Games vs Practice

I'm sorry that I did not explain myself very well. My question was not about camps or instructors. I mention those as avenues that were not presented to youth in the past, but as an addendum to coaching. So this is not the reason for lack of fundamentals.

I guess it would depend where one lives. In a city like Charlotte Metropolitan, we have 6-8 baseball academies and an ad finitum amount of instructors that teach all ages....and based upon my relationship with many of them, it appears that the youth training is the largest growth area for them.

I won't dare touch that subject. But I don't find the quality of youth coaches being worse than years past. In the past, any father who had the time to coach was hired (really didn't matter what his experience was). I believe, now, before a parent sends his son to a travel team, one of the questions they ask is what is the coach's experience.

No argument here

No, I disagree with you about that and that is why I posed my questions. I was referring to why the basic fundamentals were not being learned or taught.

But if one wants to be developed or "coached" on the specifics of hitting, pitching, or catching there are so many more resources available today than ever. You will find many coaches with college or professional experience involved at many levels of youth baseball, even coaching....something that was never experienced before.

Now that is some good stuff!

I wasn't looking for quick fixes. I believe you misunderstood my question. I was wanting your feedback of why fundamentals aren't being stressed at the youth level? Because by the time a player is in HS, if he hasn't learned it before then, he is way behind the 8 ball.

Sorry coach, this was not one of my questions. The studies that have been documented by Little League, Inc and other youth league associations across the United Sates have offered a myriad of reasons for the decline (other choices being one of them)


EDIT- after reading my post I thought, "Wow...I wasn't trying to attack your opinions, JT. I thought they were well thought out." I didn't mean to come across the way it may appear. I hope you understand the gist of my reply

 

I think this poses something for thought. What are the basic fundamentals? Do parents really know what they are looking for?

 

Some good points

have been made here. My son got frustrated playing rec ball because he wanted guys to catch the ball when he threw it to them. He wanted to hit not walk. He wanted to practice not stand in the field and wait for someone to hit a bp pitch sooner or later. Its the same reason many kids and parents decided to form teams and play outside the local rec level.

Here is the problem that I see though. A guy decides to start a team. He goes out and he finds the best players he can find. They play in tournements just about every weekend. The kids are from all over so practice time is very limited if there is any at all. The kids are put in specific posistions because that is where the team needs them in order to have the best chance to win. Heck they even have pitcher only guys at this level. They win alot because they have the most talent. So everyone assumes they are doing it right because they are winning.

The kids do gain from playing better competition and they do have fun winning and playing games. But here is the problem. At these young ages they are not learning the game. They are playing the game. I decided to coach an AAU team because I wanted to teach the game. I figured if we were the most fundementally sound team , we would win. I also believed that if I could teach these guys the game at a young age they would have a huge advantage when they got to HS.

We practiced twice a week and two weekends out of the month. The other two weekends we would play. Practice was ran just like a HS practice I would run at South Granville. Every player had a primary posistion and a secondary posistion. No one played one posistion. If you played mif you also played of. If you played of you would play a corner or mif posistion. The only thing I would not make a kid do was catch or pitch. I always felt this was a posistion that a kid really had to want to play. If they wanted to pitch then they got the chance to work on it. The same with catching.

Practice consisted of posistion play fundementals. Hitting fundementals. Baserunning , bunting , etc etc. The second part of the practice was on team. Cut offs , first and thirds , bunt d and bunt o etc etc etc. The first 15 minutes of every practice was spent on proper warm up and then we did throwing mechanic drills.

At the younger ages its about learning the game and learning the proper fundementals of the game. Learning what long toss is. Learning how to properly warm up to practice or play in a game. Learning how to properly throw field hit and run the bags. etc etc. Then you take that what you have learned and you bring it to the park on game day. Then you start all over at practice again.

My point is if your kid is playing all the time at this young age and he is not getting what he really needs at this age he is being hurt not helped. The emphasis should be on learning the game not playing the game. The games are fun and you need to play. But practice and teaching is where its at as far as development for these young fellas.

 

how

JTbaseball, you said this: "We (HS coaches) need to help shape and mold youth programs and their focus as much as we can and not sit back and watch young talent be misguided and wasted".

sounds good, but how would you plan to do this? be the director of the local rec leagues?

 

here's how

I'm not JT but here's what we have done. We hold some very good coaching clinics with the REC coaches. The HS coaches (Ragsdale and Southwest Guilford) give out practice plans, they illustrate drills with help from current HS players, Q&A, and other. Then they make the coaches come out and do the drills themselves. The coaches also work with the all-star teams. They last about 4 hours. I gave the kids that helped out movie gift certificates and restaurant gift certificates to the coaches. Our youth league also has put money back in to the baseball program at Ragsdale. It's a win/win for everyone. It creates a bond where kids dream of getting on the HS field for either coach.

 

I dont know

about the other HS coaches but I have ran into a brick wall with local rec leagues. I went to the board meeting of the local rec league and told them I would run a free coaching clinic for all of their coaches. You should have seen the look on their faces. They were so upset. I later heard that they were very upset that I would suggest that they did not know how to coach. Needless to say it never happened.

I tried the same thing with the Middle School coaches even offering to have them bring their teams over during the season to practice with us a couple of times. Nope no need we got it! That was the response.

Do you realize we get guys in as Freshman that have played travel ball , two years of Middle School baseball and they have no idea what a secondary lead is? They have no idea when to tag and when not to tag. This list goes on and on.

Here is a fact. If you can get your son some outstanding coaching at a young age he will have a great chance to excell at the HS level. If you can get him on a team with a coach that is more interested in teaching your son solid baseball fundementals and a baseball work ethic than winning a trophy he will have a big advantage over the kids he will be competing against for a HS roster spot. Those are facts. Ive seen it time and time again. Who the best 12 year old player was will never enter into the equation. Why? Because the HS coach could careless who the best 12 year old was. He wants to know who the best 15 year old is.

 

That's sad to here 27. I'm sorry for you but mostly for the kids that missed out. REC leagues should realize that to grow your league and the ability of the kids you have to improve your product (that's for you Braves). Offering quality coaching is what the kids need. We had some parents complain until they looked elsewhere. And when you look at how the kids have performed in HS that have come up through the league you see that it works. When I started coaching young REC kids I relied on what I knew from HS. When I started going to coaching clinics I realized how out of touch I was and how little i knew. I begin going to as many clinics as I could and going and watching the practices of good school coaches. It helped me greatly but even then there comes a time when you realize the kids are better off with someone else and it's time to give it up. You cheat the kids when you hang on too long.

 

I grew up playing Little Little League rec ball at a popular facility in South Mecklenburg. Things have changes do much since then. The membership is down significantly, and it seems to be falling apart. I helped coach a few times on a few teams since then and I can see why. There are a few coaches left that teach good fundamentals, rotate players and are there to grow good players. However, I saw plenty of instances where it was about the studs. And average Joe Jr.would be sitting on the bench except for an inning or two. Many kids didnt play the premier positions and you can bet the coaches kids were in them, no matter what the count is. Maybe what some rec ball organizations lack is accountabitity. I think LL is too yourng for travel ball too but rec ball isnt always a good option.

 

Agree High5. I did one thing that every coach thought was odd and said couldn't be done. I tried to practice every kid at one infield position and 1 outfield position. Up through 12 years old I played every kid in the infield. I heard all the BS excuses. Somebody will get hurt, make them earn it, yada, yada, yada. I did make them earn additional playing time but everyone played infield. So what we lost a game here and there? The kids got better and I know for a fact this kept some weaker players in the game longer than they had planned. No, they didn't turn out to be HS players but they stayed in the game until they aged out of the REC league at 14. I started this practice at 5-6 year olds and continued all the way up. Up until 5 years old we played 5 inning games. WE had about 11 on a team to maximaize PT so I would play everyone 2 innings in teh infield and 2 in the outfield. I told the kids who ever played the best in the 1st 4 innings got to play infield in the 5th. And naturally it worked out where every player achieved that.

I'll never forget the day a mother ran down to the dugout and asked me what I was doing when I sent her son to 2nd base. I told her that everyone plays infield and it his number was up. he was coming in to the infield. She replied that he had never played infield. I said, he will now. He was 12 years old. he later playe until he was 14 and even went out for the middle school team. No warm and fuzzy story beyond that. he was cut but he tried.

 

Respecting your opinion. But, I think it should be some players are to young and not ready for travel ball. It comes back to parents. Mom & Dad need to have a real idea of what thier kid is ready for. With most it will still be little Johnny first. They will get to HS not knowing anything there when they get the no from the coach. That will be that. Life is short, not fair and most of time a plain pain in the rear. Parents need to prepare their kids for life and I have yet to see anyone get a trophy for just being here.