Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way

This is a very nice book that can help parents, new coaches and even many that call themselves coaches, but all they do is throw pitches and hit balls to players. I played for over 35 years and now becoming recreational coach. The first part of the book helps you understand your duty as a coach and be a better communicator to avoid future misunderstandings with parents, children, umpires, etc. The second part a large number of drills and fun games that will certainly keep children engaged. In my baseball experience I never did most of them, but I can see that this book will help me succeed as a coach. I strongly recommend Parents, every coach or wanna be coach to read this. I have helped coaches for the last 4 or 5 years, and I can tell you neither one of them read this book. I can understand why my kids don't love the game as much as I do. The reward you get after reading it completely justify the few bucks you spent. I am a parent as many of you reading this. I have a full time job, and as many of you sometimes I don't want to drag everything and drive to the field to play a bit of baseball with the kid(s). There is many things you can try and do in your own backyard after reading this book. Parents, give it a try with your young children. They will have fun and may like the sport. Now, I know my kids will have a second chance, but primarily it will be their decision, I will just show them the way as well as my new pupils. Something I learned while reading. I can't forced them to be what I wanted for me.

I've already coached one kid from tee-ball thru the 11-12 group. Just about to start again with a 4 year old next season so figured I'd buy a few books to do a better job. Got some personal validation when I found out that I have much of the same philosophy as the Ripkens, and also got some great new drills and coaching advice to go along with that. I bought two books, Play Baseball The Ripken Way, and Coaching the Ripken Way, and both have great tips from dealing with parents and then going on to cover just about every aspect of youth baseball coaching and playing that you will need to know, including illustrated drills. I'm a slow reader, these books are interesting and very easy to read, I had no trouble at all getting through them and will definitely continue to use them once the practices start up again. And for the price, way worth it! In my opinion paying ten or eleven bucks for even just a good really good drills would be money well spent, but these books have way more than that.

I like the overall philosophy and then the drills and practice plans are great. I found it helpful to combine what I learned here with things I learned from the Coaching Youth Baseball podcast with Dave Holt. Both Holt and the Ripkens share the philosophy of maximizing reps and keeping practice active and fun. Use these and practice becomes as enjoyable for the kids as the games, for dinner even more enjoyable, and they genuinely improve faster too.

My wife rented me this book at our local library, read through the first few chapters and it is was a lot of refresher information - the biggest thing for me with this book is the drills and practice programming. It has helped so much with my team and myself. I highly recommend this to anyone who coaches youth baseball. We are a 12u travel team and my kids have significantly improved since I have used the programming outline and drills in here. Almost all the drills in the book are on youtube explained how to do them as well so I can send the videos to my other coaches so we all coach the same style. Buy this book!

If you are looking for a way to ensure you are teaching the correct skills and at the same time making baseball practice lively, this is the book. The Ripkens are, obviously, well qualified to talk about baseball, but I was surprised at the wisdom, perspective, and pace of the book. First things, as they say, first. This is not a book that you get if you want to be a crazy baseball dad or mom -- this is the book you get if you want to be able to teach and explain the workings of baseball in an interesting way. Can't recommend this book highly enough. I was in something of a rush and bought this book on the Kindle (which I love). Since it is a reference work, however, in retrospect the hard copy might have made more sense. I do a lot of flipping back and forth in the kindle, and bookmarks are okay, but right yet I don't think the Kindle software is nearly as efficient. Still, no gripes or regrets about this purchase -- I might just have to buy the hard copy as well.

I bought this book because I was asked to coach my step-sons youth rec league baseball team. From the onset, the Ripken brothers laid strong foundation for developing a love of the game in youngsters. Having only played the game in little league (sat the bench), it instilled confidence in my ability to teach the basic fundamentals of the game. It also provided me with the tools to instill the love of the game in others. From the mental aspect to the physical aspect the Ripkens have written a book that is a must read. The book includes details of all the necessities for coaching youth baseball. From practice plans, times, and instructional drills, this book will give you a great start. Additionally each section give the reader pointers as to what to look for when doing each drill. The book takes the inexperienced and allows them the ability to enjoy coaching, to see baseball in a new light and to a reignite a passion for the games of baseball.

I bought this book to help with specific tips for coaching my daughter's softball team. Although softball pitching is not covered (after all, this is a bok on coaching baseball) the book provides a multitude of teaching points for teaching kids of all age groups. Although there is some overlap, I would strongly suggest purchasing Play Baseball the Ripken Way: The Complete Illustrated Guide to the Fundamentals also. That title breaks down the necessary skills by age groups and provides a series of drills that can be brought right to the diamond. Both of these books seek to instill the Ripken Way - a philosophy of how to approach youth sports (with obvious emphasis on baseball) with a focus on making the game fun for the kids, while teaching the fundamentals.

The book has some good drills and some that are pretty common. They also have some decent practice plans, but nothing special.

Perfect starters guide for coaching youth baseball.

Very informative for new coaches/managers

英語なので大変ですが，理念および練習方法について 非常にためになります。ぜひ日本の指導者の方も読んでほしいと思います。

Als Coach eines Schülerteams, langjähriger Spieler, kann man hier sich schon noch einiges Aneignen. Übungen sind gut beschrieben. Jetzt noch die DVD

Awesome all aspects!