This is Serious

If you missed the New York Time article today "When an 18-Year-Old Son Needs Elbow Surgery" and you have a son or daughter playing sports you should definitely take a moment to read this piece. What strikes me the idea that as parents, we can make mistakes even as we have good intentions.

I found myself in a conversation with a fellow father who has a daughter and a son playing softball and baseball respectively. His son, about 8 isn't a great player. In fact, he told me that his son last season barely even fouled one off all season. As a result, he's put his son into a hitting clinic with a personal coach and is looking at signing him up for winter leagues to augment his spring and fall season.

I wonder first of all, does the kid even like baseball that much that he wants to opt out of doing other things. Secondly, I wonder if this father has bothered to read any of the research or recent books about this topic. According to the NYT article, "one study, conducted by the American Sports Medicine Institute, led by the prominent surgeon Dr. James Andrews, found high school and college pitchers at sharply higher risk of injury requiring surgery when they exceeded certain thresholds: 400 percent when tossing more than 80 pitches a game; 500 percent for pitchers whose playing seasons lasted more than eight months a year."

I wonder what those thresholds are for 10 year olds, whose bodies haven't completely developed. I assume the thresholds are much lower and that you can inadvertently damage or ruin your own child's playing future by simply having them play too much.

Parents should get informed, especially if they have a star player who really loves the game. I believe it's prudent to make sure that whomever is coaching these players understand and respect your wishes of pitching and catching limited innings to save their arms irrespective of the league rules. Parents should also consider how many months to allow their kids to play a single sport. Playing multiple sports helps them develop different muscles and gives them a chance to make new friends and learn new skills. Young kids should not over commit to a single sport anyway, in my opinion.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Last night at practice I had the oddest feeling of deja vu. Before our first game, we tuned up a bit by working on cut off/relay plays and in particular, plays at the plate. I remember learning this myself at 11 or 12 years old and really struggling with it. I seem to remember being yelled at quite a bit for missing the cut off!

Defensively, my favorite play has always been when there is hit to the outfield w/a runner in scoring position. Seeing the pitcher back up home while 1B comes out to mound to get the cut off is like some sort of intricate dance move - it's the essence of team baseball/softball and as it turns out, is as fun to do as it is to teach.

It's a lot to take in, but I'm committed to teaching the girls more about the game as they get older. You have to start somewhere.

The other thing we did last night for the first time was some serious sliding. We did 2 rounds of stealing 2B off the catcher (work in catcher drills while you are at it). We added on a round of advancing to home on a passed ball which requires a slide as well. 2 girls still can't slide, but I think we'll get that fixed soon enough.

I'm fall in love with the game all over again each year I coach.

Position and Batting Order Strategies

I'm still learning how to construct the perfect lineup and still have questions. With a big roster that includes 14 girls and a continuous batting order, there will be stretches where we could have several weak batters up in a row.

I have tried both stacking the top of the order and "spreading the wealth" and tend to think that spreading the wealth (using several good hitters throughout the full lineup) gives us a chance to sustain a big rally. That said, I hate to get into a situation where a strikeout or weakly hit ball kills our momentum. It's not an easy situation. It's also worth mentioning that in our league, we have a 4 run per inning max - so when I say big rally, I mean making sure we put up our 4 runs each time we bat!

Here's how I will probably start this season:

1. Girl who rarely strikes out and has speed
2. Girl with some speed, rarely strikes out and is a good hitter
3. Best hitter
4. Slower girl but with a good bat (ok if she strikes out a bit)
5. Average hitter
6. Good/great hitter
7. Poor hitter but one who I have taught to bunt!
8. Average hitter
9. Poor hitter (another bunter if possible)
10. Average hitter
    
11. Best hitter left of the bottom 5
    
12. Weak hitter
    
13. Weakest hitter
    
14. Someone who can but and who can run a little

Here's some reality if you are coaching at this level:

• Count on passed balls scoring you a huge % of your runs.
• If you can teach your girls to bunt, you'll also get the added benefit of drawing more walks, and being able to simply put the ball in play which will create opportunities for the other team to make defensive errors).

As for position strategies, I have some pretty specific ideas on defense of what will help us win games.

C - I drafted a good catcher and I hope I can develop a decent back up. At this level, it's becoming extremely important that the catcher simply be able to minimize passed balls.
1B - she must catch everything thrown to her and be able to move her body to field bad throws
2B - great glove, average arm (2B is crucial!)
SS - average glove, good arm
3B - fearless with her glove, great arm
OF - pretty much everyone else
P - I drafted 2 pitchers and have a 3rd who if she can throw strikes will do fine. I have 2 other girls who want to pitch but have a long way to go. I will work with them as much as they want until I feel they are ready to pitch in a game. That's a judgment call to a large extent, but if they can throw 6 of 10 pitches for strikes on a consistent basis, they will get some innings.

While there is no rule this year that says we have to play every girl in the infield, I will do a lot of moving kids around so they have a good experience. Here are some of my unofficial rules:

• You have to earn your way into the infield
• You can't play 3B if you can't protect yourself
• You can't play 1B if you can't handle me (coach) throwing balls fairly hard at you
• You can ask to catch, but you have to put in practice time with me (like I said above, passed balls are crucial at this level)
• I use the 2B position to rotate girls into the infield and reward the ones who make plays with time at SS

It's not perfect, but it's my current plan of record!

It's Almost Game Time!

I've not ever coached in a season where I've had enough practices to feel ready to play... and this year is no exception! My U12 girls softball team has had 7 practices so far, and have 2 0r 3 more before our first game next Friday night under the lights.

I decided that there are just some things we'll have to learn as we go, and a few that I'm really going to focus on to get the girls ready. I do this every year, and it always drives me crazy because I just love to practice!

Major focus areas before our first game:

• Get the girls to see some live pitching
• Get my pitchers to pitch to batters
• Sliding into bases
  
• Game situations (my favorite of all drills is to field a full team and use the extra players as live runners)
• Signs (basic ones only: bunt, steal and take the next pitch)
  

What we aren't going to get to and will have to learn as we go this year...

• 2B backing up the pitcher after every pitch
• Additional backups (in particular, RF backing up all plays to 1B and LF backing up 3B)
  
• Advanced catchers drills and specific practice including the extremely important "fake" throw to second base to try to fool the runner on third!
• Pitchers covering home on all passed balls with runners on third
  

What we probably won't get to...

• Hit and run
• Delayed steals (except for this one girl, who I think I can teach)

BTW, I found this terrific site that all you coaches should check out... I also put it in my "Ultimate Resource Guide."

It's almost game time and I can't wait!

Book Notes: Encylopedia of Sports Parenting

I picked up "The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting" by Dan Doyle from the library today and read most of it in one sitting. It's a very comprehensive look at, to state the obvious, being the parent of a child who plays sports at a variety of levels. The book does a great job breaking down the differences between youth/recreational sports, high school and higher levels like travel sports and college.

I focused my attention on the youth sports chapters and concepts and got a few really good things out of this book. In particular, I'm totally in agreement with the book around issues of sportsmanship, fair play and what Doyle calls a "values based sports parenting philosophy." His framework hinges on two "anchors" that form the foundation of any child's experience and life: Character Development and Training the Mind.

As both a parent and a coach, I think I've done a good job in this area by connecting the dots for my children and players that winning is not the only thing and that learning the game, having passion for what you are doing and loving your teammates is job #1. As my girls get older, I am realizing that more and more that this is exactly where my focus should be at all times, both as parent and coach.

Doyle lays out eleven important values learned from sports, listed here:

1. Balance and perspective
2. Honest/good sportsmanship
3. Self-reliance/responsibility
4. Self-control/non-violence
5. Hard work/perseverance
6. Respect
7. Empathy
8. Teamwork/unselfishness
9. Tolerance
10. Moral courage
11. Physical fitness

Looking back at the past 5 years of coaching, I realize that these are indeed amazingly important values that in many ways, I've been teaching over and over again, increasingly each year as my girls get older.

That said, I now realize that I need to connect the dots back off the field as well - those anchors are not meant as a framework for sports success, but as an anchor for life success. Right now, one area of real concern and focus for me is instilling the value of hard work and self-reliance. Encouraging them to be as good as they can in all areas of life by having them work towards goals, put in the practice time and always give their best efforts are areas I believe we can all continually strive to improve on!

If you have a kid playing sports, I would recommend that you read this book immediately!

Parenting and Youth Sports

This is a repost, I originally wrote it in January 2008.

I'm a coach. In another life, I think that I'd do that as a profession. In this life however, I've been coaching my 2 girls in a variety of sports and learning so many lessons. As they have gotten older, more and more issues have come up that have pushed me past those easy tee-ball days. Suddenly, drafts and organizational politics have come into play - neither of which I could care about all that much. I'm still more concerned with my singular goal for each season:

How many of these kids will have so much fun that they will come back and play another season?

There was a study done recently that showed that 75% of all kids who play sports stop completely by age 13. Athletics was such an important part of shaping who I am today and for my girls, I feel that it is extremely important for them to keep playing (something, anything) and having fun.

I picked up a copy of "Parenting Young Athletes The Ripken Way" from the library this weekend and blew through it's pages in one sitting. What I read reconfirmed:

• Cal Ripken is a class act
• Youth Sports today is very different than it was when I was a kid (not so long ago)
• Youth Sports are GAMES... and games are meant to be fun
• Parents and coaches may be hurting their kids inadvertently by pushing and not praising at all times

I jotted down a few notes as I read this book (I read with one eye on the Patriots playoff and their 17th victory this season - all those guys played youth sports I bet).

Cal talks a lot about praise and how to use praise to really build up a kids confidence. I do an OK job of this, but am realizing how important it is to not be critical - especially in the car on the way home from a game. My instinct is to keep coaching on the way home, giving my girls tips and pointers on what to work on. What I should be doing is going gaga over their performance and asking them about what they thought.

If my goal is to get my kids to keep playing a sport from season to season, I think a little less criticism and a ton more praise might just do the trick.

A lot of parents have asked me if I think travel teams and specialization is something they should be considering for their athletes - I get these questions more and more now that my older kid is approaching middle school. While I'm not an expert quite yet, Cal's book made some great points that are worth considering.

• By playing as many different sports as possible, your athlete develops cross-compatible skills that will help them in every sport they play. The quickness they get from playing aggressive defense in basketball will certainly help their footwork on a soccer field or on a baseball diamond.
  
• Cal also mentions that the college coaches he knows actually tend to favor well-rounded athletes - their thought being that a player who specialized at a young age is at risk for an injury (overuse of particular muscles) and burn out.
• The book also talks about travel teams and how for most kids, lack of playing time on a team focused only on winning can actually end up making no difference athletically for that child - and even worse can create other issues. The demands that travel teams make on families creates issues with school work, missing family time and meals and at it's worst, can create animosity or dislike for the game. At 7 or 8 years old, is this really necessary?
  

In the end, Cal makes a startingly simple and powerful statement that I 100% agree with:

It's not about your dreams, it's about your child's dreams.

I'd agree. Sports may not be your kid's dream - but giving them an opportunity to stay fit, learn a new game and make friends is worthy enough a goal!