Certification

Ideally, all of the League's coaches would be fully certified baseball coaches. In practice, volunteers and sometimes conscripts of varying qualifications and expertise fill the need to shepherd a team through one of the baseball seasons. To accommodate this, the league offers several layers of assistance to enable coaches to better do their jobs.

1. All coaches are invited to an annual District-wide Baseball clinic, run at a centralized location prior to the start of each season.
2. A pre-season meeting is conducted to discuss practices and expectations and give an opportunity for coaches to make contacts and ask questions.
3. Skills clinics are held to which both players and coaches are invited. The coaches learn at the same time as their players from recognized baseball experts. Three main clinics are planned: Pitching/Catching, Fielding and Batting.
4. Web resources  are made available to assist coaches in planning practices and organizing their players during games.
5. Other experienced members will assist coaches in organizing their team and setting up practices.

For those individuals who wish to advance their skills and obtain qualifications that are both valuable to baseball and transferrable to other sports, the NCCP (National Coaching Certification Program) is available.

Great coaching leads to the full development of every player. OWLL is committed to providing as many resources to coaches and players to help both improve their skills and capabilities. Clinics are key to this strategy. As such, OWLL provides both coaching and player development clinics throughout the Spring season.
 

Code of Conduct

A fundamental goal of Little League is to make better individuals – not just better baseball players. To that end, OWLL expects all participants in our League to abide by a strict Code of Conduct. Coaches, players, volunteers, Executive members and parents are expected to behave within a set of acceptable behaviours. View the Code of Conduct here.
 

Drills and Practices

Coaches or assistant coaches with OWLL are expected to organize at least one practice per week for the Rookie level and above. Each practice will commence at the specified time and a clear purpose for each practice will be outlined to the players before or at the start of each practice. 

Practice Plans

Practice plans are critical to organizing and conducting an effective practice and are a way for you to get the most out of each practice. You can find a practice plan template here.

The best practices are not necessarily the longest. The most organized coaches waste little time and ensure that every player is involved in most of the drills. The key to great practices is integrating fun and learning and coming up with creative drills and games.

The most effective practice plans have multiple stations, each practicing a specific skill in a fun, highly interactive, highly inclusive way. It is recommended to create drills that allow players to remain as active as possible.
 

Drills

Practice plans work only as well as the drills you run at each practice. There are numerous drills available that turn practices into highly engaging, fun, and practical experiences. Below are links to some of the sites we found most useful.

If you have favorite drills to contribute, please contact us so we can add it to our website.

General Drills
http://www.qcbaseball.com/drills/baseball_drills1.aspx 
http://www.baseball.ca/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=212 
http://www.ollb.org/ollb/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=94:other-online-coaching-resources&layout=blog&Itemid=84

Advanced Drills

http://www.youthbaseballinfo.com/view_articles.php?catid=1 
http://www.webball.com/cms/page1151.cfm

Other expectations:

• All Coaches and their Assistants are to wear League-provided hats to assist the Umpire[s] in recognizing you, should situations arise that require discussion with the Coaches.
• There is no game protest in house league. Do feel free to contact the division Convenor, Umpire-in-Chief, Vice President of Coach and Player Development, Vice President of Baseball Operations, or OWLL President to discuss problems and seek improvements.
• Coaches are to remain in their respective dugouts unless they are acting as a base coach and may only leave the dugout after requesting permission from the plate umpire.
• Smoking and alcohol are not permitted and have no place in any Little League organization.
• The Umpire-in-Chief must be notified, when possible, no less than one hour before game time if a game is to be cancelled. OWLL pays our Junior Umpires, even if they arrive at the diamond and no game is to be played. In a situation where the weather is uncertain and teams arrive at the field, the decision as to whether or not to play ball shall be at the discretion of the Umpire.
• Any Coach or player ejected from a game is suspended for his or her team’s next physically played game. The Umpire will notify the Umpire-in-Chief and the Director of Coaching immediately following completion of the game. A second coach ejection will result in the coach being suspended for the remainder of the season and be ineligible for coaching during the summer season.

Recommended Reading (for your parents too):

• The Mathany Manifesto
• Little League Baseball Rule Myths/Clarifications