Yesterday I boarded a plane to come to LA for my monthly trip. I got off the plane, picked up the car and had to turn on the Air Conditioning. It was 90 degrees. Crazy… I had been in Montana on Thursday and Friday where it had been 31 and snowing. It was just funny to be in such different extremes over such a short period of time. I’m pretty sure there will be no such thing as Spring this year. The boys’ baseball games are going to be getting hot quickly.
Speaking of baseball…Big J lost his game today. According to my wife, the coaches once again didn’t do much to help the boys. They then had the balls to pull the parents together and blame them for not bringing the boys to practice last Thursday when it was snowing. I’m sorry, but it gets very frustrating when coaches don’t know what they are doing.
I understand these are typically dads or moms that are volunteering their time to help our kids. However, they need to take some time to teach the kids basic fundamentals and how to play as a team. Big J’s coach gets frustrated with the kids inability to throw and catch, so rather than coach the kids and teach them the principles he yells to them to just field the ball and run to the base or tag the kid. I get so frustrated, that I have to bite my tongue to not start yelling at the coach. I know it can be frustrating for a coach to watch the kids not do the basics. I help coach all the teams and get frustrated, but teaching a kid to just field and run kills their ability to learn. It’s giving up and not putting forth the effort to teach in my opinion.
The other thing that drives me nuts is the inability to teach kids to hit. In this league they are using a pitching machine. So, for the most part the machine is pretty consistent. The best thing to do, in my opinion and based upon my experience coaching this league, is to adjust the kids to the pitching machine. If you fumble with the machine after each pitch you screw up the rhythm of the game and the kids. Get the machine to pitch a decent pitch, and then move the kids up or back in the box to adjust the height of the pitch to the kid. However, Big J’s coach has some very different ideas and doesn’t teach the kids to hit the ball. Last game I helped coach the kids at the plate, and did what I could to keep the game moving. Strangely enough, every single one of the kids hit. I’m not attributing the hitting to me, but it kept the game going and helped the kids see the pitch. It worked.
Anyway, I’m ranting and I’ll shut up now. However, based upon my experience this year, I’ll be coaching next year. I can’t complain and not do anything to help. So we’ll see.
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