We all know about young players making physical errors in kids baseball leagues. But what about mental mistakes?
Physical errors are those caused by missing a ground ball, missing a fly or making a bad throw. They will always occur and must be tolerated in youth baseball. Experienced kids baseball coaches will not reprimand a player when a physical error occurs and will encourage his players to do the same.
Mental errors are made due to the lack of attention or mental focus. Mental errors are not recorded in the official scorebook but can determine the outcome of a ballgame. By the way, mental errors occur on offense as well as defense.
Here are a few mental mistakes made in kids baseball leagues:
Player forgets to cover a the base
Player forgets to back up a throw
Player throws to the wrong base
Player loses track of the number of outs in an inning
Player loses track of the number of runners on base
Player swings on a 3-0 pitch
Player bunts with 2 strikes
Player does not look at the third base coach for signs
The mental part of baseball is the definitely the hardest skill to teach, especially to kids in youth baseball. Mental mistakes are made at all levels of baseball. You see examples of this regularly on sports TV highlights.
How do you prevent mental errors in kids baseball leagues? Below are tips for kids baseball coaches to help prevent the mental mistakes.
Reinforce the player's focus on every pitch
Have them get in the "stance" before each pitch. This helps their focus.
Talk to the players in the field throughout the game.
Train them to ask 3 themselves 3 questions after each pitch:
How many outs?
What do I do if the ball is hit to me?
How many runners on base?
Teach the players to talk to each other in the field.
Encourage them when they make the mental errors.
If you follow these simple tips you will see a significant reduction in the number of mental mistakes.
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