Coaches are always telling their players to stay in the game when they are sitting on the bench.  This is true they need to do this, but one thing you must realize is how boring it is to sit on the bench.  Imagine how short your attention span would be just sitting there and now understand you are dealing with kids who probably have an even shorter attention span.  So what do we do?  Here are a few ideas of how to keep kids in the game.  This will work great for High School aged kids and if taught properly could work good for the younger ages as well.

Keep spray charts:  Spray charts help you see how you pitched to certain hitters and what they did with the at bat as well as where the ball ended up.  This chart helps your hitters see how the pitcher is pitching them and it helps keep the kids on the bench involved because they can keep the charts.  Also, do one for their team as well, especially if you will play the team multiple times per year or may see them later in the playoffs.  Spray charts are a great tool to help both your hitters and your pitchers during the game.  It will also help you coaches develop a plan on how to pitch to certain guys during the game, or even after if you play the team again. 

Get a few more stop watches:  Get enough stop watches for the guys on the bench and have them be responsible for getting all the times of the runners to first for both teams, the pitchers time to home, the catchers throw to second, and even the pitchers move to first.  If certain kids are responsible for this then they will have to be paying attention to the game.  It also helps you as a coach because you will be able to see who is fast on their team and who is hustling on your team.  These are just a few ideas for now but try them out and see if you like it. 

What you can you do to help the recruiting process:

Getting the information you need.

Assuming you possess some of the tools we talked about in the previous chapter you are now going to go to work marketing them.  Remember you do not have to possess all five tools, only a small percentage of players in the history of the big leagues possess them.  What you have to do is figure out your strengths (be honest with yourself) and then figure out which programs value those strengths.  This is actually not that hard to do, a simple email will get you some valuable information.  You can find most coach’s email on the schools website.  Their email is usually on the baseball page in the athletic section of the website.  If it is not directly on the page check the coach’s bio.  Keep your email short and concise in order to prompt a return with the answers you are looking for.  Check the sample email below.

“Coach Johnson, my name is Joe Smith, and I am looking at schools in which I fit in academically and that value the tools in which I possess on the field.  I was wondering what your schools academic standards are in relation to GPA, SAT, and ACT, I am also wondering what physical tools you value most in a player.  I appreciate your time as I know you are busy, and I look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you, Joe Smith.”

You should save this email as a draft so you can use it for every coach you want to email.  Obviously do not forget to change the coach’s name.  When you get emails back and you see schools that value what you have to offer you can start to further market yourself to the schools that fit your skill set.  One of my players got in contact with the University of Florida using this strategy.  He sent an email and received a very prompt response and the coach was very detailed in telling the player what he looked for.  Also, if a coach does not get back to you right away or even at all do not get discouraged some coaches may be very busy or simply do not return any unsolicited emails, that is OK just keep trying.