The Skills of Success : * The Woodland Hills rec center will teach parents techniques for coaching their kids to become better athletes.

David Feinberg, 11, of West Hills is already an all-star athlete. He’s on a trophy-winning Little League team and he’s a burgeoning basketball talent. Yet he has a little difficulty with some simple hand-eye coordination. When he masters that, his game will be even better.

Larry Feinberg, David’s father, has spent $1,000 on private batting and pitching lessons for his son. But soon he plans to start helping David himself, using techniques he learns in a unique coaching class offered by the Woodland Hills Recreation Center.

During the three evening sessions of the program--created by the center’s senior coach, Ed Bates--adults will learn how to teach baseball fundamentals. They also will learn skills applicable to any sport. These include a range of physical and mental exercises and tips on child psychology and building team spirit.

What makes the classes different from those offered by the center in the past is their emphasis on reaching any Mom or Dad with an athletically inclined child--not just grown-ups who coach. “They’re open to any parent who wants to teach their child a sport,” Bates says.

Bates will be trying out a 10-year-old program called Brain Gym for Sports, which will be taught at the rec center by Sharon Jeffers and Michael Allen Moore. A set of simple techniques developed by Dr. Paul E. Dennison of Ventura, this approach aims to improve coordination and concentration, quicken reflexes and increase energy and self-confidence.

Jeffers and Moore plan to teach parents these techniques so they can pass them on to youngsters.

Pitching and hitting drills will be conducted by Rich Taylor of Calabasas, director of player development at the center. Taylor, a former pitching coach for Pepperdine University, scout for the Kansas City Royals and a founder of the West Coast Baseball School, often invites major league players to the center to talk to youngsters.

Taylor said effective teaching can sometimes be a simple matter of taking a novel approach. “For example,” he says, “instead of telling a kid to swing level when batting, say, ‘Do it like a karate chop,’ and then they get it.”

The point of all this, he adds, is not to have “our kids all go into the major leagues. We want them to be friends and make friends.”

Considering the importance placed on organized sports by both parents and kids, competition can get in the way of enjoying--and even succeeding at--a game. During the sessions, parents learn not to emphasize rivalry so much as camaraderie and enthusiasm.

“The playing field doesn’t need to be so cutthroat,” says Jeffers.

Youngsters may not be the only ones to experience a confidence boost in the wake of these classes. Insecurity over their ability to coach their children may be the primary reason adults sign up in the first place.

“They could be the best doctor, lawyer or insurance guy around but they can’t teach basic fundamental skills,” Bates says. “That’s what this class is all about. And it’s so great to watch them get it; it’s like a light bulb going on.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “Baseball the Right Way.”

Location: Woodland Hills Recreation Center, 5858 Shoup Ave.

Hours: 7 to 9 p.m. beginning March 3 and continuing on Thursday nights, March 10 and 17.

Price: $25.

Call: (818) 883-3262 or 883-9370 for reservations.