They don't bother me, they just suck. Have a nice day, my plane is boarding, got to go. Sitting in Charlotte headed to NYC.
So, you think they suck, then do everyone a favor and stop watching them, and more importantly stop whining about them. I look forward to your professional videos...my good man....show me how it is done. Have a safe flight.... Now back on topic, as a DD hater has had his diversionary say.....7 of Ill-Skillz 8 posts in this thread contined a jab at me. DD
Only 2 of the players from my 6th grade aau team were even playing basketball by the time they got to 12th grade. That was also the case for most of the "competitive teams" that my brothers or friends played on, because either the kids found new sports that they enjoyed more or they found other passions/hobbies to pursue in high school. So for these parents to put so much stock in their young kid's games is just pointless. I would say that only around 10% of kids playing on a select team before age 13 will ever play varsity in that sport. Maybe a contributing factor to this dropout rate is the parents making an activity that is supposed to be fun so decidedly un-fun. Instead of learning to love baseball playing pick-up games in the park with friends, the kid in DD's OP is learning to associate the sport with stress, anxiety, and fear generated by his dad's pointless yelling. So unless this parent eventually forces his boy to play baseball, I bet the kid will want to quit because he never got that passion that should have been implanted during the carefree childhood years before the pressures of not getting cut and earning playing time come in to play. Once the child truly knows they want to play that sport and has a desire to improve, then the parents can come in and begin training them so they can make the "A" team etc. but if they force it too soon the kid will not have his heart in it and will just quit later down the road and will have had a miserable sports experience for what could have been a fun and valuable exercise.
YaoNow, That is an excellent post. I wonder how many kids quit because of that, versus how many quit through natural attrition, ie other interests. I mean all these kids playing now, and there are not that many spots even at the high school level..... I wonder how much is the stress, and how much is the natural order of weeding out the better players? That would be a very interesting study. DD
Good post. This is true for pretty much every skill, including school subjects. A parent who treats co's kids like this at Little League is probably an a-hole to the kids everywhere else. Sad to say, but the parent probably feels that they were treated the same way themselves.
Hakeem did not start playing basketball until he was 15 and he turned out to be one of the greatest basketball players. Stop pressuring your kids, people.
A friend of mine taught me an invaluable lesson about coaching kids in little league. If they aren't crying, you aren't trying. Plus, if you aren't first you're last. And I don't want to coach a bunch of last place kids.
coaches yelling dont bother me. what bothers me is the caste system that is employed by the school teams. I got overlooked because i didnt have the right last name. I dont know why a team wouldnt want this beast on the field.
I'm surprised I didn't see this last night in the Hangout because I definitely can relate to the little league experience.. I don't even know where to start, so I guess i'll just start from the beginning.. I first started playing little league when I was 7 at Oaks Dads Club or ODC (some of y'all might know this place). I had never picked up a baseball in my life and my parents just signed me up near the beginning/middle of the season to play peewee. There they used a machine to pitch.. So I was put with my team and I could tell the coach was kinda like, "oh no, I got another kid who's never played". As the season went on, the game just came to me naturally. I was hitting, fielding, and throwing with the best of them. I was a pleasant surprise to both my parents and my coach.. There I was actually having fun.. After that season I made the All-star team (one of the few who weren't the coaches sons). So like I said, that was a lot of fun. Then after that season, I would sign up every year and do it over again. But I could tell each year got more and more competitive and things just weren't as fun.. The coaches would scream and yell if you made ANY mistake.. I had never heard that much cursing until that point in my life.. I always managed to get through the season and make the All-star team every year. It was pretty funny because every season, every coach would call my dad saying that if he got the chance he would pick me first. (I don't know if its like that for all little league, but the kids would try out, and then the coaches would have a draft and the kids would get picked). So anyway after getting too old for little league I went on to play select ball with tournament teams. Thats when things really went downhill... It was like the fun was just sucked out of baseball for me. The coaches were waaaaaayyyyy too serious about things, and they would act like every game was game 7 of the world series. The whole time our select team would hear, "come on boys if you wanna go pro, you gotta start young so take it serious!!!". What complete BS that was. Sure if baseball is your LIFE then yeah, but that wasn't our whole life then... Anyway, I was pretty much playing in tournaments every weekend traveling all over Texas and even into Louisiana. And honestly, we hardly ever won 1st place, we would almost always come in second or third. So after the tournaments the coach(s) would come down on us even harder for not "making the last step" in winning the championship. Because of that, I guess the fun wasn't there anymore. It got to the point where instead of playing the best players, only the coaches sons would get the most playing time and that would be a detriment to the team. Take into account all of that, and I haven't even added the fights I have seen between coaches and umps/parents!!! Man all I gotta say is some people just have no class or dignity at ALL. So I guess overall, for me, the little league experience started off pretty fun but then it was kind of a downward spiral from there. I'm not saying its always like that for everyone, but thats how it was for me..
File a complaint with your Association. I work for a minor baseball association, and whenever we get complaints of a hothead coach, that coach usually gets a call from the executive director and told to tone it down.
I live up on the Northwest side of town near Spring and Klein. A TON of top level baseball talent comes out of that area through all the select leagues,etc. The amount of politics and backstabbing is terrible. Every parent thinks their kid is the next top draft pick. When my kids are old enough, its like I don't even want to mess with it. I want them to be able to play baseball, but I might have to go to another area.
From someone who has coached these types of teams......I've managed select baseball and regular little league baseball for about 8 years (I stopped doing the select bc of reasons stated throughout this post). From my experience, these coaches assume that once a kid commits to a select team, he is basically signing over his childhood to prepare for this team, its future and his "future". These guys take is as a free pass to coach an 8 year old the same way you would coach a kid trying to make a varsity high school team. The rules are different in these select games...there are no infield/outfield requirements and in many cases, kids dont even have to play every game....and therein lies the problem. You see...when the parents commit their kids to these teams, the whole "select process" starts over so to speak. Then it becomes all about what position my kid is playing, where is he in the lineup, when can he pitch, etc. This is about the time that the parents start sending nasty email to the coach about how great little johnny is and how he would have never made that crucial error that little jimmy made.....and thats where the snowball starts to form. The coach gets enuf of these "requests" and it starts to wear on him (trust me....if i could show u some of the emails i have received... ) Anyway....the coach starts to feel like he has to justify his lineup/batting order/pitching rotation so the kids better be damn sure they perform up to the highest level bc now the coach is feeling the heat....and that s where the yelling comes in.....it also comes in the form of competitiveness...a lot of these guys live vicariously thru the kids on the field. Its very east to fall into the trap of watching a kid...who is the star of the team....and he makes every play imaginable....so when he makes an error, you think the kid is supposed to be Derek jeter and how could he possibly make an error??? Its very easy to forget that these kids are so young...so u lose your mind trying to figure out how the heck he missed that ball in that situation...or threw it over the 1B head....its crazy. Ive always been the type of coach that played everyone and gave all the kids a chance to see where they would best fit...and thats why i wasnt as successful as the other coaches in the select arena...and eventually, the parents want their kids playing on teams where their kid can play every inning at SS, bat 1st....and never sit out during a game....and not to mention win a trophy......which is one of the reasons i stopped.
Why? Afraid you'll fail? At the beginning of the tournaments, EVERYONE is in last place, and then with your coaching, and your coaching only, is how they get to LAST place. Don't be a sore loser, though, if it's your fault they don't do well in the real games when you didn't coach or practiced with them properly.