The Most Effective Way to Coach Your Child to Take His Baseball Skills to the Next Level

The Most Effective Way to Coach Your Child to Take His Baseball Skills to the Next Level
By Jason Alamo

How to help your child attain greater success

When a player is in game play, the game speeds up on them, and you notice them changing their mechanics, it can be one of the most frustrating things for a parent to watch. Naturally, you want them to succeed and want to help your child as much as possible. But, how much of an impact can "from the stands-tips" be during actual game play? Usually it will make a significant difference. A negative one. Players tense up, think too much, and loose confidence while they are trying to perform. The mechanical "error" correction advice will usually cause more harm than good, even if it is the correct information. When a player feels pressure from a parent during performance they tense up, and diminish their chances of success. Remember "perceived" pressure to a player, is the same thing as real pressure. I notice it during one-on-one lessons regularly. Some players put additional pressure on themselves when parents are watching and they feel they are disappointing them, when they don't do something right. Their performance and learning always ends up suffering. The parents think it puts additional pressure, but it is important to remember it is what the player perceives to be true, that is reality.

The most effective thing a parent can do while watching their child play is make mental notes and review techniques and aspects of the game after the event has taken place. The best time is usually the next day. Players will not be receptive to any information immediately following their game. It is important to note, that when correcting players, parents should be sure they are instructing and teaching them the correct techniques. Misinformation and incorrect techniques will continue to lead them down the wrong path. In these instances, if the player is using a professional instructor for lessons, it is best to relay the things you noticed to him so that he can address the issue by teaching the right mechanics and repetitions. You don't have to know the "fix", but I always find it useful to get parent feedback about the player's game performance, so that I can give them the "fix".

If you do give your child baseball tips and advice, it is important to reward the process of the mechanics and approach and not the game result. Baseball is a game of average. Balls that are not hit well sometimes fall in for hits and balls that are well and hard are caught. Have your player pride himself on the process of hitting, throwing, and fielding. If a player hits three hard line drives in their game play, and each ball was caught by a defender, although the player was 0-3, it should be considered a successful game for the player.

Jason Alamo is a former college coach at six different college programs. He is the founder of http://www.BaseballCampReviews.com, a free website that provides real parent and player opinions and experiences on youth and high school baseball camps from around the nation. The site provides information from others which helps during the decision making process about what camp to send your child to. Baseball Camp Reviews can be found by visiting http://www.BaseballCampReviews.com

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