By Dennis Read
Dennis Read is Assistant Editor at Coaching Management.
Coaching Management, 9.6, September 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0906/game.htm
Most coaches stress to their student-athletes the importance of off-season improvement. Whether it's learning a new skill or honing existing ones, baseball coaches expect their players to come back next season better than they were the year before.
But how can coaches do the same themselves? With more pressure to recruit, fund-raise, and train athletes year-round, there really is no true off-season for college coaches, and most high school coaches have other jobs--be they teaching or otherwise--they must tend to away from the diamond.
Despite these time constraints, coaches still need to find ways to improve their skills and abilities, lest they get left behind just like players who don't properly use the off-season. The difference is that, for coaches, these professional development activities can occur throughout the year, from off-season conventions and clinics to in-season observations. And with few days to spare in a busy schedule, the key is making the most of your professional development time.
Conventional Thinking
For most coaches, the closest thing to an off-season comes at the end of the calendar year. Recruiting lowers to a dull roar with fewer prospective players to see. Current student-athletes are busy with the end of the fall semester, and the first playing days of the spring are still several weeks in the future.
Thus, it's not surprising that coaches take advantage of early January to schedule their national convention. As a combined convention and clinic, the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Convention is one of the cornerstones of a coach's professional development strategy.
"I think it's absolutely critical that you're always at the national convention and your state convention," says Jim Miller, long-time Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. "The national convention is a three-fold event. One part is listening to the presenters, and they always bring in top people to speak. This year, Tommy Lasorda spoke on motivation and did an excellent job. In the past, they've had Nolan Ryan talk about pitching and Mike Schmidt talk about hitting.
"The second thing is the networking," Miller continues. "I've gotten to a point where after going to these things for 20 years, I'm on a first-name basis with a lot of these coaches, and I can sit and talk baseball with them.
"The third thing is that they always have a tremendous display of vendors with all the new equipment."
While simply attending clinic sessions and passively noting what the speakers have to say can provide some insight into new ideas, coaches say it pays to be more interactive than that. Don't hesitate to talk with presenters to clarify points you didn't understand completely or seek more detail on a topic that interests you.
"Speakers are usually willing to tell you what's going on, or they wouldn't have been there in the first place," says Britt Bonneau, Head Coach at Abilene Christian University. "You have to ask a lot of questions, but before you do, you should listen. You listen to understand what they're teaching and why they teach it that way. You want to see if it's similar to what you're already doing or, if not, if it's something you might like to try."
The goal of these interactions is not necessarily to discover something completely new and different from anything you've done before, although that sometimes does happen. More often, you're likely to find a slightly different twist on something you're already doing.
"The way I teach something may not be the best way to teach it," says Chip Smith, Head Coach at Campbell University. "I might hear something explained in a different way that I can use to get a point across to a kid in a way that he'll understand better."
Camps and Clinics
As good as conventions are for interacting with other coaches, camps and clinics also present an opportune time to pick up pointers from your peers. Whether you host your own camps or work as an instructor at others' camps, these can be learning experiences for you as well as the campers.
"There's no telling how many camps I worked early in my career when I was an assistant at Virginia Tech," Smith says. "That's really how I learned a lot about teaching and coaching techniques, by watching and listening to other coaches."
Bonneau also uses the campers as a resource. "You're getting kids who are coming from programs where they've been coached differently and I always ask them why they do things a certain way because you can always learn from that," he says. "A lot of these kids come in here and do things I like, and I want to know how they learned to do those things.
"I also learn from the high school coaches who come in to teach," Bonneau continues. "They all have their own ideas and when you watch them coach, something might click that you will want to use."
The process of teaching at a camp can also help make you a better coach once you return to your own campus. "You might find a better way of teaching through those camps and clinics," Smith says. "By experimenting and working new drills you might find a better way to do something that the kids have had difficulty doing before. It also helps you to stay fresh in your public speaking."
If you host your own camp, the experience often helps stretch your organizational skills. Trying to work 140 campers through a handful of hitting stations at a camp will make your preseason batting practice sessions seem tame by comparison.
"When we first started running our own camp, it certainly made us better coaches," Miller says. "It gave us better insight into how to run a more efficient practice."
A Helping Hand
Conventions, clinics, and camps are not the only places where coaches can learn from each other, though. Just about any place two or more coaches gather can quickly turn into an impromptu learning experience. "If there's one thing about baseball people," Smith says, "it's that when we sit down and talk to each other, we talk a lot about baseball."
"I think what's great about the coaching profession is that it's one great big network," says Rich Maloney, Head Coach at Ball State University. "Most people are willing to help each other out and I think there's a special camaraderie out there."
Maloney stresses the importance of having a mentor. Whether he's someone you played for, worked for, or coached against, it's helpful to have a more experienced coach to talk to.
"I've been fortunate to have a tremendous friend in Fred Decker," says Maloney, who played for Decker at Western Michigan University before spending four years there as an assistant coach to Decker. "He's been a true mentor to me.
"I think it's important for people to have someone they can share things with and get things off their chest," Maloney continues. "We internalize a lot of things as coaches and we're constantly processing things in our minds. So we need to be able to release some of that in a constructive way. Having someone like a Fred Decker to bounce an idea off of or seek wisdom or an opinion from is beneficial. I know it's been a good thing for me."
Maloney makes use of other coaches as well, especially when he's seeking information about something specific. "If I'm looking for help on a certain topic, I'm not afraid to call somebody who I think might be an expert in the area to shed some light on it for me," he says. "Say you wanted to improve your team base running. Then you want to find a guru of base running and one of those is Rod Delmonico at the University of Tennessee."
For a young coach just starting in the profession, the thought of picking up the phone and calling another coach out of the blue may be pretty intimidating. But Maloney says that's just what they sometimes need to do.
"The go-getters who go ahead and do things like that are the people who do well in the profession," he says. "The people who seem to be successful aren't afraid to learn and aren't satisfied with what they already know.
"Now, certainly it might be more difficult for someone to get time with some of the guys who are consistently in the College World Series, because so many people want a part of them," Maloney continues. "But, in general, there's always someone out there willing to help you if you're willing to search for that person."
Another way to learn from other coaches is to watch them in action. Smith, for example, tries to attend practices at various schools in his area throughout the fall.
"I just like to see some different things they may do in practice that would help us, and most coaches are very receptive to letting you do that," he says. "The biggest things are practice organization and the drills that you're able to incorporate. When you sit down and listen at a clinic you're not able to see the drills actually applied."
Meetings of the Minds
Other sources of professional development are much closer to home. While few coaches look forward to sitting through department meetings and seminars, these can be an important part of staying abreast of current rules and trends.
"I just got back from an all-day NCAA compliance meeting, just a refresher going over the rules on how to get a kid eligible, recruiting, financial aid, and so on," Bonneau says. "These things can change from year to year, so keeping up with the changes is part of professional development."
"Our school does a good job of doing things for us professionally," Smith says. "Two years ago, we had a guy come in from FranklinCovey to lead a seminar on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. We also had a former coach come in and give us a recruiting seminar--things we should be doing when we're contacting kids to recruit and things we should be saying to those kids. And we just had a meeting where we were given the book How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and learned how that applies to everyday life and the importance of being positive when dealing with people."
While fellow baseball coaches can provide ideas for future development, other coaches in your own department can also be tapped for their knowledge. Obviously the merits of sending the runners with a full count and one out won't be discussed, but other coaches at your school face many of the same challenges you do while dealing with the same people.
"There's a closeness among coaches," Smith says, "because I don't care if you coach football or field hockey, everybody is in the same business and has experiences we can relate to. There are always things you can pick people's brains about, even if you're not in the same sport. For example, here we talk about how you develop leadership in kids.
"I'll talk to our basketball coach a lot because he's been around here a little longer than I have," Smith continues. "Our softball coach is right across the hall and a lot of their techniques are similar to baseball."
Areas of discussion can range from philosophies of coaching to the practical uses of new technology. "One thing we talk about are the philosophical approaches when it comes to disciplining players," Miller says. "We all do our own thing here, within some guidelines, so we discuss incidents and things we might want to do. And although I'm one of the older guys and I wasn't brought up with a computer, the younger guys, including my assistant coaches, are doing computer programming for recruiting, and that's something you can share as well."
Avoiding Burnout
Professional development can also include giving your brain, body, and soul a two-week time out. Whatever your off-season--summer, winter, or otherwise--veteran coaches emphasize the importance of getting away from coaching for at least a little while.
Coaching is such a demanding profession that it can wear on people, no matter how motivated and dedicated they are.
"As coaches, we don't want to fall behind or feel in our minds like someone else is gaining an advantage on us, so we just work, work, work," Maloney says. "Then you can get burned out and you can't be as good as you'd like to be to your players. So I think it's good to get away where you have no contact with the university itself for a period of time. Different coaches feel more comfortable doing that to different degrees. I think each coach has to find his own niche for getting away from the constant grind."
Of course, there is no best time to leave. The key is to pick a period that works for you both as a person and as a coach.
"I'll take my break in August after most of the tournaments are over," Maloney says. "I'll go to a cottage with my family and just get away from the job totally before the kids get back to school. That means I will miss some tournaments and recruiting, but I've made a conscious choice to do that because I think it's important for my family and me."
What you do is less important than simply being away from the office. "When you're 59 years old, there needs to be some time to recharge the battery," Miller says. "So my wife and I bought a couple of timeshares just so we could force ourselves to get away on vacation without telling anybody what the phone number is. Younger coaches have more energy, but I think they still have to find time to get away, one way or another. You have to do it somehow, or it could drive you nuts."
Getting away from it all doesn't necessarily mean getting away from baseball. Some coaches find rejuvenation in a new setting, even if baseball is a constant.
"Sometimes just watching other teams practice and seeing new things gets me pumped up," Smith says. "The big thing for me this year was being selected for the YES (NCAA Youth Education through Sports) clinic at the College World Series. If my team doesn't make it [to the College World Series] next year, I hope I will be selected again because there's no other atmosphere for baseball like it. If that doesn't get you pumped up, nothing will."
Unexpected Lessons
Although clinics, camps, and hot stove talks can teach you much about the game, don't forget about those lessons that happen between the white lines. As Miller found out again during an NCAA Division III regional game this spring, even the most veteran coach can still learn something new.
"We had the bases loaded and nobody out," Miller says. "About the worst thing that can happen is to hit one right back to the pitcher, which is exactly what we did.
"The pitcher fired it home, and the instinct from there, and the thing we practice all the time, is to turn and fire to first base," he continues, "double play, two out, and runners on second and third. But the catcher never hesitated to throw to third and turned the double play that way.
"I'll never forget that--and we'll do that ourselves next time. So you can always pick something up somewhere that you can use."
Sidebar:
With A Book
While most of the best advice you receive will come through face-to-face discussions, don't forget to turn to the written page for additional words of wisdom.
"Whenever I go to a bookstore, I always look in the baseball section to see if there are any good books out," says Chip Smith, Head Coach at Campbell University. "I use Ron Polk's Baseball Playbook a lot and get a lot of information out of that, and Andy Lopez had a good book out [Coaching Baseball Successfully]."
"I have a pretty decent baseball library, including a lot of voices from the past, that I like to go through and refresh my mind on the direction I want to take my program," says Ball State University Head Coach Rich Maloney. "I think we can learn a lot from the past as well as those coaches who are doing well currently."
Although baseball books will obviously draw the most interest, baseball coaches can also benefit from books about other subjects. "I'm always looking for things to help me become a better coach and communicator," Maloney says. "It might be Mike Krzyzewski's book or the one on Dean Smith--anything where people have been successful, especially athletically."
"There are a lot of good books about sales that relate to what we do," Smith says. "If you think about it, we're teachers as well as salesmen--we have to sell our programs to kids."