I was able to catch the last few minutes of Logan's football practice on Friday. I saw him in a practice jersey with the number 80 on it. I was a little bit afraid that he had been moved to tight end, but after looking around, I think the numbers on the practice jerseys don't mean anything.
Nothing wrong with tight end, but he's done so well at running back, I was hoping he'd get a chance to play it. I had pretty much resolved myself to just be supportive about whatever position he got, and as I was walking away, his coach said hello and asked if I was Logan's dad.
He said he plans on playing Logan at halfback and fullback. That was good news. In the sprints at the end of practice, Logan was moving pretty fast. Looked like he was one of the 3 or 4 fastest kids on the team.
I told the coach that Logan would probably enjoy time at either position, though he takes special pride in playing fullback. He obviously envisions himself a Larry Czonka type, versus a Walter Payton. Still, I think he can do well at tailback, too.
Logan said they haven't done any defensive work, yet, but I'm sure he'll impress the coach and end up playing linebacker again.
So, football is all good news. His team bought new helmets. So, I won't be buying him a middle school helmet, I don't think. I did give him the gel pad cover to try and prevent any more concussions. I still have very serious reservations about him playing football now that we know so much more about head injuries, but not only is this his favorite sport, but it's probably the one he's the best at.
Even during his very first year of tackle football, it was obvious to a great many folks that he was a game-changer when he was on the field. He's a great mix of speed, strength and size. You really need all three in football.
On the baseball front, just as I was ready to have him play rec baseball next year, his old team called and said they'd love for him to come back. I discussed it with him and he'll be playing travel ball again next year. There's only 2 more years of this until High School starts. To be honest, I am ambivalent about travel baseball. All in all, I wish it didn't exist, but it does. I think there's good and bad in it, and I'd be just as happy with Logan playing rec.
The thing is, this team probably is the baseball team with the highest number of Logan's good friends on it. He's got 3 other very close friends on it and they'll probably all go on to play High School ball together.
It's all about the fun. He's got a lot of support on that team and two of the other dads really campaigned for him to come play. Last year wasn't a good year. I have no expectations for next year except that he'll play ball and have fun doing it.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
This Could Be The Year
It's just a game. It's just a game. Take a deep breath. It's just a game.
We're now into Summer tryout season, and my son has told me he has no interest in trying out for Next Level Baseball for next year. That leaves the Mavs tryouts, but they're cliquish and competitive. I'm not holding my breath on that one.
This could be the year that Logan does not play travel baseball.
Let me say that again: This could be the year that Logan does not play travel baseball.
And I'm okay with that.
Now, the other travel baseball dads reading this have probably already spit their beer across the room at my perceived act of treason by condoning this type of behavior.
Logan, now that his allergies are under control, is seeing the ball better than at any time in his life. He ended up only playing one month of his season, but in that time, he had 2 HR, 2 3B, countless doubles, and hit well over .500. I've seen him do this before during various times in a season, for a month here or a month there. This was the first time, though, where he was doing it from the first pitch of the first game and just went wild every game thereafter.
Thing is, I have had a love-hate relationship with travel baseball for as long as we've been involved with it.
So, here's a post on what I consider the love and the hate of travel baseball:
The love:
The level of coaching is much better than what the kids get in rec. The equipment is better. The kids get more practice and more meaningful practice. The kids get better game-situation play. The kids get exposed to better pitching. There's a performance mentality.
The hate, though, in my opinion, outweighs the love. (And "hate" is too strong a word, but hey, it works with the theme.)
There are way too many travel teams and way too many travel leagues. It's not just elite players. There are travel teams where the players aren't much better than rec players. There are travel teams where the players would be better off playing rec.
Taking those kids out of the rec leagues doesn't help the kids who go to travel, but it diminishes the experience in rec. A lot of players who can't afford to play travel end up with a diminished level of play in rec because so many of the competent players are gone playing travel.
Travel turned out to be a poor experience from a rounding out standpoint. Players got assigned to one position way too early. We're talking 7 and 8 year olds who are deigned to be Right Fielders who will never be anything other than Right Fielders so long as they play for the same team. Kids should be trying out a few different positions right up until High School.
Travel has too much of an emphasis on winning. Not enough on development. This is competitive baseball. You're there to put your kid on a team that wins. Yes, they get development, but what you will generally find is that most teams have about 3 or 4 players who are superstars. (Usually, they are superstars in reality, but sometimes only in perception. The longer they play for the same team, the larger the role of perception.) There are 3 or 4 kids who are solid role players. Then, there are 3 or 4 kids who barely make the team.
The studs get to play infield and pitcher. They may play centerfield, and catcher if they want. Whatever they can't cover goes to the role players. Then, the barely made it kids play RF, LF and might get an inning or two at 2nd base. At a time when players should be trying all sorts of positions, kids get stuffed into a position way too early and that's all they see of the game.
I also think that travel ball takes up way too much time. The seasons here would start in April (versus rec which starts right about when school is letting out). Kids would be practicing or playing 5 or 6 nights a week while trying to keep up with homework. That's just too much.
In the end, I think travel was the wrong thing for Logan. He was always the youngest kid on the team. Technically, every year he played up into a higher age bracket. Yes, he was always one of the better players. However, emotionally, I think it put a lot of pressure on him, especially when he was 8 years old. That's too young to be getting stressed out by a game.
In hindsight, would I have let him play U9? Maybe not. It's hard to say no, though, when your kid just made one of the hardest teams in this corner of the state. He was excited. I was excited. In hindsight, I think it did more good than harm, but I think it did harm.
I could see him lose a lot of the sheer joy he had in playing baseball. He still likes it, but doesn't love it the way he does football and basketball.
So, what do I see from here? I honestly think there's a lot of upside to him playing rec. The pressure will be zero. Logan was annihilating the pitching in the lowest level of travel ball and the level of pitching in rec is no better. He's going to have an insane year if he plays rec. Absolutely insane. He was a good travel ball player. He will be a sensational rec leaguer.
Will that be good for his baseball development? Eh, it'll be good enough. Compared to playing in the lowest divisions of travel ball, the development you get in rec isn't that different.
What I'm hoping, though, is that this will allow him to rediscover the joy of playing baseball. I want him to feel the way he did when he was playing rec ball as a 7 year old, before he started playing travel.
This is just a game, and it's supposed to be fun. I think rec is his best shot at having fun. For that reason and that reason alone, he should play rec.
Right now, his talent in baseball is exceptional. I doubt anybody would argue that Logan isn't one of the best players in town. Of the kids who will eventually go to his High School, he's easily in the top half-dozen in his grade in terms of baseball.
He likes the game, but doesn't love it. He'll do off-season workouts in basketball. He'll stay sharp on that year-round. Baseball? He likes to play, but he's not wearing out his hitting tee in the basement in the Winter by any stretch.
What about the future? Well, for one thing you just can't predict that.
For another, though, you can sorta predict that, especially in baseball. The skills he's gotten over the past 4 years have given him a fundamental basis in baseball that's not going to leave him. He's gotten the exact sort of neurological hard-wiring that will give him a superior instinctive baseball swing because he learned it when he was a grade-schooler. Kids who first get serious about the game in their teens really don't stand a chance of catching up to him.
Numerically, I don't see how it's possible that he doesn't make his Freshman team 2 years from now. His High School will only get about 6 players from the travel leagues. That means a whole heck of a lot of spots for kids from the rec leagues. If he tries out, I honestly don't see how he wouldn't make the team.
Junior Varsity and Varsity will be a lot harder. That's no guarantee at all. He may not make those teams. However, if he dedicates himself and puts in the work, he will. Nobody can know that right now. That truly is for another day. And between that day and now, kids are going to grow. Some kids who are great today won't be so great later. Kids today who seem hopeless will mature and turn into studs. There's just no telling. So, there's no point in worrying about it.
In the mean time, I think he's going to find rec to be a whole lot of fun. I'm looking forward to enjoying it, too.
We're now into Summer tryout season, and my son has told me he has no interest in trying out for Next Level Baseball for next year. That leaves the Mavs tryouts, but they're cliquish and competitive. I'm not holding my breath on that one.
This could be the year that Logan does not play travel baseball.
Let me say that again: This could be the year that Logan does not play travel baseball.
And I'm okay with that.
Now, the other travel baseball dads reading this have probably already spit their beer across the room at my perceived act of treason by condoning this type of behavior.
Logan, now that his allergies are under control, is seeing the ball better than at any time in his life. He ended up only playing one month of his season, but in that time, he had 2 HR, 2 3B, countless doubles, and hit well over .500. I've seen him do this before during various times in a season, for a month here or a month there. This was the first time, though, where he was doing it from the first pitch of the first game and just went wild every game thereafter.
Thing is, I have had a love-hate relationship with travel baseball for as long as we've been involved with it.
So, here's a post on what I consider the love and the hate of travel baseball:
The love:
The level of coaching is much better than what the kids get in rec. The equipment is better. The kids get more practice and more meaningful practice. The kids get better game-situation play. The kids get exposed to better pitching. There's a performance mentality.
The hate, though, in my opinion, outweighs the love. (And "hate" is too strong a word, but hey, it works with the theme.)
There are way too many travel teams and way too many travel leagues. It's not just elite players. There are travel teams where the players aren't much better than rec players. There are travel teams where the players would be better off playing rec.
Taking those kids out of the rec leagues doesn't help the kids who go to travel, but it diminishes the experience in rec. A lot of players who can't afford to play travel end up with a diminished level of play in rec because so many of the competent players are gone playing travel.
Travel turned out to be a poor experience from a rounding out standpoint. Players got assigned to one position way too early. We're talking 7 and 8 year olds who are deigned to be Right Fielders who will never be anything other than Right Fielders so long as they play for the same team. Kids should be trying out a few different positions right up until High School.
Travel has too much of an emphasis on winning. Not enough on development. This is competitive baseball. You're there to put your kid on a team that wins. Yes, they get development, but what you will generally find is that most teams have about 3 or 4 players who are superstars. (Usually, they are superstars in reality, but sometimes only in perception. The longer they play for the same team, the larger the role of perception.) There are 3 or 4 kids who are solid role players. Then, there are 3 or 4 kids who barely make the team.
The studs get to play infield and pitcher. They may play centerfield, and catcher if they want. Whatever they can't cover goes to the role players. Then, the barely made it kids play RF, LF and might get an inning or two at 2nd base. At a time when players should be trying all sorts of positions, kids get stuffed into a position way too early and that's all they see of the game.
I also think that travel ball takes up way too much time. The seasons here would start in April (versus rec which starts right about when school is letting out). Kids would be practicing or playing 5 or 6 nights a week while trying to keep up with homework. That's just too much.
In the end, I think travel was the wrong thing for Logan. He was always the youngest kid on the team. Technically, every year he played up into a higher age bracket. Yes, he was always one of the better players. However, emotionally, I think it put a lot of pressure on him, especially when he was 8 years old. That's too young to be getting stressed out by a game.
In hindsight, would I have let him play U9? Maybe not. It's hard to say no, though, when your kid just made one of the hardest teams in this corner of the state. He was excited. I was excited. In hindsight, I think it did more good than harm, but I think it did harm.
I could see him lose a lot of the sheer joy he had in playing baseball. He still likes it, but doesn't love it the way he does football and basketball.
So, what do I see from here? I honestly think there's a lot of upside to him playing rec. The pressure will be zero. Logan was annihilating the pitching in the lowest level of travel ball and the level of pitching in rec is no better. He's going to have an insane year if he plays rec. Absolutely insane. He was a good travel ball player. He will be a sensational rec leaguer.
Will that be good for his baseball development? Eh, it'll be good enough. Compared to playing in the lowest divisions of travel ball, the development you get in rec isn't that different.
What I'm hoping, though, is that this will allow him to rediscover the joy of playing baseball. I want him to feel the way he did when he was playing rec ball as a 7 year old, before he started playing travel.
This is just a game, and it's supposed to be fun. I think rec is his best shot at having fun. For that reason and that reason alone, he should play rec.
Right now, his talent in baseball is exceptional. I doubt anybody would argue that Logan isn't one of the best players in town. Of the kids who will eventually go to his High School, he's easily in the top half-dozen in his grade in terms of baseball.
He likes the game, but doesn't love it. He'll do off-season workouts in basketball. He'll stay sharp on that year-round. Baseball? He likes to play, but he's not wearing out his hitting tee in the basement in the Winter by any stretch.
What about the future? Well, for one thing you just can't predict that.
For another, though, you can sorta predict that, especially in baseball. The skills he's gotten over the past 4 years have given him a fundamental basis in baseball that's not going to leave him. He's gotten the exact sort of neurological hard-wiring that will give him a superior instinctive baseball swing because he learned it when he was a grade-schooler. Kids who first get serious about the game in their teens really don't stand a chance of catching up to him.
Numerically, I don't see how it's possible that he doesn't make his Freshman team 2 years from now. His High School will only get about 6 players from the travel leagues. That means a whole heck of a lot of spots for kids from the rec leagues. If he tries out, I honestly don't see how he wouldn't make the team.
Junior Varsity and Varsity will be a lot harder. That's no guarantee at all. He may not make those teams. However, if he dedicates himself and puts in the work, he will. Nobody can know that right now. That truly is for another day. And between that day and now, kids are going to grow. Some kids who are great today won't be so great later. Kids today who seem hopeless will mature and turn into studs. There's just no telling. So, there's no point in worrying about it.
In the mean time, I think he's going to find rec to be a whole lot of fun. I'm looking forward to enjoying it, too.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Whassup with my boy!
Well, Logan's baseball season this year was a bust. He was having the best season, performance-wise, of his life. After just a couple of weeks, he had two HR, a handful of doubles, a few triples. His performance was absolutely phenomenal.
Then, he developed heel pain, which turned out to be a case of Sever's disease. We'll have to be mindful of it from here on out.
He's already doing basketball workouts (for the tryouts... in NOVEMBER.) It's workout out pretty much like I remember it from my days of youth. Basketball was the first teams that were hard to even make the cut on. It was the first sport you saw where kids focused solely on it.
Baseball is sort of that way but in a strange sense. It was hard to make the team, but you knew who the team was going to be. By the time the kids hit middle school, you pretty much know who the ballplayers are and who they aren't. Lots of sociological reasons for this, many of them bad, in my opinion, but that's just the way it is.
Logan has a straight shot to his Freshman team. That won't be a problem. After that, it will just depend on his physical development and how much work he wants to put into it. That's 3 more years away, though and it mostly depends on his attitude towards baseball.
Football will start soon and I'm actually glad that he's doing basketball workouts because there's no doubt he'll hit the football season in shape. Of course, I'm worried as hell that he could get a head injury, but that's every football parent's nightmare. I wish to heck he'd do something else, but I doubt he will.
I try never to miss an opportunity to emphasize to my son that sports is about having fun. I don't ever want to think he's playing a sport because I'm forcing him to.
That being said, it wouldn't surprise me if he ended up playing rec baseball next year. I actually think he'd find it a lot more fun than his baseball experience in travel. His skills are solid. Yeah, he'll take a little hit in terms of development but he's gotten the early development he needs. He'll be fine.
At this point, I think I might enjoy rec baseball more, too.
Then, he developed heel pain, which turned out to be a case of Sever's disease. We'll have to be mindful of it from here on out.
He's already doing basketball workouts (for the tryouts... in NOVEMBER.) It's workout out pretty much like I remember it from my days of youth. Basketball was the first teams that were hard to even make the cut on. It was the first sport you saw where kids focused solely on it.
Baseball is sort of that way but in a strange sense. It was hard to make the team, but you knew who the team was going to be. By the time the kids hit middle school, you pretty much know who the ballplayers are and who they aren't. Lots of sociological reasons for this, many of them bad, in my opinion, but that's just the way it is.
Logan has a straight shot to his Freshman team. That won't be a problem. After that, it will just depend on his physical development and how much work he wants to put into it. That's 3 more years away, though and it mostly depends on his attitude towards baseball.
Football will start soon and I'm actually glad that he's doing basketball workouts because there's no doubt he'll hit the football season in shape. Of course, I'm worried as hell that he could get a head injury, but that's every football parent's nightmare. I wish to heck he'd do something else, but I doubt he will.
I try never to miss an opportunity to emphasize to my son that sports is about having fun. I don't ever want to think he's playing a sport because I'm forcing him to.
That being said, it wouldn't surprise me if he ended up playing rec baseball next year. I actually think he'd find it a lot more fun than his baseball experience in travel. His skills are solid. Yeah, he'll take a little hit in terms of development but he's gotten the early development he needs. He'll be fine.
At this point, I think I might enjoy rec baseball more, too.
The Last Thing I'm Going To Say About Lebron (this year)
I've heard more than a few casual sports fans from other cities say that Cleveland fans should let the whole Lebron thing go. That it's been 3 years now, and it's time for us to move on. The reason I say, with certainty, that it's only "casual" sports fans is that anybody who is an actual sports fan understands what's going on, here.
Now, let's keep this all in perspective. I don't personally dislike LeBron. He seems like a genuinely good guy to me. Jordan was a complete a-hole as a person, especially at game time. Lebron really isn't. He's a nice guy, even in the heat of competition.
If he were broken down on the side of the road, I'd help him change the tire on his Rolls Royce Silver Shadow if nobody from his entourage were available at the moment. He seems to be decent to his family, his kids, his friends. Every once in a while, he gives away 0.0007% of his net worth to a local charity and everybody is all excited that a classroom in Akron has some new computers. He just spent 7 figures to renovate the gym at his alma mater, St. Vincent/St. Mary.
But every day he plays and he's not wearing a Cleveland uniform, I hope he loses. Is that so bad? This is sports. They want us to be emotionally engaged with these teams. They want us to cheer like heck and to watch the games with interest. That's how they get the TV money, the ad revenue, the ticket sales and all the other things that make it possible for a man to make $100 million a year by throwing a ball through a metal ring.
Now, let's be frank, here: everybody knows why Cleveland sports fans detest Lebron. "The Decision" was stupid. Everybody agrees that the TV show was stupid. Beyond that, I think the decision itself was stupid.
Lebron needed championships to secure his legacy. So, he took what appeared to be the easy way out and hooked up with Wade and Bosh. Their first season together, nobody was happier than I was when the Mavs beat them.
The next year, though, things worked pretty much like they were supposed to. The Heat dispatched the young OKC team and Lebron got his ring.
This last year, though, was notable to me not because Lebron got his ring the easy way, but because he got it the hard way. Yes, there were key plays by other players, but you have to go back to his days in Cleveland to remember a time when the formula was this simple: if Lebron has a great game, his team wins. If he doesn't, they lose.
I'm going to say Lebron earned his ring this year the hard way. He took his whole team on his back and carried them there.
So, you earned this one, Lebron. But if you were going to get a ring by doing it all yourself, you could have stayed home. Personally, I think this year's Heat were more talented than the Lebron-era Cavs, but frankly, they didn't play like it. It was a team that was clearly less than the sum of its parts.
At this point, folks in Cleveland are all hoping that Lebron will come back to us when his contract expires in Miami.
Honestly, I hope that happens. But equally honestly, I don't see any upside for Lebron to do it. He's already acknowledged as the best player in the game today. What he needs is rings to solidify his legacy. Cleveland teams have a history of doing the stupidest thing possible, all the time, every time. Dan Gilbert, instead of being a class act, made a total ass of himself when you left.
I don't think you get much upside by returning. And if the Cavs are a train-wreck, you may go a few more years without a ring.
So, hey, go where you think you need to go, Lebron. You're the best player in basketball, and you have more money than any one human being ever really needs. Be happy, get rings, do your thing.
And if you do decide to come back to Cleveland, I won't complain. We'll have two other #1 draft picks to join you.
Now, let's keep this all in perspective. I don't personally dislike LeBron. He seems like a genuinely good guy to me. Jordan was a complete a-hole as a person, especially at game time. Lebron really isn't. He's a nice guy, even in the heat of competition.
If he were broken down on the side of the road, I'd help him change the tire on his Rolls Royce Silver Shadow if nobody from his entourage were available at the moment. He seems to be decent to his family, his kids, his friends. Every once in a while, he gives away 0.0007% of his net worth to a local charity and everybody is all excited that a classroom in Akron has some new computers. He just spent 7 figures to renovate the gym at his alma mater, St. Vincent/St. Mary.
But every day he plays and he's not wearing a Cleveland uniform, I hope he loses. Is that so bad? This is sports. They want us to be emotionally engaged with these teams. They want us to cheer like heck and to watch the games with interest. That's how they get the TV money, the ad revenue, the ticket sales and all the other things that make it possible for a man to make $100 million a year by throwing a ball through a metal ring.
Now, let's be frank, here: everybody knows why Cleveland sports fans detest Lebron. "The Decision" was stupid. Everybody agrees that the TV show was stupid. Beyond that, I think the decision itself was stupid.
Lebron needed championships to secure his legacy. So, he took what appeared to be the easy way out and hooked up with Wade and Bosh. Their first season together, nobody was happier than I was when the Mavs beat them.
The next year, though, things worked pretty much like they were supposed to. The Heat dispatched the young OKC team and Lebron got his ring.
This last year, though, was notable to me not because Lebron got his ring the easy way, but because he got it the hard way. Yes, there were key plays by other players, but you have to go back to his days in Cleveland to remember a time when the formula was this simple: if Lebron has a great game, his team wins. If he doesn't, they lose.
I'm going to say Lebron earned his ring this year the hard way. He took his whole team on his back and carried them there.
So, you earned this one, Lebron. But if you were going to get a ring by doing it all yourself, you could have stayed home. Personally, I think this year's Heat were more talented than the Lebron-era Cavs, but frankly, they didn't play like it. It was a team that was clearly less than the sum of its parts.
At this point, folks in Cleveland are all hoping that Lebron will come back to us when his contract expires in Miami.
Honestly, I hope that happens. But equally honestly, I don't see any upside for Lebron to do it. He's already acknowledged as the best player in the game today. What he needs is rings to solidify his legacy. Cleveland teams have a history of doing the stupidest thing possible, all the time, every time. Dan Gilbert, instead of being a class act, made a total ass of himself when you left.
I don't think you get much upside by returning. And if the Cavs are a train-wreck, you may go a few more years without a ring.
So, hey, go where you think you need to go, Lebron. You're the best player in basketball, and you have more money than any one human being ever really needs. Be happy, get rings, do your thing.
And if you do decide to come back to Cleveland, I won't complain. We'll have two other #1 draft picks to join you.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
The Craziest Time of the Year
Mid-July thru Mid-August is pretty much the peak of insanity in Logan's sports year.
He is mostly done with his baseball season, but he has one last tournament left to play. Plus, the city's tryouts for the Sylvania Mavericks is in August.
His swim season takes place primarily in July.
He has Summer basketball practice, and there's a basketball season starting in August.
Then, to top it all off, his football workouts start in early August.
So, the last part of his Summer vacation consists of 4 sports. Not much of a vacation, there.
It's a good thing the kid loves it.
He is mostly done with his baseball season, but he has one last tournament left to play. Plus, the city's tryouts for the Sylvania Mavericks is in August.
His swim season takes place primarily in July.
He has Summer basketball practice, and there's a basketball season starting in August.
Then, to top it all off, his football workouts start in early August.
So, the last part of his Summer vacation consists of 4 sports. Not much of a vacation, there.
It's a good thing the kid loves it.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Letting Him Play
Sports Dads like to believe that one of the reason we want our kids to play sports is to allow them to grow as people. I think that's true. My son has grown tremendously, and his participation in sports was certainly part of the process.
However, I've found that the greatest growth hasn't been with my son, but with me. In his last game, he pitched 4 great innings and did well at the plate. Because I keep the stats for the team, I can see how well he's doing this year. He's leading the team in all sorts of categories. Truly a great year for him.
I've come to the realization that I really can't help him much at game-time. However, I do have the potential to make him perform worse. I also have the ability to turn gametime into a negative experience.
Lately, I've spent most games trying to make myself invisible to him. If he's at bat, I'll move to a place where he can't see me. If he's pitching, I'll head to the grandstands where it's difficult to find me. If he does manage to make eye contact, I just make sure he sees me smiling.
The reality is that he is, at 11 years old, more knowledgeable about baseball than I could ever be. He has been a better baseball player than I could ever been almost from the moment he put on a glove.
It's tougher to let go than I thought it would be. As a parent, I feel responsible for him. However, at a certain point, the key is to realize that you did your job, it's now time to let them spread their wings and fly on their own.
I can see that this is a dry run for when he eventually leaves to make his way in the world. In baseball, you realize that you threw batting practice, you taught them how to catch and throw. Eventually, you realize they need to be their own little player, independent of you. You're there to help them if they need help. If they want to play catch, or get extra batting practice, you do what you can.
Then comes a day, (this day is rapidly approaching for me) when your shoulder isn't what it used to be (especially if it didn't used to be very much) and you can't throw effective batting practice. There comes a day when you know that they are truly on their own.
Just as, one day, they leave home to go to college, then to work, then to start families of their own. You're there to help them in any way you can. However, eventually, they outgrow your ability to help. They are truly on their own.
Until then, though, I'll cherish every game of catch. I'll still hide when he's trying to play games, though. It'll be good practice for both of us.
However, I've found that the greatest growth hasn't been with my son, but with me. In his last game, he pitched 4 great innings and did well at the plate. Because I keep the stats for the team, I can see how well he's doing this year. He's leading the team in all sorts of categories. Truly a great year for him.
I've come to the realization that I really can't help him much at game-time. However, I do have the potential to make him perform worse. I also have the ability to turn gametime into a negative experience.
Lately, I've spent most games trying to make myself invisible to him. If he's at bat, I'll move to a place where he can't see me. If he's pitching, I'll head to the grandstands where it's difficult to find me. If he does manage to make eye contact, I just make sure he sees me smiling.
The reality is that he is, at 11 years old, more knowledgeable about baseball than I could ever be. He has been a better baseball player than I could ever been almost from the moment he put on a glove.
It's tougher to let go than I thought it would be. As a parent, I feel responsible for him. However, at a certain point, the key is to realize that you did your job, it's now time to let them spread their wings and fly on their own.
I can see that this is a dry run for when he eventually leaves to make his way in the world. In baseball, you realize that you threw batting practice, you taught them how to catch and throw. Eventually, you realize they need to be their own little player, independent of you. You're there to help them if they need help. If they want to play catch, or get extra batting practice, you do what you can.
Then comes a day, (this day is rapidly approaching for me) when your shoulder isn't what it used to be (especially if it didn't used to be very much) and you can't throw effective batting practice. There comes a day when you know that they are truly on their own.
Just as, one day, they leave home to go to college, then to work, then to start families of their own. You're there to help them in any way you can. However, eventually, they outgrow your ability to help. They are truly on their own.
Until then, though, I'll cherish every game of catch. I'll still hide when he's trying to play games, though. It'll be good practice for both of us.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
General Observations About Travel Baseball
Some of us are in our 3rd year of travel ball, and some who have older kids may have even seen more seasons than that. I would like to share my personal perspective on being a travel baseball parent. Feel free to consider or ignore them as you will.
First, the best part about travel baseball in my opinion is the kids. I never cease to be amazed at how fond I grow of working with the boys throughout the season. By and large, these kids are hyper-responsible overachievers. They are likely to be very successful in life. Getting to know them is an absolute joy.
The next best part is working with the coaches and getting to know the other parents on the team. By and large, the parents of our kids are a great bunch of folks.
For some who may not have given much thought to their role as a parent in travel baseball, I would offer the following observations, in no particular order. These are lessons I learned over the years, sometimes because of mistakes I was making, personally. As I said before, feel free to consider or ignore as you will.
1. The most important thing to remember about our experience in travel baseball is that baseball is a game. Games are supposed to be fun. If it isn't fun, then there's no reason to be doing it. Baseball is, intrinsically, a very fun game. However, a huge component of whether our boys end the season thinking, "That was great! I can't wait to do it again!" or, "I'm not sure I really like baseball" is our behavior as adults.
2. Travel baseball is a very serious endeavor. However, our expectations should be realistic. We have a phenomenal coach and assistant coach on our team. The boys are in great hands. They are learning things that kids on other travel teams won't be exposed to until High School. So, baseball is "fun", but not in the sense that it is clowning around. It is fun in the sense of learning and improving a set of skills that allows you to continuously improve your mastery of the game.
There are those who believe that travel baseball should lead to a college scholarship, or who knows, maybe being drafted in the MLB draft. I will simply offer that my goal in having my son play is to get him to the level where he will be able to make his Freshman team in High School.
Anything beyond that will not come as a result of travel baseball. The kids who play beyond High School are a mix of exceptional talent and an off-season workout program that would put a Spartan to shame. That will, in my opinion, either come from a burning desire within the boy, or it won't. There is nothing that a coach, or even to a large degree a parent, can do to alter that equation.
Either your kid is wearing out his tee in the basement all Winter or he isn't. No amount of nagging is going to put a fire in the belly of a kid who doesn't have it. Instead, it is more likely to simply cause resentment. Kids can get burned out on baseball, and I've seen it start to happen as early as U10 ball.
That having been said, I think High School ball is a realistic goal for all of our boys. Even so, High School baseball is only something I am hoping for because I believe it will be fun for my boy. So, to come full circle to point #1, if High School baseball isn't fun, there's nothing about it, intrinsically, that makes it a must-do activity. If kids would rather play golf or lacrosse, join glee club, learn Spanish, whatever, that's absolutely fine, too.
Although I think most of us are on the same page here, I am making this point to emphasize that this is a game. Whether we chose to believe it or not, a scholarship is not on the line for most of our boys. In fact, if one of our boys ended up getting a scholarship to a Division I school, that would be one more than I would expect from any travel team.
The stakes in travel baseball are very, very low. There is very little potential upside beyond training our boys to be competent High School players. There is very little potential downside beyond teaching our boys to dislike baseball. Whether our boys learn to dislike baseball will depend, again, largely on our conduct as parents.
3. Your boy's enjoyment of the game will be influenced by your conduct as a parent, moreso than any other factor. In some extreme cases, a coach can be so awful that he can ruin the experience for the team. Coaches that bad are an exception. (And unfortunately, in the past, this team may have seen this exact scenario.)
However, the conduct of a parent can have a lasting impact on a child's impression of this experience. Unwittingly, we have the power to make this a real drag.
There is only one thing a parent can do to enhance this experience. I will elaborate more on that later. However, other than that, a parent has virtually no ability to enhance this experience for their kids. Seriously. Let that sink in for a moment. Other than one exception, there is nothing you can do to make travel baseball a better experience.
There are, however, many, many things you can do to make this experience worse.
4. A kid should have one coach. Perhaps the craziest thing I see from parents is that they will attempt to coach their kids at gametime. They'll be giving advice on how to approach the next pitch. They will give advice on technique. They are competing with the coach for the kid's attention. Meanwhile, the kid is waiting, trying to swing a cylindrical stick in an elliptical arc to try and hit a sphere that is moving at them in speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour.
If you want to be part of the coaching process, please, please come assist at practices. We can always use more adult involvement. However, at gametime, despite all our urges as parents, the best thing we can do is simply say nothing and let our kids have an at-bat.
Adults are seldom able to function if they have several people shouting directions at them while they attempt to do a difficult task. 10 year olds are no better at it. The more voices a kid is hearing, the more likely they will have a bad AB.
If a kid needs guidance, coach Tre is right at 3rd base to tell them whatever they need to hear. If coach Tre doesn't catch it, coach Art is at 1st base and can do the same thing.
I mean no disrespect to any parent, but the only advice I give a kid going to bat is either simply "see the ball" or "tune everything else out." If I could, I'd give them earplugs that tune out the sounds of everybody in the stands, including their own parents.
Trust me when I say this: you extremely unlikely to help your kid's AB. More often, the more voices a kid is having to listen to, the worse their AB is going to turn out. I say this even if a parent is giving guidance that is perfectly correct.
When a kid is batting, the only things I'll say are, "you're fine" and "see the ball". When a kid is pitching, the only things I'll say are, "just throw" or "you and the glove" or other general words of encouragement to that effect. Anything technique-wise that needs to be said? I leave that to the coaches. I'm just trying to make encouraging background noise.
After a kid makes a bad play, all too often a parent's first reaction is to criticize the kid's performance. Our boys know when they make a mistake. Let the coach handle it. If the kid needs to be spoken to, the coach is very good at that. However, we also have to accept that our kids will make a mistake once in a while.
So, how should a parent act at gametime? A long time ago, I heard that the only thing a kid needs from a parent at gametime is an encouraging smile. Of course, cheer for the team. Get excited. Heck, if things go wrong, an emotional interjection comes out now and then.
Am I perfect at this, myself? No, not at all. I'm as far as it gets from being a perfect person. However, the better I am at doing this, the more my son enjoys the game.
At gametime, leave the coaching to the coaches. Enjoy the game. It'll allow your kids to enjoy it as well.
5. What a parent can do to help their kid. There is a great deal a parent can do to help a kid play better baseball. What they can do is work with them at home, in their spare time. I refuse to push my son into practicing during his downtime, but I will ask if he feels like throwing the ball in the front yard. I'll ask if he wants to go to the cages for some extra BP. Sometimes he says yes. Sometimes no. However, mastery of a skill comes with repetition. If the only baseball your kids are playing is at our practices and games, they will get the dead minimum development in baseball that a travel ball player can get.
So, if you want to help your boy be a better player, help them work on it outside of team practices and games. That yields real dividends. Shouting pointers to them during the game does not.
6. A final note on baseball. Personally, I believe that kids play best when they're relaxed and focused. They can't be relaxed if they know that they're going to be chewed out on the way home.
As I said before, we want them to be prepared for High School baseball. If you watch baseball at High School and higher levels, the coaches are largely silent. The players are left to their own thoughts throughout the game. Parents are not shouting advice.
Our boys are a boisterous and energetic lot and we all enjoy the enthusiasm they bring at gametime. They are one of the loudest teams in the league. However, that's just establishing a general mood. They're not getting into each other's heads. They're just keeping each other enthused.
That's what we should be doing as parents. Stay out of their heads at gametime. The only thing we should be communicating with our words, actions and facial expressions, is that we're proud of them, we know they're doing the best they can, and that we're just there to watch them have fun.
First, the best part about travel baseball in my opinion is the kids. I never cease to be amazed at how fond I grow of working with the boys throughout the season. By and large, these kids are hyper-responsible overachievers. They are likely to be very successful in life. Getting to know them is an absolute joy.
The next best part is working with the coaches and getting to know the other parents on the team. By and large, the parents of our kids are a great bunch of folks.
For some who may not have given much thought to their role as a parent in travel baseball, I would offer the following observations, in no particular order. These are lessons I learned over the years, sometimes because of mistakes I was making, personally. As I said before, feel free to consider or ignore as you will.
1. The most important thing to remember about our experience in travel baseball is that baseball is a game. Games are supposed to be fun. If it isn't fun, then there's no reason to be doing it. Baseball is, intrinsically, a very fun game. However, a huge component of whether our boys end the season thinking, "That was great! I can't wait to do it again!" or, "I'm not sure I really like baseball" is our behavior as adults.
2. Travel baseball is a very serious endeavor. However, our expectations should be realistic. We have a phenomenal coach and assistant coach on our team. The boys are in great hands. They are learning things that kids on other travel teams won't be exposed to until High School. So, baseball is "fun", but not in the sense that it is clowning around. It is fun in the sense of learning and improving a set of skills that allows you to continuously improve your mastery of the game.
There are those who believe that travel baseball should lead to a college scholarship, or who knows, maybe being drafted in the MLB draft. I will simply offer that my goal in having my son play is to get him to the level where he will be able to make his Freshman team in High School.
Anything beyond that will not come as a result of travel baseball. The kids who play beyond High School are a mix of exceptional talent and an off-season workout program that would put a Spartan to shame. That will, in my opinion, either come from a burning desire within the boy, or it won't. There is nothing that a coach, or even to a large degree a parent, can do to alter that equation.
Either your kid is wearing out his tee in the basement all Winter or he isn't. No amount of nagging is going to put a fire in the belly of a kid who doesn't have it. Instead, it is more likely to simply cause resentment. Kids can get burned out on baseball, and I've seen it start to happen as early as U10 ball.
That having been said, I think High School ball is a realistic goal for all of our boys. Even so, High School baseball is only something I am hoping for because I believe it will be fun for my boy. So, to come full circle to point #1, if High School baseball isn't fun, there's nothing about it, intrinsically, that makes it a must-do activity. If kids would rather play golf or lacrosse, join glee club, learn Spanish, whatever, that's absolutely fine, too.
Although I think most of us are on the same page here, I am making this point to emphasize that this is a game. Whether we chose to believe it or not, a scholarship is not on the line for most of our boys. In fact, if one of our boys ended up getting a scholarship to a Division I school, that would be one more than I would expect from any travel team.
The stakes in travel baseball are very, very low. There is very little potential upside beyond training our boys to be competent High School players. There is very little potential downside beyond teaching our boys to dislike baseball. Whether our boys learn to dislike baseball will depend, again, largely on our conduct as parents.
3. Your boy's enjoyment of the game will be influenced by your conduct as a parent, moreso than any other factor. In some extreme cases, a coach can be so awful that he can ruin the experience for the team. Coaches that bad are an exception. (And unfortunately, in the past, this team may have seen this exact scenario.)
However, the conduct of a parent can have a lasting impact on a child's impression of this experience. Unwittingly, we have the power to make this a real drag.
There is only one thing a parent can do to enhance this experience. I will elaborate more on that later. However, other than that, a parent has virtually no ability to enhance this experience for their kids. Seriously. Let that sink in for a moment. Other than one exception, there is nothing you can do to make travel baseball a better experience.
There are, however, many, many things you can do to make this experience worse.
4. A kid should have one coach. Perhaps the craziest thing I see from parents is that they will attempt to coach their kids at gametime. They'll be giving advice on how to approach the next pitch. They will give advice on technique. They are competing with the coach for the kid's attention. Meanwhile, the kid is waiting, trying to swing a cylindrical stick in an elliptical arc to try and hit a sphere that is moving at them in speeds in excess of 50 miles per hour.
If you want to be part of the coaching process, please, please come assist at practices. We can always use more adult involvement. However, at gametime, despite all our urges as parents, the best thing we can do is simply say nothing and let our kids have an at-bat.
Adults are seldom able to function if they have several people shouting directions at them while they attempt to do a difficult task. 10 year olds are no better at it. The more voices a kid is hearing, the more likely they will have a bad AB.
If a kid needs guidance, coach Tre is right at 3rd base to tell them whatever they need to hear. If coach Tre doesn't catch it, coach Art is at 1st base and can do the same thing.
I mean no disrespect to any parent, but the only advice I give a kid going to bat is either simply "see the ball" or "tune everything else out." If I could, I'd give them earplugs that tune out the sounds of everybody in the stands, including their own parents.
Trust me when I say this: you extremely unlikely to help your kid's AB. More often, the more voices a kid is having to listen to, the worse their AB is going to turn out. I say this even if a parent is giving guidance that is perfectly correct.
When a kid is batting, the only things I'll say are, "you're fine" and "see the ball". When a kid is pitching, the only things I'll say are, "just throw" or "you and the glove" or other general words of encouragement to that effect. Anything technique-wise that needs to be said? I leave that to the coaches. I'm just trying to make encouraging background noise.
After a kid makes a bad play, all too often a parent's first reaction is to criticize the kid's performance. Our boys know when they make a mistake. Let the coach handle it. If the kid needs to be spoken to, the coach is very good at that. However, we also have to accept that our kids will make a mistake once in a while.
So, how should a parent act at gametime? A long time ago, I heard that the only thing a kid needs from a parent at gametime is an encouraging smile. Of course, cheer for the team. Get excited. Heck, if things go wrong, an emotional interjection comes out now and then.
Am I perfect at this, myself? No, not at all. I'm as far as it gets from being a perfect person. However, the better I am at doing this, the more my son enjoys the game.
At gametime, leave the coaching to the coaches. Enjoy the game. It'll allow your kids to enjoy it as well.
5. What a parent can do to help their kid. There is a great deal a parent can do to help a kid play better baseball. What they can do is work with them at home, in their spare time. I refuse to push my son into practicing during his downtime, but I will ask if he feels like throwing the ball in the front yard. I'll ask if he wants to go to the cages for some extra BP. Sometimes he says yes. Sometimes no. However, mastery of a skill comes with repetition. If the only baseball your kids are playing is at our practices and games, they will get the dead minimum development in baseball that a travel ball player can get.
So, if you want to help your boy be a better player, help them work on it outside of team practices and games. That yields real dividends. Shouting pointers to them during the game does not.
6. A final note on baseball. Personally, I believe that kids play best when they're relaxed and focused. They can't be relaxed if they know that they're going to be chewed out on the way home.
As I said before, we want them to be prepared for High School baseball. If you watch baseball at High School and higher levels, the coaches are largely silent. The players are left to their own thoughts throughout the game. Parents are not shouting advice.
Our boys are a boisterous and energetic lot and we all enjoy the enthusiasm they bring at gametime. They are one of the loudest teams in the league. However, that's just establishing a general mood. They're not getting into each other's heads. They're just keeping each other enthused.
That's what we should be doing as parents. Stay out of their heads at gametime. The only thing we should be communicating with our words, actions and facial expressions, is that we're proud of them, we know they're doing the best they can, and that we're just there to watch them have fun.
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