Now this is a great forum....no slights or slams, just good people exchanging good information and ideas. Allow me to get real old school....kids don't play enough sand-lot ball. As most of you remember when we played sand-lot ball we had to figure things out for ourselves, not rely on some one to tell us what to do. One of the things it promoted was PRACTICE, and we loved it....we had to figure out cut-stations, when to steal, when to bunt and when to swing away, in other words, we had to become Students of the game. I don't believe you can lay this off on coaching, or whether or not your son plays rec, or travel.In my opinion our kids are sometimes too afraid to make mistakes, they are afraid of letting us down. One thing I am certain of in baseball, is you can not be afraid of failure ...it's part of the game. One thing as a coach, or a scout, that really stands out today is, when you see a good player, with INSTINCTS. As coaches you already know if we have to tell you what to do....it's probably already too late. maybe we should promte a Sand-lot league....Larry Williams