Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Nice job, Arlington Parks and Rec. Great job, great effort
We had a game this afternoon, and the snow stopped around noon. Yet Parks and Rec went ahead and canceled all games today by 11:00 AM.
Thanks fellas. Our boys have got to get reps against live pitching, but they won't because a bureaucrat says no. They desperately need experience fielding in live game conditions, and when you don't know where the ball's going to go. But no, Arlington Parks and Rec doesn't see it that way because "families need to plan their days".
I wrote about this earlier this week, how our travel teams and eventually the high school programs suffer because adults make bad decisions.
Today's canceled game is gone. Coach pitch is about kids learning to hit and field. You need to learn how much to get the job done not just when it's sunny and 75 degrees, but also when it's drizzling and struggling to climb over 40.
Coaches Doug Grove and John Skaggs, at W-L and Yorktown, respectively, are a game UNDER .500 this season. They're paying now for the missed reps from cancelling Coach pitch games ten years ago...games they played out in Fairfax County!
This is where we fall behind. A kid in House league may catch the sniffles playing today. Maybe some South Lakes kid will come down with lymphoma in 20 years after getting reps in on crumb rubber turf.
We can't know the unknown. What we DO KNOW is that great Arlington high school coaches are losing games NOW because their kids missed game reps ten years ago. Reps that can't be replaced. And thanks to Arlington County Parks and Rec, we're making the same mistake again, canceling Coach pitch games because it's cold (but ABOVE FREEZING) and it MIGHT rain this afternoon (but it's NOT)!!!
Hi coach - is tonight's practice still on?
OP here: Tonight we had a makeup game from the Saturday ppd. My kids KICKED A**!!! They hammered the other team from the first pitch I threw, taking the extra base at every opportunity. They also made great decisions in the field.
What's best, though, is that they showed the opposition players what an elite-level Coach pitch team looks like. They set the standard for what kids will need to make an 8u travel team here in summer 2017. No daydreaming in the outfield, no half-swings, full hustle on every pitch.
After the game, I just shook my head at the two dorks who "coached" our opponents. They're truly a joke, a couple of "it's all good", "good try" types who can't coach their team out of a paper bag. I feel really sad for a couple of their players who might have potential, but won't get challenged to be the best under these two bozos. The worst was when the one who "pitched" kept bouncing balls because his wrist flopped all over the place. Finally I went out and told him I'd pitch. It was the first time these kids faced actually GOOD pitches. I can't imagine what the high school coaches think, with losers like this failing to train their ball players. That's twelve kids down the drain because the coaches can't find their b*lls and DEMAND excellence.
I've thought about ordering my players to tell their opponents in the "good game" line that their coaches s**k. It's probably against the bylaws to do that, but Coach pitch is where you lock down your fielding skills. Can't do that if the other coach can't get it over the plate. Kids listen to each other, and kids should know who's a bad coach. The damage bad coaches do to our HS program is enormous. We can and will get it done, but we all gotta pull together.
Anonymous wrote:OP is intense of course. overly so. But he has a point about the wussifying of our kids. Kids can play sports in mild rain and 45 degrees. We used to do it all the time growing up. Just another lesson in dealing with adversity. It builds character.
Sports these days are increasingly removing perseverance for the sake of kids and their parents feeling "comfortable" or "safe."
Truth is the world is not comfortable nor safe. People have to deal with shit. Even at a young age.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Nice job, Arlington Parks and Rec. Great job, great effort
We had a game this afternoon, and the snow stopped around noon. Yet Parks and Rec went ahead and canceled all games today by 11:00 AM.
Thanks fellas. Our boys have got to get reps against live pitching, but they won't because a bureaucrat says no. They desperately need experience fielding in live game conditions, and when you don't know where the ball's going to go. But no, Arlington Parks and Rec doesn't see it that way because "families need to plan their days".
I wrote about this earlier this week, how our travel teams and eventually the high school programs suffer because adults make bad decisions.
Today's canceled game is gone. Coach pitch is about kids learning to hit and field. You need to learn how much to get the job done not just when it's sunny and 75 degrees, but also when it's drizzling and struggling to climb over 40.
Coaches Doug Grove and John Skaggs, at W-L and Yorktown, respectively, are a game UNDER .500 this season. They're paying now for the missed reps from cancelling Coach pitch games ten years ago...games they played out in Fairfax County!
This is where we fall behind. A kid in House league may catch the sniffles playing today. Maybe some South Lakes kid will come down with lymphoma in 20 years after getting reps in on crumb rubber turf.
We can't know the unknown. What we DO KNOW is that great Arlington high school coaches are losing games NOW because their kids missed game reps ten years ago. Reps that can't be replaced. And thanks to Arlington County Parks and Rec, we're making the same mistake again, canceling Coach pitch games because it's cold (but ABOVE FREEZING) and it MIGHT rain this afternoon (but it's NOT)!!!
Hi coach - is tonight's practice still on?
Anonymous wrote:Nice job, Arlington Parks and Rec. Great job, great effort
We had a game this afternoon, and the snow stopped around noon. Yet Parks and Rec went ahead and canceled all games today by 11:00 AM.
Thanks fellas. Our boys have got to get reps against live pitching, but they won't because a bureaucrat says no. They desperately need experience fielding in live game conditions, and when you don't know where the ball's going to go. But no, Arlington Parks and Rec doesn't see it that way because "families need to plan their days".
I wrote about this earlier this week, how our travel teams and eventually the high school programs suffer because adults make bad decisions.
Today's canceled game is gone. Coach pitch is about kids learning to hit and field. You need to learn how much to get the job done not just when it's sunny and 75 degrees, but also when it's drizzling and struggling to climb over 40.
Coaches Doug Grove and John Skaggs, at W-L and Yorktown, respectively, are a game UNDER .500 this season. They're paying now for the missed reps from cancelling Coach pitch games ten years ago...games they played out in Fairfax County!
This is where we fall behind. A kid in House league may catch the sniffles playing today. Maybe some South Lakes kid will come down with lymphoma in 20 years after getting reps in on crumb rubber turf.
We can't know the unknown. What we DO KNOW is that great Arlington high school coaches are losing games NOW because their kids missed game reps ten years ago. Reps that can't be replaced. And thanks to Arlington County Parks and Rec, we're making the same mistake again, canceling Coach pitch games because it's cold (but ABOVE FREEZING) and it MIGHT rain this afternoon (but it's NOT)!!!
Anonymous wrote:OP is intense of course. overly so. But he has a point about the wussifying of our kids. Kids can play sports in mild rain and 45 degrees. We used to do it all the time growing up. Just another lesson in dealing with adversity. It builds character.
Sports these days are increasingly removing perseverance for the sake of kids and their parents feeling "comfortable" or "safe."
Truth is the world is not comfortable nor safe. People have to deal with shit. Even at a young age.
Anonymous wrote:OP is intense of course. overly so. But he has a point about the wussifying of our kids. Kids can play sports in mild rain and 45 degrees. We used to do it all the time growing up. Just another lesson in dealing with adversity. It builds character.
Sports these days are increasingly removing perseverance for the sake of kids and their parents feeling "comfortable" or "safe."
Truth is the world is not comfortable nor safe. People have to deal with shit. Even at a young age.