Author name: stadmin

As kids get older, coaches should do less during games. Less coaching, less driving the energy, less micro-managing of the kid’s play and decisions. I coached Majors this year and in 20 games, there was not a single instance where I, or the other coach, called out where the play was, reminded the kids how […]

You’ve probably heard of the Savana Banana’s motto by now: “FANS FIRST.” And I hope you know that Spring Training’s motto is “Play Hard, Have Fun.” It took me a long time to come up with a short phrase that captured everything Spring Training is about (and I love it), but if I was ever

My favorite body language / attitude challenge to issue to the teams I coach is this: If someone arrived in the middle of the game and the scoreboard was turned off, they should not be able to tell if our team was winning or losing, or who was personally having a good game or bad

I’m coaching Majors this season and of the 11 kids on our team, 6 have pitched in multiple games already!   All 6 of those kids (5 of whom are 12 years old) throw a curveball/slider, in addition to their fastball, and a couple of them have a changeup as a 3rd pitch. Age 11 or

CAGE VS GAME HITTING! Now that the season is rolling here in Southern California, you might be noticing that your hitter crushes the ball in the cage and practice but takes really tentative swings (or doesn’t swing at all!) in games. Frustrating, right?!? Sure, but totally normal in Little League.  From Minors all the way

NEW BLOG: POST-GAME PARENTING Maddux is off to rough start at the plate. This happens every year because he doesn’t play any baseball between the end of Summer Camp in August and Little League Evaluations in January, and it always takes him a handful of games to get into the groove getting comfortable with his swing

Slamming Bats. Throwing Helmets. Blaming The Ump. One unfortunate trend I’ve noticed in recent years is that youth athletes’ emotional outbursts and reactions to failure and adversity have increased in both frequency and intensity. The reasons behind this are likely numerous and include: But even in the healthiest of sports environments, maintaining a level-head in

With Little League practices underway, I thought it would be a good time to talk about getting back into the “swing” of things during BP and cage time. (See what I did there?!?!  I’m so hilarious; just ask me.) While the pre-season is a great opportunity to tune up our player’s swings from a mechanical

I absolutely love coaching basketball and am lucky to get to coach both Maddux’s (6th grade) and Sloane’s (3rd grade) hoops teams.   In Maddux’s game on Sunday, an interesting situation came up that, of course, made me think of larger implications in today’s youth sports world.   Let me set the stage…   The

Most local Little Leagues have “Tryouts” this weekend (I love that almost all leagues have changed the name to “Evaluations”) and here’s some advice for parents and coaches to make the day fun, instead of stressful. For Players: For Parents: PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!