Expectations and Evaluations of Coaches

The most important person in our organization, the MLBA, is the coach. You are the person who determines the quality of experience that our young athletes have with sport.

Our organization, the MLBA, is committed to the ideals of Positive Coaching Alliance. The MLBA expects our coaches to be "Double-Goal Coaches" who want to win and want to help players learn lessons that will help them be successful in life.

The following behavior is what the MLBA expects of coaches in our organization.

We want you to:

1) Model and teach the concept of Honoring the Game.
Teach your players the elements of ROOTT: Respect for the

• Rules

• Opponents

• Officials

• Teammates, and the

• Tradition of the game

2) Help players redefine what it means to be a "Winner" in terms of Mastery.

• Teach the ELM Tree of Mastery (Effort, Learning, Mistakes are Okay).
• Reward effort, not just results.
• Help players set goals and measure their progress toward them.
• Develop a team "Mistake Ritual" to help players quickly rebound from mistakes.

3) Fill players' Emotional Tanks

• Achieve a 5:1 Plus/Minus Ratio of positive reinforcement to criticisms.
• Refrain from using fear, intimidation or shame with players.
• Use Criticism Sandwiches to help players improve.

4) Have Conversations with your team regularly in practices and before and after games to reinforce the above themes from the Positive Coach Mental Model.

Please refer to the Positive Coaching Alliance, Parent Information link for more complete information on this matter.