Taking on the Title of COACH: A 5 Step Guide for Coaching Youth Baseball & Softball

As former little league, high school, collegiate and professional baseball players, authors Duke Baxter and Steve Nikorak appreciate the time, effort and dedication from every parent that takes on the role of coach. We know how challenging coaching can be and we want to do everything we can to help educate them.

Our vision was to create a step-by-step reference guide, for even the most inexperienced parents, to help them in every aspect of coaching. Our goal is to equip parents with all the tools necessary to become a first-time coach and get the absolute most out of their players. Building team chemistry, formulating drills and practice plans, keeping the game fun and communicating effectively with players are just a few of the qualities a coach must possess. This book will serve as a guide as you take on the title of coach.

We came up with the idea of writing a book a few years back after running one of our annual coach’s clinics. Each year, we run free coach’s clinics for neighboring Little Leagues, educating their coaches, most of whom are parents and have never coached before. In most cases, these parents have volunteered their time because their child asked them to coach their team. Without knowing what to do next, they attend our coach’s clinic. After taking a 90-minute crash course in coaching, they realize they aren’t nearly as prepared as they hoped they would be. They needed more information. They needed more drills. They needed help utilizing assistant coaches and volunteer parents. They needed help motivating their players. Most of all, they needed help keeping 12 kids engaged, all at once, in a sport where there tends to be a lot of standing around.

Each day, we’re fortunate to coach and train kids of all ages and skill sets. We dedicate our lives to being good role models, mentors and leaders – on and off the field. We fully understand that as coaches, we have an obligation to lead by example because our impact can be life-changing. We’re constantly trying to better ourselves and recognize that coaching is a never ending self-development process. Just like the players, we must strive to be better each day. We must educate ourselves and work hard to improve.

We’ve had the opportunity to play for some of the most renowned coaches in the game. We have also witnessed grown-ups act like children while managing little league teams. Our objective is to take all our experiences, the good and the bad and write this book. We want to give first time coaches the opportunity to use it as a reference point when entering their season. This will be the first book in our series on developing and mentoring young athletes and we’re thrilled to see this vision come to fruition. For information on our online, video-based training course visit www.dominatethediamond.com