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TRAINING ROOM8 BASERUNNING

Philosophy for Coaching a Summer Baseball Teamby Mike Roberts

This is an exclusive excerpt from Baserunning (Human Kinetics, 2014) written by Mike Roberts, who spent 23 seasons as head baseball coach at the University of North Carolina, twice lead-ing the team to the College World Series. He is also the father of All-Star second baseman Brian Roberts of the New York Yankees, who is one of baseball’s most successful base runners.

Summer is player separation time. It’s time to fi nd out who plays because he loves the game and who plays because others love to see him play the game. Which athletes will

put in the practice repetition time, and which are just putting in time? It’s time to teach how to get down and dirty on the base-paths and learn how to dominate a game!My fi rst venture into head coaching was after I retired from pro-

fessional baseball and returned to graduate school at the Univer-sity of North Carolina. I was given the opportunity at 24 years of age to be the head coach of the team the university placed in the North Carolina Collegiate Summer League. This allowed me to continue to develop my overall coaching philosophy.When I began coaching summer baseball, I held two-a-day

practices for several days before the season opened. This came from my playing high school football and going through two-a-day practices to learn how to block and tackle. We used this time to focus on fundamentals before we even thought about playing a game together as a team.In the best-selling book The Last Lecture (2008, Hyperion),

Dr. Randy Pausch talks about his Little League football practice experience with Coach Graham. The kids were scared at the fi rst practice because he was old-school tough. Coach Graham asked, “How many men are on the football fi eld at a time?” The players answered 11. Coach Graham then said, “That makes 22 on the fi eld at any given time. And how many people are touching the football at any given time?” A player answered, “One of them.” “Right!” the coach said. “So we’re going to work on what those other 21 guys are doing.” Dr. Pausch remembers Coach Graham’s philosophy of fundamentals: “That was a great gift Coach Graham gave us.”In my initial season as head coach, I learned to use the afternoon

before a game more wisely by setting up individual work with athletes in 90-minute practice sessions on fundamentals. This teaching occurred before the entire team met for loosening up and the normal pregame routine, and it enabled me to fi nd out which summer players were playing to improve and which were just play-ing. I certainly hear more whining from a few players today than I did several years ago because of the amount of time this takes. Current players like to play more for the glory of one big play than cherish each play as the game progresses.I enjoy the opportunity to work with athletes who embrace practic-

ing as much as they like being seen in games. Potential team leaders like entering the fi eld for practice, have a better under-standing of the purpose of daily practice, and can see how prac-tice through repetition helps their game. During practice, I search for these leaders who will motivate their teammates to stay more focused, communicate, and execute during games.

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Smith the importance of one person scoring a lot of points was way down the list. Steve Previs, one of Coach Smith’s former players, said, “It was all about we, not me. It was the thread that wove us together.”There was a saying during Michael’s playing days at the University

of North Carolina, 1982 to 1984, that criticized Coach Smith for his philosophy on only one player scoring: “The only person who can keep Michael Jordan from scoring is Coach Smith!” Coach Smith wanted Michael to be a complete player. Smith wanted Michael’s defense at as high a level as his offensive skills. The reason behind this saying was Coach Smith’s belief in the team game and working hard to be above average in every area of the game so that one person scoring a lot of points just wasn’t necessary.I watched Michael in practice several times work on his defense in

great detail. Coach Smith teaching him the fundamentals in all areas helped Michael become an all-star on defense as well as offense. As stated earlier, fundamentals in all areas of an athlete’s game should come fi rst. Then eventually a more polished player can evolve.One of my goals is to help create a complete player. A large piece of

that creation is teaching every baseball player that he has the ability to be an outstanding base runner and can have excellent mental and physical talents for base stealing.

ABOUT THE AUTHORMike Roberts is the business development manager at Athletes’

Performance, where he directs baseball athlete relations and the sales of major league and minor league training programs. He is also the director of educa-tion for SmartKage Sports, a technology system that quantitatively measures athletic performance. A lifelong baseball coach, he is currently the head coach of the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod Col-legiate Summer Baseball League. Roberts played professional baseball in the Kansas City Royals minor league system. Baserunning is now available in book-

stores everywhere, as well as online at www.HumanKinetics.com. Look for more from Mike Roberts in Baseball The Maga-zine throughout 2014.

Baseball The Magazine Issue 2 2014 Page 89

My work habits and teaching philosophy come from the men-tors I had during my childhood in the 1950s and ’60s, when coaches emphasized to players the need to show improvement and respectable execution in practice before they could possibly play in a game, much less execute in one. This is called skill development and polishing those skills.I played for coaches who would hold an athlete out of a game

if he was sloppy in practice and did not take practicing seriously. For coaches to develop more confi dence in an athlete, they need to see a player trying to improve the small areas of the game in practice. The game is won or lost in the details!I was infl uenced greatly by two college basketball coaches

known for their detailed teaching of fundamentals, John Wooden at UCLA and Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina. These coaches silently helped me develop my teach-ing philosophy as I began my full-time coaching career. Dean Smith once said, “Play hard; play together; play smart! Focus on the effort and the end will take care of itself . . . create a sys-tem that demands effort, rewards it, and punishes its absence . . . execute properly; understand and consistently execute the fundamentals; drill the fundamentals!” John Wooden noted, “Be observing constantly; stay open-minded; be eager to learn and improve; have knowledge of and the ability to properly and quickly execute the fundamentals; be prepared and cover every little detail.”Both Wooden and Smith began their collegiate coaching

careers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Coach Wooden and Coach Smith rarely allowed any athlete’s talent to determine when he played, how much he played, and how he played the game. Each athlete in their programs, whether talented or just average, was required to learn the fundamentals in practice well before he played in games. This pushed each player to earn the opportunity to play alongside another no matter his talent level. These coaching legends’ teaching philosophies were the main reason both were consistently successful at a Hall of Fame level.Coach Smith had many great players who went on to play

in the NBA, as did Coach Wooden. Michael Jordan was the greatest offensive player Coach Smith ever had on his roster. Obviously, we will never know if Michael could have been the greatest scorer in UNC basketball history because under Coach