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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A [b]glorified babysitter[/b] 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.

[/quote]

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.  [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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…[/quote]

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? [i]Even if[/i] you expect parents to practice with their kids, they have to learn the drills to practice from, you know, practice.[/quote]

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…[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.

[b]Your little league coach isn’t going to be doing that with your kid.  [/b]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.

[b]Incidentally that goes for every other thing your kid does.  Want to play an instrument?  Play chess?  Dance?  Run cross country?  Sing?  Act?  Paint?  [/b]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.

[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.  [/quote]

With respect, we are talking about 8-10 year olds here.  8 year olds actually don’t need to spend any time working on bunt defense or double plays, they need to spend time working on foundational skills.  Team training is just as good a time as any to work on those skills…[/quote]

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