Little League and parent arrogance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

Baseball is an incredibly difficult sport. Unless you are a freakish athlete you need to do a ton of training on your own away from the team. Like about a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio individual to team training. Deion Sanders who was a generational freaky athlete said football was “easy” compared to baseball. The team training is mainly to practice skills that you can’t do on your own e.g, bunt defense, relays, double plays etc.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

Baseball is an incredibly difficult sport. Unless you are a freakish athlete you need to do a ton of training on your own away from the team. Like about a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio individual to team training. Deion Sanders who was a generational freaky athlete said football was “easy” compared to baseball. The team training is mainly to practice skills that you can’t do on your own e.g, bunt defense, relays, double plays etc.

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

Baseball is an incredibly difficult sport. Unless you are a freakish athlete you need to do a ton of training on your own away from the team. Like about a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio individual to team training. Deion Sanders who was a generational freaky athlete said football was “easy” compared to baseball. The team training is mainly to practice skills that you can’t do on your own e.g, bunt defense, relays, double plays etc.

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

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.

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!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

Baseball is an incredibly difficult sport. Unless you are a freakish athlete you need to do a ton of training on your own away from the team. Like about a 3-1 or 4-1 ratio individual to team training. Deion Sanders who was a generational freaky athlete said football was “easy” compared to baseball. The team training is mainly to practice skills that you can’t do on your own e.g, bunt defense, relays, double plays etc.

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.

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.

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baseball is an extremely time inefficient sport to get practice playing. We lucked into getting an amazing club soccer coach when my kid was 7. He was all about “touches on the ball”. He wanted the kid at every practice to have hundreds of touches on the ball to improve. So there was no standing in line to kick the ball into the net or large scrimmages. All the drills were in small groups with passing or 2v 2 or 3v3 games with cutting the ball dribble get past. Anyone who was out was doing a dribbling drill or something productive.

Contrast that with baseball. One drill was the coach standing at home plate with a kid standing at catcher, pitcher, 1, 2, 3 and SS. Then there was a back up kid in each of those places. The coach would hit to all the positions a grounder or pop up. Kid would throw to first then back to catcher. Then the back up would come in and the kids playing would go behind and wait. So each kid would touch the ball once every 12 hits unless you were 1st base or catcher. Totally not time efficient. Most kids would get to field the ball and throw to first once every 10 minutes. So that’s three times in 30 minutes.

Let’s say the coach is more organized and there are no back up players. So a kid gets to touch the ball 6-10 times in 30 minutes. You aren’t getting better doing that twice a week.

There is just too much waiting in team baseball practices. Waiting to field, waiting to hit, etc.

Very true. The better coaches will run stations at that age (for example 1/2 the kids will be taking IF practice while the other half are at the batting cages with 2 dads one throwing in each lane, then switch) but that requires extra volunteers. With little kids, 2 guys can’t really run an efficient practice with 12+ kids IMO.

+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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

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.

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A glorified babysitter for a baseball or softball little kid team is NOT going to teach your kid how to hit, or throw the ball, or catch the ball. You need to do that. Yep - you. Don’t know how? Figure it out. Plenty of instruction on YouTube. Or, hire someone to do it for you.

Figure it takes 100 hours of practice on each of those skills to get decently competent for a kid who has average athletic ability and pays attention. A coach with say 12 kids on a team and 4-5 preseason practices is NOT going to do anything to make an individual kid “better”.


The practices are for is to figure out the skill level of the kids. Knowing that, I can make up a lineup and get kids into positions where they are less likely to get hurt. No - if your kid sucks - he/she is not going to pitch, or play first base. Depending on who is pitching, I can put a kid who sucks at 2nd or SS or 3rd. Most teams will have 1 “good” pitcher. If kids hit the ball it is more likely to be on a late swing so I need a decent fielder at 2nd base. That means kids who are not very good can play SS. 3rd is pretty much always for weak players. I could put the best fielder with a decent arm at 3rd and they still will be unlikely to get an out on a ground ball.

When a weaker pitcher is in - batters at the top 1/3 of the order will be less likely to swing late so now I need a better fielder at SS. Outfield I always need a decent center fielder to chase down balls the right fielder and left fielder miss. Faster pitcher - right fielder has to be better. Slower pitcher - left fielder. But, still dependent on batting order.


It’s fine if your kid sucks. As long as he/she tries and is reasonably happy to be playing it’s cool. The only thing parents did that really ticked me off when coaching is be late, or a no show, and not tell me. I cured that after a couple years. Email - if you’re late and don’t let me know, or if your kid is a no show without letting me know. You are making the lineup for that game or next game if no show.

Try it. 12 kids - get them in positions they can play. Outfield/infield. Now pull out one kid. Re-adjust everything in 15 minutes.

Yes the coaches kid gets some benefits. But, they also get the fun of racking up puddles on the field 3 hours before the game. And, picking up trash before and after the game, and laying the bases, and getting the equipment ready. Always fun going under the stands to grab the dirty diaper and candy wrappers. Want your kid to have those benefits? Volunteer.

FIFY

So pathetic for a grown adult to blame little kids because he thinks coaching a little kid’s team is basically picking players in a fantasy league and moving them around the field to show off how well he strategizes.

I’m so thankful my son has only had two coaches like you in all his years of rec and travel sports.

The “glorified babysitter” part came on a bit strong, but did you read the rest of his post? He’s not saying that he doesn’t try to teach the kids things at practice, but that it takes more time than is available during a little league season. He’s also explaining how he moves kids around the infield and outfield to let kids play different positions while also being strategic about it. Many of the things he described a parent wouldn’t pick up on unless they know the game. They just see that Larlo’s getting a chance in the infield. I’ve seen it done well sometimes during my son’s LL years. After the game, the “worst” kid is excited that he played LF and 3rd even though he didn’t touch the ball.

I’m the PP of the softball player who’s not getting much of a chance to pitch because the coach is putting everyone in even if they’re not interested or ready. I’d much rather have this guy coach my kid. The games would be more fun for everyone and she’d learn something.

I think maybe YOU didn’t read his post. He explicitly said that practices were for him to *assess* the skill level of the kids, but that the kids on his team will only *learn* skills through parents and youtube…

If you read the parent of the kid who might play D1 above, it seems like showcase teams work this way. It is insane to me that some coaches try and take that attitude to rec. Where, exactly, do they expect 7 year olds will learn anything if not at practice? Even if you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.

Right? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. We’re talking about little kids here - what the heck is there to assess? God forbid you don’t have a “decent” fielder at 2nd base and some 8 year old on the opposing team makes it all the way to first base…

PP, though to be fair with situations like the softball pitcher above there is some breakdown. At some point kids/parents do need to practice outside of practice, especially if they want plenty of playing time at prime positions. But to expect kids only to learn outside of practice in Little League or rec ball at really any level of those? Crazy talk. At least go over the drills in practice so the kids can take them home.

It’s baseball. Guess what? You have to work with a kid for them to get better. Yes. You. Yes - that means you can’t go play golf on Saturday morning. You need to be at the field at 8 am.

Let’s say you have an 8-10 year old. Get up, dress, grab breakfast. Has to be a decent breakfast because your kid is going to be working. Get to the field. Don’t forget your tee and buckets of balls.

Warm up. Stretch and jog then run. Then slow throw 10-15 minutes. Then grab the tee and work on stance and swing form. Figure 40-60 swings tops. As you get tired the form will deteriorate. So it is not 40-60 swings in 10 minutes. Correct swing errors.

Take a break and then grab gloves. For an 8-10 year old - throw (rather than hit) ground balls. Watch their footwork and form. It’s all about speed to get there first so fielding the ground ball is easier. Work on movement direction so they can start body momentum towards the base they are throwing too. That’s not necessarily an 8 year old thing other than emphasizing speed to get to fielding position fast. Figure 20-25 grounders to each side.

At this point the arm is decently warmed up. Long toss would be good now. Work up to it, and judge your distances of course. For an 8-10 year old - 1st to 3rd would likely be a good start. Watch form. You can throw pop ups to practice catching.

Take a break - then finish with batting. Work on stance and swing form. Maybe 30-50 swings depending on how well he/she keeps form.

Do that 2/3 times a week. Note: nothing about pitching or catching. Those are other skill sets. You need to work on those separately.

Figure 2.5-3.0 hours for a full session. But, you can divide things up, and you can do most things at home. Buy a net batting cage and you can do everything but pitched batting practice.

Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid. You are. Do it. “What? That means I have to do stuff with my kid. I’m not doing that.” Okay. Don’t do, but understand that some parents are doing that. And, you want your kid to learn by osmosis to do what others are spending actual time on learning. Guess what? That’s not going to happen. Your choice.

Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does. Want to play an instrument? Play chess? Dance? Run cross country? Sing? Act? Paint? There are no short cuts.

What? Your kid isn’t going to get better by attending 4-5 pre-season practices with 12-14 other kids? How could that be? Must be a bad coach. Oh well - you can pick him up late. The coach won’t mind babysitting.

Questions foe bolded:

1) WTF not? Seriously, “coach”, what on earth are YOU doing if not this very specific practice that you have laid out?

2) Actually my kids’ coaches/teachers in all other activities DO teach them how to do said activities. For example: My kid wanted to play piano so I signed him up for lessons. Why bother instead of just teaching him myself? Because I don’t know how to play piano! I also don’t know how to teach my daughter gymnastics, but somehow she is magically learning at her weekly practices. I assumed her coaches were teaching her but I guess it must be through osmosis?

You are a coach in name only, and an incredibly lazy and entitled one at that. It’s also weird how apparently you don’t practice during the season. Is that because you’re too busy running three hour private practices with just your own kid? If the kids on your team are just bad at the end of the season as they are at the start, it’s not because their parents suck. It’s because you suck.

The piano lesson example is the equivalent of paying for private coaching.

I doubt anyone’s kid would be able to play the piano if you sent them to group instruction for just $150 total for 10 weeks, they were one of 12 kids, they only actually were able to use the piano for say 5-6 minutes each week (because there is only one) because there are 12 kids and the piano teacher was just a volunteer that may or may not really know how to play the piano themselves.

Also, think of how much time pianists (or any instrument players) practice on their own to get better…you pay a piano teacher a lot of money for each lesson for the teacher to also expect your kid to practice one to two hours each day on their own.

Yeah…your baseball player kid will be much better if you apply the above to baseball.

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.

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listen, no one is saying kids shouldn’t practice on their own or with their parents on their own time. Obviously they should. But there is one “coach” on this thread who thinks it’s ridiculous that parents expect their kid to learn ANY skills during their Little League practice sessions. Which is obviously a stupid position.

If he doesn’t want to coach any kids but his own, he should simply bow out. Lots of Dads are eager to volunteer, and he is not doing these kids any favors by refusing to even TRY to help them get better at baseball. If he wants to get paid for his incredible coaching program, he shouldn’t VOLUNTEER to coach and then not do it.

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.

[Anonymous]

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…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen, no one is saying kids shouldn’t practice on their own or with their parents on their own time. Obviously they should. But there is one “coach” on this thread who thinks it’s ridiculous that parents expect their kid to learn ANY skills during their Little League practice sessions. Which is obviously a stupid position.

If he doesn’t want to coach any kids but his own, he should simply bow out. Lots of Dads are eager to volunteer, and he is not doing these kids any favors by refusing to even TRY to help them get better at baseball. If he wants to get paid for his incredible coaching program, he shouldn’t VOLUNTEER to coach and then not do it.

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.

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is not specific to LL... soccer, football, lacross... I've seen it everywhere

there's a lot of craziness in the other sports, but baseball brings out a special craziness in dads for some reason.