Managers and coaches are asked to play many roles throughout the season. Here are some resources that will help.

Positive Coaching:

NCLL is a double-goal league, which means its managers and coaches are trained yearly by the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA). PCA espouses an approach to youth sports that focuses on developing the whole athlete, using sports to teach life lessons, and supporting coaches, and parents to think bigger than the wins and losses - to think about the type of person you want your child to be. A number of organizations offer great information about how to coach the whole person, inspire risk taking, and encourage a growth mindset in players. Here are a few:

This site has resources for coaches, parents, and athletes. Coaches can sign up to receive weekly email reminders during the season. There are a lot of great videos, research, and information to guide coaching practice in all sports.

• Positive Coaching Alliance: www.positivecoaching.org

Sample Parent/Guardian Meeting Agenda:

A pre-season parent meeting is a wise investment. People tend to live up to expectations if they know them. A meeting can help mold the behavior of your athletes' parents. The most effective way to have your pre-season parent meeting is in a private setting (such as the home of one of the coaches or parents) where you can have the full attention of the group. If this is not possible, then the meeting could be scheduled before one of the first practices or games when the parents would need to be delivering their kids anyway.

For more information see Sample Parent/Guardian Meeting Agenda.

Skills and Drills:

This guide spells out the technical and tactical skills we think kids should be learning at each division. It is a useful tool for Managers to review at the start of the season, as they think about goal setting and what they hope to teach throughout the season.

• NCLL Baseball Skills and Concepts Guide
  

This website offers some great drills and even templates of full practice plans.

• Baseball Positive: www.baseballpositive.com

Conditioning & Injury Prevention:

Here are the pre-practice functional movement drills that were reviewed at the coaches' training. Useful for all ages.

• Functional Movement Drills