks or so of practice. The importance of staying down on the ball for infielders, pitchers emphasize following through and using the legs to push off, outfielders using two hands and getting a good crow hop, catchers staying down and using the whole body to block the ball.
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Not to sound too cynical, but what, are you, crazy or something??:-)

My respect for your volunteering to help. My first question is "what is the skill level of the JV coach?" Since he is your new boss, I would suggest you ask him every day what he wants you to do until you get to know each other. Is he good at baseball, has he coached before. Does he have a set routine, you hitting infield, he hitting infield, etc., etc.

Teaching the kids shouldn't be a problem for you, if you know baseball. If one way doesn't work, try another way. Teaching them the way the JV coach/senior coach wants may be a problem. Motivating them may be a problem. Getting them to work as a team may be a problem. The school administrators will probably be a problem. I can assure you, the parents will be a problem:-)

My best advice is to make sure that the team has respect for their schooling, baseball, the coaches and each other. If you can teach them that, you should have a successful year. Good luck, it should be a rewarding endeavor.
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1. Teach the basics of fielding and throwing.
2. Conditioning. That means running, backward & forward/side to side drills in a glove down position as if fielding a ball.
3. Simple fielding - infield and outfield. Just hit balls to them, flies, grounders, line drives...
4. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.
5. Run drills with baserunners and different number of outs - this is for those on the field and to teach baserunning skills. Hit balls to different infielder and outfielders and letting the play develop. Analyze and encourage correct defense.
6. Batting practice. And make the pitching tough. They may face a seriously good pitcher. Don't coddle them behind the plate the easy to hit balls in practice, it does nobody any good.

I don't do JV, but have coached Jr. High baseball and softball. And unless I miss my guess, even the pros practice what I've mentioned above.

Lastly and most importantly, be yourself. And, when you make a mistake (and you will)admit it. Doing both will earn their respect. You cover up your mistakes and act as if you were right, and they will think you're a fake.

Respect them.

God's blessings and good luck.
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once I get done studying for my last exam of the basic academy tonight I will try and post a description of how our practices went during college and some tips that might be beneficial to you.
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I have coached little league with a couple other dads for the past few years and what RevSmoke said above is pretty much how our practices went. The kids we have this year will be 7th and 8th graders so they are getting close to Jr. Varsity and Varsity.

The one thing that I will add to the conversation though is let the kids know when they do something wrong, but also when they do it right. We have one rule for these kids. When you play, you play hard. If you aren't playing hard, you aren't playing. We stress that all the time and even the stubborn kids have come around.

Now you got me all excited about our next season. Bring on spring!
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When they do it wrong, hollering won't help - unless it is just a loud voice they can hear. Remember your tone. Teach. Teach. Teach.

When it is done right, extol it - just as loud as you tell them how to do it.
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A typical day at practice would go as follows:

3:00- Get up to the field, gear up
3:15- Coach runs down what we will be doing for the days practice

Everyone jogs down to the right field foul line near the foul pole. We formed into two lines jogged to center field and then jogged back to the foul pole. We formed into rows of 6 people, with two captains leading stretches. Run through the various arm and leg stretches. At that point infielders, catchers, and outfields went with our coach and ran the bases while the pitchers would begin our throwing, the rest of the team would join when they were done running the bases. Pitchers made sure to get a good long toss in. Once we were done with that pitchers would make their way to the mound where we would do covering first drills until the rest of the team was done throwing.

From there we would be dived into groups. Our assistant coach would go and hit fly balls to the outfielders, catchers would work on catching drills such as drop and blocks, and pitchers would work on drills with the infielders such as working on comebackers. Coach would hit a ground ball to the pitcher and we would have to work on correct footwork throwing the ball to second so they could turn a double play. Once that was all done as a team we might work on situations where coach would hit the ball somewhere and you had to make the correct play. Other times we would work on pop ups to the third base side and first base side and the pitcher had to back up the correct base.

With the remaining 45 min or so hitters would take batting practice. Pitchers would be in the outfield shagging balls with the players not hitting or going down to the track to run our mile and do sit ups.

The main thing for pitchers is conditioning! You need stamina and a strong lower body.
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:-)

Thanks, Chris and all!
I need to work on hitting fungos is what the JV coach told me when I saw him in the hall this week. According to what you said, it looks like I'm going to be hitting a lot. Thanks for the rundown.
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Pitchers make great fungo hitters
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