I love summertime baseball because it is when the best players ages 5-18 come together to compete in various tournaments and showcase tournaments across the country.
I was at the 7U baseball tournament of my godson, Tucker, recently. You could feel the energy in the stands. The kids were having fun, and there was a focus on winning the game from both teams, which included the parents, players and coaches.
This is important for the future of our game. If we don’t teach our kids how to compete to improve and compete to win, they may go to other sporting activities like the World Chase Tag, American Cornhole League, and Pillow Fight Championships to learn.
While I am glad these sports are thriving and increasing in participation numbers and fan support, I don’t want to lose baseball players to them because we are not doing a good job of coaching.
Before the word coach was used in sports, it was strictly used as a means of transportation. There was a horse, a coachman to stir the reins used to direct the horse and the coach, who sat where the passenger rested until they reached their destination.
Good baseball coaching is going to have an intentional phased approach for development because luck, chance, love, hope and prayer is not enough.
As May heads into June, my players remain committed and disciplined to put a period on another productive year of development. Then it is time to start over again in August, where we will try new things to determine what works and what doesn’t.
