Jeff Burroughs' Little League Instructional Guide

Well Dones: Burrough's spends 44 pages on defensive game situations - who should cover what, if the ball is hit here, and there are runners here & there. The best part of this section, is that it is covered with diagrams. Burroughs also covers approximately 22 baseball drills for practices (see Opportunities for Improvement also).

Opportunities For Improvement: The biggest disappointment is Jeff's lack of use of pictures and diagrams to explain what he is trying to describe in text form. Even in the section describing the 22 drills, they are no pic's or illustrations. Pictures and diagrams are a must for this type of book. The cover of this book says, "Fully Illustrated". There is a section in the middle of the book with pictures covering different topics that, unfortunately, do not match anything nearby. Also unfortunate is the fact that this photo section leaves way too much to be desired - nothing new here. There are no other photos in the book besides this one section. Jeff spends only 1/2 page on each position and covers the rest of the defensive positions in general terms. Very disappointing. I started the chapter on "Practice" with great enthusiasm and felt great about most of it until I read two sections that, as a Little League coach for the past many years, found very hard to believe: Jeff says the team should not take batting practice during any of your practices and to only do this before each game by having the team show up 1 1/2 hours before game time. Yeah, right! (Maybe if all our games were on weekends, and there were no games beforehand.) Jeff's suggested practice schedule runs from 4 PM to 6:30 PM. Most coaches would be real lucky to have that kind of time. On the cover of the book, it states that the book is written for Coaches and Parents - but throughout most of the book, Jeff is teaching directly to the player. There's nothing new or exciting in this book. This is definitely not even a good beginning coach's book. If I had to make one point - it is the serious lack of illustrations and pictures for the amount of text that Jeff uses. I wanted desperately to like this book and was looking forward to some great drills & technique suggestions for my Little Leaguers (and besides I was a fan of his when he was with the A's), but I just didn't find it here, even after going through it twice.


Very Good Text on the Skills and Tatics   May 16, 1999
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

This was a very good book that explained the basics and the finer points of teaching baseball to children. This is a book that could be used over and over again at each level.


A comprehensive guide for youth league coaches.   April 8, 1999
 12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Burroughs provides thorough coverage of youth league coaching subjects: the basics at each position, hitting, throwing, pitching, and planning practices. Burroughs' credibility comes from having been a successful Major Leaguer who later managed teams to a couple of Little League World Series titles, and he discloses a few of his managerial secrets. The main focus is on teaching baseball, however: Burroughs thinks that the secret of his success was to create fun and interesting practices while teaching good fundamentals, and he tells you how to do it. I found his insights invaluable in my first year as a Little League manager.