Yeah but at LL age independent practice should be fun. Like playing catch FOR FUN. Playing wiffle ball FOR FUN. Making up games with your friends because there are only 6 of you FUN. How many times can you catch the ball off the pitchback net FUN. Fiddle around with the swing off the tee to pretend you're aaron judge vs jose altuve or trying switch hitting FUN. Play another sport without picking up a baseball for months FUN. Without dad hovering over every move and correcting form after every swing. |
+1 I think the disconnect on this post is that some are talking about young LLers- and others are (hopefully?) referring to older kids who are more “serious” about baseball. Two very different things. An 8-10yo LLer should be practicing on his own time yes- but in exactly the fun and casual way as stated above. A 12yo travel ball player will generally be doing more than that yes. And more still for a HS JV player, and so on. At 8-10yo there is no need to do anything serious. Your kid will -more or less- let you know which direction he wants to go as he gets a bit older. Some happily play rec ball seasonally but aren’t that focused on baseball (often quit to focus on other sports or are done after 12yo little league), others get very into baseball & start wanting to be more competitive and try out for travel etc. You can’t really tell at this age. You can add more practice or other work in late, if and when the kid asks for it. |
Let’s see… my kid also learned to play trombone in the school band. Zero private lessons, just group instruction where all the kids are playing different instruments! It’s incredible how much a passionate, motivated teacher can accomplish. So - your kid took lessons 3-5 days a week from someone who has a music education degree (and maybe related masters degree depending on his/her age) and who is making $50-$100K a year, plus benefits, to teach music. Oh, and your kid is subject to discipline for misbehavior as well as being graded on performance and effort. But yeah, that’s the same as a parent volunteer baseball coach who gets 4-5 practices with a group. |
It’s fine not to do much practicing of a sport. No one has time to focus on 20 different activities. In my view - a big part of the parents’ responsibility is to help direct kids’ focus and time on activities that help the kids to find where their talents, abilities and interests lie. Of course, whatever goes on has to be workable from the family’s perspective. We used to tease our kids that they could have been great dressage riders. There was national level training going on at a nearby hunt club. But, we couldn’t afford the club membership, or the lessons, or the horse. A lost opportunity. There are a good many sports, and levels within a sport, where the time and money demands are too much for a particular family. You do what you can. The real secret to getting reasonably competent at any activity- sports included - is to learn to find the positives, the personal satisfaction, and yes, even fun; in the work required to become reasonably competent. Can you start to focus on a sport at 13/14? Sure. Lots of sports don’t really even get going until 12/13. No freshman football coach is going to turn away a 6’4” 250lbs kid in decent shape. In the other hand, some sports start pretty young. It’s not that you can’t play if you started late. But, it does mean you are way behind. And, the other kids are not stopping their own efforts to improve to wait for your kid to catch up. Baseball and soccer are two of those sports. It’s a numbers game. If your kid is going to go to a high school with 50 guys in a class that’s 200 kids they are competing against to make a baseball team. Between JV and Varsity you are going to have say 35 guys. Odds are not too bad on making a team if you took up the sport later. Now put that same kid in a high school with 200 boys in each class. Out of those 800 guys are there 35 or so who have focused on baseball from a young age and are otherwise pretty good athletes? Now making that high school baseball team is going to be a real problem. There are obviously other sports where specific size can be a huge advantage and technical skill work needed to play isn’t really taught until high school. American football being an obvious example. Get involved in those. Mind you - showing for the first day of practice in 9th grade having done nothing to prepare is still going to be a huge problem for your kid. |
School bands are usually horrible…so you get what you pay for. Unless your kid practices a ton on their own…they aren’t any good. That’s fine, however, the kid’s teacher I assume has a music degree and training. So, does that mean all LL coaches will need to prove their qualifications that not only do they have a baseball background, but also training in managing groups of kids? Maybe that’s the way to go. Or perhaps pay a group of 4 coaches to run practices for all the teams and then the parents can just manage the games. |
Sorry for this on a post about baseball… but Holy Let’s Move the Goalposts with literally every.single.response, Batman! |
I’m the fun poster. Maybe what I missed saying there is that I strongly believe the things I listed also make kids better ball players. Those things ARE practice. Kids learn so much from throwing a tennis ball off the fence by themselves or playing wall ball with a bunch of kids after swimming in the pool all summer. They hone their athleticism, healthy competitive spirit, and hand eye coordination. And those are the things that really matter in baseball. Bonus: your kid can be great without despising you for trying to “fix” them after every swing |
I think what’s missing here is the acknowledgement that coaches can only do so much if kids aren’t willing to listen, learn, and do. Have you watched a baseball practice for little kids? It’s like herding cats. Some will be fighting over gum, some will be picking flowers in the OF, some are there because their parents make them or they just want the snacks, and some will be poking their friends (my son fell into one of those categories).
I think it’s a big job for a volunteer coach to teach baseball and manage 12 kids’ behavior at the same time. We’ve had some really great coaches and some not so great ones, but I appreciate them all. |
+100. DH was a coach for 6U and 8U softball. He ran a minimum of 3 stations and preferred more for some days. Tried to make it so during stations time all the girls were moving for at least half of each station, preferably the whole thing. The problem you run into with trying to do that is if you don't have enough engaged parents to help at practice. Doesn't sound like that was OP's problem since there were too many people who wanted to coach, but definitely happens in some leagues/on some teams. |
The natural athletes and musicians are going to be on top no matter what and won’t need as much private lessons. My husband was in a top 10 youth orchestra without private lessons. He just had a natural ability with music. Same with a small amount of athletes. |
What does this have to do with this thread? Are you claiming your husband never practiced either? There is not a single elite athlete or musician that didn't spend thousands of hours practicing. |
My DH volunteers as a LL coach and he has invested his own time and money in buying equipment to create baseball-related games to work on skills during practices. He enjoys seeing the kids improve and gain confidence. He can watch a kid and see what their strengths/weaknesses are and gives feedback to parents. Hopefully the parents are working with them at home, but not every household has a parent available to work with their kid outside of practice. I’d be disappointed if my DH just wrote a kid off for something that may be no fault of their own. I also know he’s big on sportsmanship and good attitude even while losing. There is so much more to learn from LL than just baseball. |
I’ve coached baseball for years both rec and travel and adapted practices for each as well as age. Biggest challenge by far has been getting volunteer help - not so much travel because folks are invested. But in rec parents were always quick to be all over their kid for swing mechanics etc but couldn’t bother to volunteer for station help. Or when they saw I was solo with 12 8-year-olds. “I don’t know baseball that well” - did you see me lobbing balls underhand? did you see me putting balls on tee for tee work? It’s that simple and doesn’t take PhD in baseball to help… |
Your husband sounds great. I appreciate the volunteer coaches who are just trying their best. I understand it’s a lot of time and sometimes money, and it’s great that so many people are willing to give back, even if they’re not that great at coaching or even baseball. (And obviously it’s fantastic when they are great, as it sounds like your DH is.) I take major issue with the guy in this thread who has repeatedly said that if a parent isn’t practicing skills for 6-10 hours per week with their second grader then it’s because they are lazy parents who hate spending time with their kids. And that as a Little League coach his only responsibility is setting lineups and strategies. That is a volunteer who will end up doing more harm than good for some kids who might have learned to love baseball with a coach who actually cares. |
there's a lot of craziness in the other sports, but baseball brings out a special craziness in dads for some reason. |