Key Performance Indicators

It's been a while since I've posted, but I came up with these KPI's when I organized my thoughts about evaluating where my son should play. I think it applies to schools and summer ball.
If you want to contribute or edit the list...go ahead.
Key performance indicators:

• Are players staying healthy? (Arm health & pitch count monitored, relievers warmed up)
• Are players improving? (baseball skills, situations, conditioning, teamwork mental approach)
• Are players enjoying the game? (challenged, morale high, developing leadership)
• Is school/program well represented? (Is your baseball well thought of)
• Do former players return and contribute? (do they respect you)
• Are parents & players feel like their sons are given a fair chance?

 

These are great questions. # 1 should be keeping your players healthy and pitchers pitch count down ALWAYS not just early in the season.We try to keep our guys at 80- 90 pitches late in the season and at 50-60 early on with at least 4-5 days rest or more based on if he is a power guy that uses alot of energy and maybe not great mechanics or one that doesnt throw hard and has a fluid motion.Every pitchers recovery time to get ready to pitch again is different so we are very cautious about bringing him back without the proper rest . If we stretch his pitch count out then we increase his recovery time PERIOD. We also make sure all our relievers we plan on using in a games ALWAYS have plenty of time to get ready to pitch so if they are a starter at a position alot of times we sub them out to make sure they have plenty of time to get stretched out and loose before we re enter them to pitch. We also offer summer and fall ball for our players but if they choose to play some where else we dont have a problem with it. We like our kids to play year round with their team mates but realize that some times players and coaches need a break from each other or players want to play vs better competition than they may see in a summer high school league . Showcase and Legion or Travel ball can offer more exposure and competition during the SUMMER and FALL. As coaches we need to find the middle ground on pushing our players to maximize their talent but also keeping the game fun for them and for us. We use the summer to help our players improve their skills and the new players to learn our system and the fall we coaches can sit back and watch from the bleachers and EVALUATE what we need to work on in February when our season begins. The summer is a great time to take a good look at our new players.Most top tier programs go year round so if i am looking at a school for my son to play at that would be one of the things at the top of my list along with the success of the program in the past. We do bring back former players either to help our school team or coach our fall or summer teams. Many of my former players come back and help our program in any way that they can. We try to make sure every player gets the same amount of our time at practice to help every player improve but every player should be willing to work as hard as the next guy does as well. Remember your team is only as good as your weakest player so as a coaching staff if you dont work to make every player better then your program will not reach the level that you hope for.

 

As far as parents go .Most parents are very respectful but every Coach always will have some that dont see eye to eye with our decisions but i think it helps if as a Coach you meet with every player early on and let him know what his role is on the team.That helps keep the parents in check most of the time but not always. We carry 18 players and to be successful all 18 and their parents for the most part have to buy in to our system for it to be a successful year for us.

 

thanks for you input wolfpackbaseball