Coaching Baseball Successfully

Rating:
Summary: Get it and learn how to manage "a coach's life"
Review: Coaching is like creating its own jigsaw : a lot of books will only show you how to shape a certain kind of pieces. This book will help you to define the entire picture and then refine it in many different pieces. It will provide you with datas that should be applied and confronted in real life, not only read and understood. Other coaching books usually give skills and drills. This fields are fast-covered here. Even if Andy Lopez has chosen to emphasize the development of a good pitching staff, his chapter gives insufficient direction, poor skills advices, no tools to evaluate pitchers progression... I don't recommend this book to players who are searching for new drills and new techniques. I recommend it to young coaches who doesn't know where they should be headed, and where they should bring their players.

Rating:
Summary: Coaches, get this book!
Review: I have been a coach on the college and high school level for 6 years now. I have also been a college player and had many pro tryouts. This book has given me a different outlook on how to go about my business in a more structured and professional manner. After reading it, you will see why Andy's teams have always been top notch.

Rating:
Summary: Good on organization, not very specific on skills
Review: I would recommend this book to aspiring coaches. I'm not sure that it will be very helpful to long time coaches. It certainly helped me get started. It teaches you how to build your own program, organize yourself and practices, how to coach games, scout, recruit and about various baseball skills. I think Mr. Lopez should have focused on how to build a program and organization in general, since his material on these areas is great. However the coverage of mechanics, skills and drills doesn't go very deep and is too general. Also of course this book is geared towards US College and High School coaches, so some sections (how to deal with administrators, recruit players, get funds) aren't always completely applicable for coaches in other situations (like me, coaching an adult team in Germany).