Give specific praise to your players

During our practice sessions with JustinTime Baseball, we always tell our staff to end practice with closure and highlight specifics to work on moving forward – or highlight and praise what players did really well. 

We always strive to give specific praise to offer encouragement. Instead of saying “Peter hit the ball well,” we strive to give specific praise such as “Peter did a great job of keeping his head on the baseball at contact.” Another example is “I love the way Caleb was so positive to his teammates today at practice.” 

This shows as a youth coach that you truly care about each player and that you’re paying attention. From there, your players will put more trust and faith in you. 

Switch your words from good job to specifically what they did a good job on! The small change goes a long way.