Little League - do the coaches’ kids always get the best positions?

[Anonymous]

As a youth sports coach of multiple sport, I can say that if you want your kid to play in “good” slots, RSVP timely regarding his/her attendance, arrive at the scheduled warmup time (not 5 min before or as game is starting or 2 min after game starts). It is very difficult to give equal playing time when we don’t know if a kid will be there. Reshuffling isn’t that simple when considering equal time and role rotation for all kids on a 12 kid roster. And it takes 2 seconds to click the button on the app.

[Anonymous]

Parent of 4 kids who played youth sports and DH coached. 2 kids are playing baseball in college. And yes to 20 year coach! I'd add in the weather as another confounding factor. And being accosted in a parking lot. And dealing with no show umps. Travel ball isn't always the answer either - so check to see how the coaching is set up before signing up.

Also, thank goodness for cell phones as my oldest kids played when not everyone had them!

[Anonymous]

The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

It’s also people who work shifts or inflexible hours, or are volunteer coaching another sport. Not everyone who doesn’t coach baseball is a crap parent.

Coaches certainly deal with a lot, but acting like youth baseball isn’t full of egregious dadball favoritism is naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

It’s also people who work shifts or inflexible hours, or are volunteer coaching another sport. Not everyone who doesn’t coach baseball is a crap parent.

Coaches certainly deal with a lot, but acting like youth baseball isn’t full of egregious dadball favoritism is naive.

Meh, those are the anomolies.

The Dad that complained to me that this 12U daughter hasn't played 1st base yet very clearly has not found the time to play catch with her.

[Anonymous]

That's why my kids don't play team sports for this reason.  The level of favoritism and nepotism is unreal.  They play individual sports where the result speaks for itself.  No coach can change that.

[Anonymous]

The mom coach on my child’s former team played favorites including her son. But she also tried to steal good players from other teams and discourage the kids who weren’t as good from playing or returning the following season. So maybe not the best example. We moved to a team where good sportsmanship was valued more highly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

It’s also people who work shifts or inflexible hours, or are volunteer coaching another sport. Not everyone who doesn’t coach baseball is a crap parent.

Coaches certainly deal with a lot, but acting like youth baseball isn’t full of egregious dadball favoritism is naive.

Meh, those are the anomolies.

The Dad that complained to me that this 12U daughter hasn't played 1st base yet very clearly has not found the time to play catch with her.

It makes me laugh to read that people want to play 1B. I always thought they put the slow kids with no arms there. Or at least that’s why I think my son is there…

[Anonymous]

I haven't figured out why some of the coaches don't have more humility or awareness of their kids abilities. It gets tiring watch a team lose game after game with the coach's son tries catching, pitching, and playing short and can't catch or throw and never take a turn on the bench. If my kid was constantly stinking it up I think I'd be a little more aware and give him a rest at some point. Otherwise you hope that they realize that baseball really isn't their sport and stop coming back every season or change teams to avoid certain families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah that’s BS

I coached 20 plus years of kid baseball at a variety of ages and levels. With 12 year olds and under - for sure - and at this time of year (early in a season) a couple of basics are going on.

1. The coaches don’t want anyone be getting hurt. But - if anyone is getting hurt, they want it to be my kid. So, if there is a position on the field where a kid is more likely to get hurt from a lack of skill/experience your kid is not playing it until I know your kid can play it. Catcher, and 1st base in particular.

2. Being the coaches’ kid sucks in large part. You are first to the field and get to spend time racking up any puddles, putting in the bases, and getting the equipment ready. You are also last to leave. You get to spend time putting equipment up and getting it to the car. Helping pick up the trash parents and kids left around because you can’t leave until the field looks good, and you often have to wait until some parent gets back to the field to pick up their kid because they didn’t know it was the last inning and ran out to get coffee and ran into a friend at Starbucks and didn’t hear their phone ring and only realized it had been 45 minutes - oops. I’m sorry doesn’t begin to cut it.

3. I need to know if your kid can play the position without getting hurt. I can’t put your kid at shortstop if your kid can’t get in front of a ground ball and make the throw to first base. Safely. Meaning without substantial risk that your kid will get hurt or that your kid will put the 1st baseman or the runner in danger from a wild throw. If your kid can’t catch the ball consistently I can’t play them at 1st or catcher.

4. What are your leagues playing time rules? Little League is the harshest on limiting the time. My area played “Pony” rules which are more lenient. Basically in a 6 inning game every kid plays a minimum of 3 innings - 1 in the infield. Pitch counts are kept now - game and weekly - so you have to deal with those too.

So - let’s take an example - You are the coach and you have 14 kids on your team. Print out a couple blank youth lineup cards for this example. Make out your lineup with the positions everyone will play each inning this game. Keep in mind you must follow the minimum play rules for each kid. For this example assume 3 of your kids cannot safely catch a ball. And 6 of your kids cannot safely make the throw from the left side of the infield. Coaches know this already but parents often do not - most outs will be made by your 1st and 2nd basemen with 12 and unders. So if you want to avoid too many mercy rule innings you likely want to put your best fielders there.

Now make up your card. Everyone sits a couple innings. Got it done. Now - take a pencil and cross out whoever is batting 8th because it’s 5 minutes to game time and they are not at the field and their parents aren’t answering their phones. You need to give your lineup to the opposing scorekeeper so rewrite it and let them know a kid may or may not show up but you will put them in batting last if they do show up. (It won’t be a big deal to the other coach because parents will have pulled the same crap with her.)

You also now need to redo your fielding assignments because you had that kid playing 4 innings and you need to get those positions covered. Hopefully the no show is not a kid you use in a more responsible position because your replacement options are limited. So - let’s make your no show a kid who you have pitching 2 innings because your pitch count tracking means you need someone to cover about 4-6 innings a week over and above your “regular” pitchers. (Meaning kids you hope can basically throw strikes to get through an inning without walking in some runs.)

So - start thinking about who has a pitch count that would allow them to pitch the 3rd (and oh to dream the 4th) inning since that player is a no call no show. Make sure they are sitting out the 2nd inning so they can warm up. So you need to shift the position assignments around to get that covered. But the kid willing to pitch is excited about the chance which is fun.

Got your new position assignments done yet? Good. Because now it is the top of the second inning and the kid just arrived. Grandma got the time wrong but they are sorry for the late arrival and really excited about him pitching. And you need to tell the umpire and opposing coach the player arrived and will bat last - and you need to rework your position assignments to get the newly arrived player in for 3-4 innings. Yes - the easiest thing to do is cut your own kid’s playing time to the required minimum so you do that and figure you will make it up along the way later.

My head generally went to these areas as well with respect to the coaches' kids often drawing the short straw. They are often forced early on into things like pitcher and catcher. out of necessity and the other reasons stated above. It requires additional training and some kids, even if they can throw well, just don't have a strong interest to pitch, and even if they get forced to pitch and do pretty well, because they aren't interested in it as a position, they don't train on it and soon aren't effective at it anyway. But the coaches' kids are getting dragged to all of those training sessions regardless of whether or not they like playing those positions. The coaches' kids in my opinion are often the default back-ups to those two positions. In LL there are pitch count limits, so there are plenty of opportunities for non-coaches' kids to pitch. And I believe pitchers can't also then immediately play catcher--there's some rule kind of like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

It’s also people who work shifts or inflexible hours, or are volunteer coaching another sport. Not everyone who doesn’t coach baseball is a crap parent.

Coaches certainly deal with a lot, but acting like youth baseball isn’t full of egregious dadball favoritism is naive.

Meh, those are the anomolies.

The Dad that complained to me that this 12U daughter hasn't played 1st base yet very clearly has not found the time to play catch with her.

It makes me laugh to read that people want to play 1B. I always thought they put the slow kids with no arms there. Or at least that’s why I think my son is there…

+1
First base is where the slow home run hitters go because they can’t throw or field

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ll put it this way: 3 kids (2 play baseball, one softball) and I have never (not once) seen a coach or assistant coach’s kid play an inning in corner outfield. Ever! Not in little league/ rec ball anyway (club ball- yes). Remarkable, you have to admit.

The batting order is a different story (too difficult to justify as hitting skill - or lack of- is far more obvious and measurable)

It’s just the way it goes.

Softball coach here (I don't actually have a kid on the team). Corner outfield is incredibly important. I'm not sure what your point is? Granted, I coach A-level 10U travel ball and balls get hit to the OF all the time, so maybe that's the difference? But infield saves hits -- outfield saves games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

It’s also people who work shifts or inflexible hours, or are volunteer coaching another sport. Not everyone who doesn’t coach baseball is a crap parent.

Coaches certainly deal with a lot, but acting like youth baseball isn’t full of egregious dadball favoritism is naive.

Meh, those are the anomolies.

The Dad that complained to me that this 12U daughter hasn't played 1st base yet very clearly has not found the time to play catch with her.

I’m sure that girl is blessed to have a coach so invested, caring, and nonjudgmental as you.
🙄

[Anonymous]

I was at a game this past week and i was painful the coaches kids were either sick and or injured and couldn’t play their positions. There are 4 kids that rotate pitcher, catcher, 1st base and short stop.

It was painful there was no one else who’d either pitched in practice or a game so they had to put up kid after kid who couldn’t touch the strike zone. Over heads, on the left side of a right handed hitter, on and on.

The score was 30 zip. There are drawbacks to dad ball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The parents who claim that there kids aren't getting time or playing in the infield are the same parents who never found the time to throw the ball in the backyard.

You want your kid to improve? It happens at home just as much as it happens at practice.

It’s also people who work shifts or inflexible hours, or are volunteer coaching another sport. Not everyone who doesn’t coach baseball is a crap parent.

Coaches certainly deal with a lot, but acting like youth baseball isn’t full of egregious dadball favoritism is naive.

Meh, those are the anomolies.

The Dad that complained to me that this 12U daughter hasn't played 1st base yet very clearly has not found the time to play catch with her.

I’m sure that girl is blessed to have a coach so invested, caring, and nonjudgmental as you.
🙄

NP. Baseball/Softball is about reps. Kids can’t get enough reps at practice to be good at the sport. So they have to practice at home. Even if it's just throwing the ball in the air and catching it. Or bouncing the ball off the side of the house. Or just playing catch. You can’t complain about your kids playing time at 12 when it’s clear they aren’t working outside of practice.