Teaching baseball skills

When I was a kid children went out, played sports together and naturally became better players. These days it just doesn't happen. When kids turn 5 or 6 their well intentioned parents sign them up for T-ball and assume that the coach will teach them everything they need to know to become the next Albert Pujols. That's not what really happens.

What happens is that he parent of another kid volunteers to coach the team. He may have played some high school ball, but likely has no coaching experience or training. The coach expects that like himself, the fathers of the kids signing up have at least played catch with their sons and the players will show up with at least the ability to throw and catch a ball and a basic understanding of how the game is played.

Mr. Coach is then surprised and frustrated when the kids can't do the very basic things that he expects the kids to do. Leagues try to get as many games as possible so there are a total of 4 practices before the season starts and parents are upset that little Johnny isn't knocking the cover off the ball. Mr. Coach realizes that there are 3 kids on the team that have some ability. He puts them at shortstop, third base and first and hopes for the best. By the end of the season the kids have not really learned anything, the off-season comes, and the kids and their parents don't even think about baseball until the next year when it is time to sign up for baseball again.

Mr. Coach remembers the frustration from the year before and decides that he won't coach again. Another well intentioned parent figures that it can't be too hard so he volunteers. He believes that he has to be an improvement from the guy who coached little Johnny the year before. At the end of the season the second coach has a new appreciation of coach number one. The whole process starts over again and coach number three comes onto the scene.

Fast forward ten years and little Johnny goes to high school and can't understand why he didn't make it onto the high school team. He's too old for little league, and his baseball "career" is over until Johnny Jr. comes along and Johnny Sr. turns into Mr. Coach.

The end of the problem will come when parents learn that they need to work with their kids if they want them to learn baseball skills. The new problem occurs when parents realize that hey don't know how to teach baseball any better than Mr. Coach did. The point of this blog is going to be helping parents learn how to teach baseball skills.