|
Young
Baseball Players Can’t Learn that Much!
I was having a
conversation with a good friend the other day about
teaching the finer points of baseball to the little
guys.
What brought this up
was that he overheard a conversation with a couple
of “coaches” that you can’t teach young baseball
players some of the more complicated facets of the
game.
I say bull!
If I haven’t already
done it in the past, I’ll share a story about my
oldest son’s experience in 5th grade football some
years ago. This really opened my eyes to teaching
young athletes.
My son, and a lot of
his friends, started playing football in 5th grade.
And it wasn’t touch football. It wasn’t flag
football. It was the real thing. Helmets, pads,
tackling and referees in black and white.
I have to tell you,
my wife and I were not really excited to see our son
playing football, but it was something he wanted to
try. I didn’t want him to regret not trying the
sport the rest of his life. So he did. It turned out
to be a great experience for him and for us as
parents.
The head coach of the
team?
A former NFL pro-bowl
quarterback.
One of the
assistants?
Me. No real football
training, but heck, I could give the guy a hand.
What I learned that
summer and fall was amazing.
Better yet, what the
kids learned, I was astonished.
In August, before
school started, we began teaching these soon to be
5th graders the basics of blocking. The fundamentals
of tackling. How to catch a football.
We (including me)
started to learn how to set up in a pro-set. An “I”
formation. A pitch, roll-out, counter play, sweep,
off-tackle, screen play,…..the list goes on.
I can’t even remember
how many defensive formations we had.
We practiced, and
practiced these plays and defensive formations. We
didn’t have long practices either. The coach kept
them to an hour and a half. We only did it three
days a week. Not a lot of time….four and a half
hours a week. He said his practices in the NFL only
lasted about an hour and a half. He said the players
couldn’t handle much more than that….and I’m talking
about the NFL team, not the great 5th grade
powerhouse we developed.
About half way
through the season, the head coach asked me to help
him with the offense. Really he wanted me to carry
the plays around the help him remember them. Make
suggestions. I enjoyed it because I could really
understand the game more listening to him.
I remember asking him
one day what the difference was between the offense
and defense we were running and his college and pro
experience.
His response?
He told me this was
the exact same offense and defense his NFL team ran.
With the full amount of plays.
The only difference
he said, was that we didn’t have a pulling guard. He
said the kids are too slow at this age.
Imagine that. We were
running a full NFL offense and defense in 5th grade.
We even had audibles ….. meaning that if the
quarterback saw an opportunity when he got on the
line, he could change the play with a few verbal
commands to the rest of the players.
In the end, we were
playing for the championship at the large college
football stadium.
Lost the darn game on
the last play. But we competed with the older,
bigger, and much more experienced team.
I couldn’t be more
amazed on how these young kids, with little or no
football experience, learned this full offense and
defense, applied it, and made it to the championship
game.
Oh yeah. This was a
5th and 6th grade division.
We won it the next
year as 6th graders.
Why do I bring up
this complex coaching of the kids?
I think many of us
coaches under teach our players.
We are a little
afraid of losing the kids.
Some people think
they can’t handle the finer points of fielding.
They can’t work on
hitting the baseball to the opposite field as 5th
graders.
They can’t work from
the stretch as pitchers.
God forbid, they
can’t hit a curveball.
And you know what….if
we don’t work with them on it, don’t introduce these
concepts to them early on, they won’t be able to.
If they can learn a
full NFL offense and defense, they can learn to
charge a ball and field it the same time.
Ok, some kids need
more time to understand the concepts and practice
them than others. But they can learn them. We need
to be patient with all the kids, regardless of age.
Young kids are
starving for information. Let’s give it to them.
One of the reasons I
bring this up is that I got some feedback recently
about one of our young baseball players programs.
A dad said we are too
advanced for this age group.
Too advanced?
What does this mean?
It’s a game.
We throw, we catch,
we run, we hit.
I say coaches don’t
teach enough. Why? Don’t know.
Maybe because they
don’t know how to teach some of the finer points.
Maybe they don’t want to. Maybe they don’t have the
patience with the kids.
For whatever reason,
many of the coaches don’t teach the finer points.
The coaches want to practice a lot though.
I think youth coaches
practice too much. Too many days for two to three
hours.
That’s where we lose
them. We don’t lose the kids on the concepts. That’s
what they really want to learn. I think the long
unproductive practices, day in and day out is where
we lose them.
I guess that’s the
real difference between BioForce and some of the
other baseball instructors in the area is the
attention to detail.
Not just playing
catch. Not how you stand at bat.
But how do you
transfer the ball from the glove to the throwing
hand….and quickly.
How do you hit the
ball to the opposite field….on purpose?
How to pitch the ball
faster and with more control.
To me, these are the
fundamentals of the game.
Not just stick the
glove in front of your body and catch it with two
hands. Keep your eye on the ball. Just throw
strikes.
Old, boring, and
ineffective.
Let’s give our kids a
chance to get better and enjoy the game.
If you are really
interested in getting better, and learning the finer
points of the game, give us a call.
If you just want to
get a lesson on how to stand in the batters box,
swing the bat, throw over the top and a lot of the
other conventional wisdom, then you may want to
check out our competition.
Until next time….
Train like a champion
today!
P.S. Are you a coach?
Want to learn more on how to teach your youth
players better. Look for our FREE coaches clinic
coming up February 11th, Sunday. It’ll be in the
evening. Mark your calendars now. Did I mention it
will be FREE?
|
