Gary McDonald is the middle school baseball coach of Cary Academy (NC) and quite simply one of the best coaches I know.  He’s a student of the game who is always working on new drills and plays.  In the three seasons I’ve known him, I’ve watched him improve the game of a hundred kids while he’s improved his game as a coach.  I can testify that his players advance their skills and have fun doing so – the true measure of a youth sports coach.

Gary is also an early adopter and frequent contributor to the ChalkTalk telestrator.  It was his travel team – the Cary Chargers – that first made the system a regular part of their drills and practice.  So, its no surprise that when I showed Coach McDonald the baseball diagrams feature of PowerChalk, he immediately made it a part of his routine.

ChalkTalk Diagrams are interactive fields with a movable ball and players.  Just like a video analysis, you can record your session while you comment and  mark-up.  Envisioned as an electronic clipboard that would allow the coach to build a library of plays and diagram, Gary saw another use for the diagrams – homework.

Instead of simply giving the players a video to watch and learn, he asked his players to echo the plays back to him via their own ChalkTalks.  He could then assess their level of comprehension.

Cut 4 ChalkTalk by 13 year-old travel player

The results were game changing.  “Our players were consistently in the right positions”, the coach told me.  “Even the players coming off the bench.”  As a small-ball team, the execution and positioning became a signature of the team’s play.  They over-achieved coming in second in the state tournament.  “This team developed as much in a single season as any team I’ve coached”, said coach Gary.

At the season’s end, when asked to vote for the parent that helped the team most, the players voted for me although I had been gone for a year.  Effectively, they voted for PowerChalk.  It’s an honor I share with Coach McDonald.  His persistence and innovation made PowerChalk more than it was.  Impressive, but then again, that’s what great coaches do.

It’s a different world for coaches.  The game rules are the same but there’s a new generation of players.  The old school – my way or the highway approach – is failing.  No longer can you grab a player by the throat and smack him until his attitude improves.

This generation is wired.  They are plugged in and they want to know why along with how.  They demand to be involved in  the process and not just fed the answer (or the play).  They have a million messages a day screamed at them from a thousand different mediums and devices and they’ve learned how to tune out.  They’re a frustrating nut to crack and an enigma to veteran coaches.  Heck, they won’t even stand quietly in the woodshed until their concussions clear up.

They are not like us but I like them.  I have two boys, nine and fifteen, and they live in a world I could only have dreamed  of as a kid.  I believe that if I would have had PlayStation3 in 60 inch HD, I would never have played (real) sports at all.  Most of us coaches are too old to really understand them but we need to make some adjustments.

The plummeting attention span that results from new media creates a void.  High tech creates the need for high touch.  These kids need the crack of a bat and not the vibration of a controller to know real success.  They need to be part of  a team that starts bad but gets better.   They need to manage their own gear and to rake the field after practice.  They need the rhythm of baseball.

I think more than anything they need our attention.

Interesting quote in this article by PGA instructor John Hughes, “If you are paying for instruction that does not include video review of your game, you should reconsider why you are paying for golf instruction.”

I agree, its just not possible to see the important nuances of the swing without the aid of slow motion.  Even for the handful of pros who can see it, that doesn’t prove it to the player.  Getting him/her to acknowledge and fix the issues is job one.

http://www.pga.com Choosing an instructor By John Hughes

In my collection of signed baseballs I have a Sandy Koufax ball.  Koufax is my favorite player of all time.  He had a five year window in which he was unhittable.  In the summer of 2000 when I got the opportunity to play a round of golf with Randy Johnson, I put the Koufax ball in my golf bag.

Following the round, and presented with the ball, Johnson’s first reaction was that he couldn’t sign it.  “You’ll bugger your ball”, he argued, but I insisted.  Relenting he said, “Hang on.   I’ve got to sit down and put my ‘A’ script on this one”.  Everyone’s a bit humbled by the career of Sandy Koufax.

So I have a ball signed by the two greatest left handed pitchers to play the game of baseball.  In truth, Johnson was probably the better.  He too had a unhittable run but his lasted seven years.  From 1993-2000 he struck out 12 batters for every nine innings pitched.  He went 117-40 on teams (like Koufax) who often didn’t produce enough runs to win.

He added a sinker to his fastball and slider in that stretch that many players couldn’t have bunted with an ironing board.  His willingness to come inside kept any hitter from getting comfortable.  His control kept him from reaching a fastball only count.  His 98 mph four seamer made all the pitch guessing a moot point.

Here’s a clip showing his mechanics in slow motion.  Wow!

Randy Johnson was fun to watch and the game will miss him.   It’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll be a first ballot Hall of Famer.  He gave the game 22 years of drama that will not likely be duplicated.

From day one of coaching I’ve tried to incorporate my parents into the practice sessions, drills and goals of the team.  All of my baseball practices have stations with a parent (or two) manning it as the kids rotate through.

Stations have specific objectives towards using your glove, your bat or your feet.  Getting parents involved minimizes lines (long lines are the mark of a poorly run practice) and maximizes play.  We try many things in our stations and we hopefully create new pathways in the brain (i.e new skills).

I welcome participation and input from my parents at practice but I ask one thing of them in return.  When we start the game – they hang up their coaching whistle.

I believe that there are two modes in sports.  Practice mode and play mode.  In practice mode you create new skills by getting kids on the edge of their ability.  If a t-baller can catch an eight foot popup – throw them 12 foot popups.  If he doesn’t drop a few then you’re not stretching him and creating greater range.  If a skater can lean 20 degrees on a turn, set the cones to require a 30 degree lean.  One of the values of races (which I love) is that it pushes athletes to do a skill at the edge of their control level.  As they do, that edge expands.

My point to this (and I do have one), is that in Play Mode, you turn all of that practice theory off and  just play.  You don’t learn to catch or hit during a game.  I’ll say that again for the parents – you don’t learn to catch or hit during the game.  So don’t coach.

I ask my parents to tell me if they see something that they would like me to adjust.  Of course, I’ll line up a kids feet or switch their hands if they’re cross-handed but even I try to minimize game time coaching.   If we didn’t get it done in practice, there’s little we can do under the bright lights of game.  I certainly don’t want instructions and adjustment coming from the stands.

My favorite parent ‘coaching’ squall was “Watch the ball, Jack!”.  Seriously?  You’re interrupting his focus and play with that?

It took me a couple years of coaching to have this epiphany, but I now require my parents to not coach during games.  It siphons joy from the kids.  It conveys disapproval of their performance.   And by the way – it doesn’t work.

Help your kids advance their skills through repetition of proper technique in practice.  In the games, they’ll do what their muscle memory tells them and allows them to do.

Once the umpire says “Play Ball”, the only thing a parent should yell is ‘Atta boy, Jack!’.