The Youth Baseball Edge Podcast with Rob Tong: Coaching | Drills | Strategy

YBE172: Lessons Learned As An Umpire I Never Learned As A Coach

Umpires are expected to be perfect 100% of the time. And if you make a mistake—or are perceived as having made a mistake—you get yelled at. Who would want that kind of

YBE171: Coaching With Purpose with Keith Madison

Why do you coach? The answer to that question will dictate everything you do. Is there a "best" answer to that question? Keith Madison, the winningest coach in Univers

YBE170: Practices Revisited with Keith Madison

Are there ways to improve how our practices are? Keith Madison, the winningest coach in University of Kentucky history and the publisher of Inside Pitch magazine, shares

YBE 169: Help For Parents Helping Kids with Grant Cowan

How can baseball parents help their kids train at a select/travel level? North Texas local rec league commissioner Grant Cowan shares his thoughts in part 2 of this two-p

YBE 168: Select-Level Coaching At Rec Levels with Grant Cowan

Grant Cowan, MBSA coach and vice commissioner, shares how to coach your rec league team like a select-level coach in part 1 of this two-part interview. Plus Rob answer

YBE167: Top Tips for 2024

Rob Tong shares his top seven tips for 2024 that he learned from 2023. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to teach kids situational awareness. Pleas

YBE 166: Youth Nutrition, Plus Strength Training Q&A with Joey Greany

Joey Greany, assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, finishes up his tour de force on youth baseball strength training with a conversation about

YBE 165: The Need For Speed (and Strength and Agility and Sleep) with Joey Greany

Speed (and strength and agility) is not just an asset in football and soccer. Youth baseball athletes can greatly benefit from this type of training and Joey Greany, the

YBE164: Lessons Learned in 2022

Host Rob Tong looks back on the spring and fall seasons for his three teams in 2022 and whittled down seven lessons that he thinks might be helpful to you for 2023 and be

YBE 163: How To Properly Coach Third Base with Toby Gardenhire

While the majority of 1B coaches in youth baseball tend to be spectators rather than coaches, 3B coaches in youth baseball also tend to not fulfill their responsibilities

YBE 162: How To Properly Coach First Base with Toby Gardenhire

What exactly does a first base coach do in youth baseball? A LOT, actually. Toby Gardenhire, manager of the St. Paul Saints, breaks it all down for us in Part 1 of a two-

YBE 161: Rules Every Coach Should Know Before Arguing With Umpires, Part 4, with Brandon Jackson

Test your knowledge of more commonly misunderstood baseball rules with Brandon Jackson, former umpire at the D1/DII/DIII level. Coaches should know these rules before goi

YBE160: Rules Every Coach Should Know Before Arguing With The Umpire, Part 3, with Brandon Jackson

Test your knowledge of fair vs foul, batter's box rules, granting time, the infield fly rule, batted balls hitting objects, how to make appeals and the legality of steali

YBE 159: Rules Every Coach Should Know Before Arguing With Umpires, Part 2, with Brandon Jackson

Test your knowledge of the rules as Brandon Jackson, former umpire at the collegiate D1/D2/D3 levels, explains more rules every coach should know before arguing with the

YBE 158: Rules Every Coach Should Know Before Arguing With Umpires, Part 1, with Brandon Jackson

Admit it. You think you know the rules as much as the umpires do. I'll bet you don't. Brandon Jackson, former umpire at the D1/DII/DIII level, explains some rules coaches

YBE 157: How To Play Speedball with David Klein

David Klein explains the details of how the game of Speedball works and what its unique rules are in Part 2 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob (and Austin Wasserman) ans

YBE 156: What is Speedball? with David Klein

We as coaches work hard to revolutionize youth baseball practices so that it's no longer long, slow and boring. But is there a way to make games less slow and boring? Dav

YBE 155: How To Be A Better Youth Pitching Coach with Jim Brower

If a kid came up to you and asked you to help him with his pitching, would you know how to help him? Jim Brower of Brower Baseball shares his tips on how to analyze and h

YBE 154: A (Slightly) Different Take On Pitching with Jim Brower

Jim Brower of Brower Baseball explains why he values training accuracy over training max velocity, plus more of his philosophy on training youth pitchers and how to get s

YBE 153: Lessons Learned in 2021

Reflecting back on the past year is a productive way to see what went well and what could have been better. Consider doing that with your own team to get your own specifi