Radio Coaching Tips from the Little League

If you’ve ever coached a child’s sports team, to me you’re a saint. As a dad of three boys, I’ve experienced my fair share of YMCA basketball, soccer, middle & high school lacrosse, and especially baseball. I didn’t have a lot of chances to play sports as a kid, so I feel ill equipped to pitch in the way other parents do as coaches. Just stepping up is an accomplishment from where I sit.

When it comes to radio talent coaching, just stepping up is a big deal too. If you’re making that happen yourself or through a third party coach/consultant, good on you! Any jock worth having on your team craves coaching. When it’s done well, they can’t get enough. Almost anything they’ll do worth celebrating will flow from your consistent coaching. Even or especially when your feedback has to include a correction/adjustment in their approach.

My 12-year-old helped drive that point home for me, and it’s changing the way I see my role as a talent coach. Old me: when offering constructive criticism, I hoped and expected to share the change I wanted once. Ever. And then move on. “It’s ok to make mistakes,” I might say, “but don’t make the same one twice.” In fact, my patience and grace if I had to say the same thing across two or more more coaching sessions was lacking.

After a recent game, Ezra griped about how his coach kept telling him the same things over and over. In his mind, he was too smart and too good to hear the things his coach was harping on. But he wasn’t in the stands; he didn’t see what the rest of us saw. “Head down” Coach John might say when Ezra and others were up to bat. Did they already know it? Sure! Were they doing it in the moments Coach said it? No. They needed his reminder.

And, boom (goes the dynamite). That’s my recent coaching epiphany from the 12U AAA league of the Rawlings Tigers in suburban St. Louis, MO. Coaching is largely a function of keeping the important things in front of your talent. Many of which they already know, but need fresh reminders of. And you do it in a way that cheers them on and propels them forward.

Once in a while, you’ll encounter a break…a line…a situation…that should never happen again. You should definitely address those things. But those will be exceptions (ideally…if not, you have bigger issues). If you’ve ever been frustrated with coaching some of the same things over and over like I have, take notes from great sports coaches. Their jobs largely consist of reminding their teams of things the players already know; the coach is simply directing their focus to which of those many things matters most in the heat of the moment.

By the way (proud dad humble brag moment here), my 7th grader has gone from third to last in the batting lineup to third from the start this season thanks to Coach John keeping what matters most front and center for Ezra and the team. You can make that happen for yours.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9. (Written way before baseball or radio were invented, but still applicable!)