The Coach's Corner/ The Assistant Coach

Having a good assistant coach is a real asset. What is the role of an assistant coach?

The assistant coach fills holes. He may be in charge of the pitchers or he may work with

the middle infielders, for instance. He should make sure whatever tasks he is allotted

that he becomes as expert in teaching those areas as possible. This frees up the manager

to focus his attention to other areas of instruction. If the assistant can hit fungos well, it

frees up the manager to roam around and give more hands on instruction. To hit quality

fungos you will need a fungo bat…

Usually, the assistant coaches first base. He should understand his role is to be a "hat rack".

He should say "Nice hit", "Can I take your batting gloves", "There is one out" "See the line

drive through", and SHUT UP. Don't over coach. Let the kid learn to make base running

decisions. He will never learn to be a quality base runner if the coach is continually yelling

"BACK, BACK". If he is never allowed to make a mistake they can't be corrected and he

won't learn.

There are so many things the manager needs to think of during a game. He can certainly

use input but the assistant must understand that these are just suggestions. He must not

be offended if his suggestions are rejected and not acted on. Here again suggesting lineup

or positioning changes is always helpful but having made the suggestions a good assistant

ignores whether they are acted upon or not. A good assistant never second-guesses.

A good assistant is loyal. He never second-guesses to parents or players. He defends the

manager's decisions if parents or players try to second-guess the manager.

Often the manager and assistant will agree to spend extra effort coaching each other's kid.

He may be the manager but to his kid, he is still Dad and you know sometimes they don't

want to hear it from Dad.

A good assistant always buys the first round after the game. I love being an assistant. Most

of my suggestions are acted on. I am freed from the detail work and just allowed to help the

players to have the most success/fun possible. I am given a great deal of responsibility and

I don't have to deal with league officials and parents.

Yours In Baseball

THE COACH

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