Kids in Sports

I have been stumbling over writing this post for a while now because it is an intense issue and I am pretty sure I am on the crazy side of insane when it comes to my sport and the issue of youth sports. The current model has our girls playing at 6 years old in tournaments, sometimes 8 games in a weekend, playing during the week and practicing maybe twice a week. Ultimately, those kids grow up and end up doing the basic skills in college because they don’t know how. Moreover, their knowledge of the game is so minimal that the sport, outside of a few incredible individuals, drags its feet through the mud of the ineptitude of its training process. 

Meanwhile, other countries have championed models that are skill based. Australia, Japan, and New Zealand are just a few that have adopted youth programs that are skill-centric and focus on the smaller parts of the game. Although these countries have fewer people, and even though softball is not the number one sport for females in their countries, the continue to gain ground on the US at the top levels. 

Of course all of this is merely subjectively observational, the past few world championships have not been the easy road of old for Team USA. However, there is a model IN THIS COUNTRY that has proven success, not only at the world level, but in participation, satisfaction and in the self-confidence of its participants. 

The US youth hockey program has advanced leaps and bounds through it’s methodical approach to training the child, then the player. To keep it short, I will highlight their approach:

• ·         They practice more than they play. The ratio is about 3 practices to 1 game.
• ·         They encourage participation in other sports in the off-season.
• ·         They believe that the small parts of the game are more important. They even limit some competitions to smaller sections of the game (they often play youth games solely inside the blue line, teaching the players to be comfortable within close proximity to other players, making them better at passing and stick handling skills)
• ·         They don’t believe in traveling across the country to play every weekend.
• ·         They encourage their youth to play games close by for the most part.

What this does is allow the athletes to be trained. There is a small window for peak motor learning (from about 7 to 12) and by training the most important parts of the game, they players’ skill sets are much more advanced. Besides that, they have more fun. Practices are “busy”, utilizing up to 6 stations that are made to perfect particular parts of the game. Then, by the time they play the game, they are skilled enough to enjoy success. No 18-12 games because the kids are skilled enough to handle the intensity of the game.

I am sure that plenty of softball parents have sat through 10U games that are 15-13 before, with 23 walks and 14 errors. The coaches always play to win, so they don’t work on fundamentals of game situations like hitting behind the runner because they know that bunting all the time works. Pitchers never learn to compete because their probability for success is so minimal. They throw pitches down the middle because all the batters do is bunt. Then, finally, when the team runs into a dominant pitcher, they have no idea how to hit or run bases (speaking of, has your coach even talked about leads or rounding bases?).

So what do we do? I have actually seen dads who have a very good background in baseball be talked out of coaching by dads who have no clue and have never been an athlete ever because baseball and softball are different games. TOTAL BS!!!! Pitching? Yes, 100% throwing underhand is different than throwing overhand, and I agree. But are the workouts that different? Especially if you only practice twice a week? No. What about hitting? Fielding? Base running? ALL THE SAME!!! Dad who knows baseball well… you need to coach!

Furthermore, go to the Dominican Republic and observe how they train their baseball players (or watch the movie Pelotero. Much cheaper). The Dominican program trains their players on an accelerated timeline to get their players ready by the age of 16. At 16, a player can get drafted and sign into the MLB. Ironically, if you have been to an exposure tournament recently, you will find out that most softball players are committing to their school of choice by the age of… you guessed it… 16. The girls have to understand the process, be ready to make a life decision, and be capable of separating the BS from what is real by the age of 16. Training them to think critically and maturely is a necessity of these kids. And, oh by the way, human development research suggests that girls mature mentally and physically earlier than boys, and are typically smarter. They can still be daddy’s little girl, but I promise they can handle you giving them more responsibilities and a faster progression than you are now.

The fact is that our sport is in a critical phase right now, teetering between the good things that are happening, and the bad things that could happen. The emergence of multiple organizations and the lack of regulation that goes with it has started to tear at what’s important in the sport; the kids. Right now in some areas you could go to 3 nationals and a qualifier every weekend. Parents feel the pressure to have their kids in the biggest tournaments for “exposure” and the tournament directors are reaping the financial rewards of it. Regardless of what anyone tells you, you don’t have to go all over to get seen. Yes, your freshman daughter will be better off playing volleyball with her high school friends. Yes, she will recover in time from an injury to play plenty of games. Your 13 year-old daughter doesn’t need the exposure. You don’t have to win 12U nationals in any organization to win. And you don’t have to play more games to get better. Practice still makes perfect and is still the only way to get better. 

Can you tell this gets me fired up? It definitely does.