Behind Every Great Little League Practice…

Josh Cilman moved to Vienna, Virginia, when he was 9 years old and played Little League there, eventually playing baseball through college. When he moved back to Vienna with his young family, he wanted to give back to the Little League program, so he started coaching. Ten years later, he’s coached his kids from Rookies through Majors of Vienna Little League, where he’s been coaching for the past six years. 

Describe the perfect practice

I hate sitting around, so the perfect practice is when we move the kids through stations – hitting, pitching, infield, outfield positions, etc. Then we come back and execute what was learned. I like to do a lot of situations where I have a full field of players and we add different things constantly, but the skills are learned when we work in the stations. That’s my favorite. 

What are some of your go-to drills or games? 

We do a lot of basics – fundamentals like crossfire ground balls, crossfire fly balls, and base running. But my go-to is full field situations. It’s a drill that the kids love because it keeps their attention the entire time. It’s easy to be ready when you know the ball is coming to you, but during situations, you have to be ready all the time. Whenever I tell the kids that we’re having “situation day,” they get super excited.

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What’s something you’ve learned from another coach? 

Even though I’ve been coaching for over a decade, I’m not one of those coaches to never ask another coach for practice plan ideas. I always ask around to see what’s working well for coaches. One of my favorite base running drills we currently do came from a coach friend of mine – it’s called the Florida State drill.

What’s the most challenging part of being a coach? 

I think the hardest part is teaching kids how to deal with failure. Baseball is a game of failure, and a lot of kids get down on themselves. You have to teach them that even the best players in the world fail seven out of ten times. That’s hard for kids who are usually successful at everything they do athletically to understand. So you take the results out of it and have them focus on the execution or the effort. 

What’s the best thing about being a coach? 

When you work on something at practice, whether it be a discipline or just an understanding of a play, and then you see it done in a game, that’s the best thing. Skills are grown at practice time and it’s incredibly rewarding to see them executed at game time. When the kids want to learn, I can’t wait to coach them. 

What’s the secret to great coaching?

Understanding that it’s not just about wins and losses – if kids are excited to play the game and not afraid of failure, that’s success.

 Josh Cilman was selected by his community as the 2024 Inova-GoHealth Urgent Care Coach of Year, an award program that empowers leagues to recognize coaches who go above and beyond. Learn more about Inova-GoHealth.