Great post Coach May,
I agree the two do not mix. When they are 5-6 7-8, even 9-10 they can mix. By the time my son was eight years old he was frustrated with a kid who couldnt catch a routine fly in the outfield. He would go out with my husband every weekend and take grounders and fly balls.
When my son was 10 he wanted to go up to majors. that was normally 11-12. Anyway he was drafted by his best friends dad. The first day of practice my son asked the coach if he could try out for 2nd base. he did and coach told him your not ready at this level to play 2nd. The dad smashed balls at him because first he was his sons best friend and he wanted my son who was youngest on the team to understand the work required.
So for the next two weeks on top of his three day a week practices we took him out every night and worked on grounders for hours. he had bumps and some bruises from misjudged hops etc. I played the infield as a young girl in softball I myself taught him(no Money involved at that point) every day Saturday and Sunday we went he begged us.
So 2 weeks later he goes to the coach who is still trying to find his 2nd basemen for the year.My son took grounders, the coach was stunned, he stopped the practice for a minute and said to the team I now want to introduce our second basemen.He played there all year, started and did very well. some of the 12 year old parents were ticked because it was their sons last year in majors , their kid deserved a shot, well they had their shot, they couldnt beat out our son. ANyway the point I am trying to reiterate is rec ball players for the most part dont put in that extra work. they dont eat, live and breathe baseball.
I am totally in favor of LL, rec ball for some boys but when you hit about 11-12 and you want to really excel its time to move on. It is too hard to try and coach kids who half the time forget their hat and glove, who are there because they need exercise, at some point the two do not mix.
There are players like a lot of our sons who work hard and always have. The more competitive ball they play , the better the competition the better they learn what it will take to continue to be competitive.
It becomes a job at some point. a job they love but none the less there is a lot to work on in baseball, always to be better, stronger, quicker etc. There is not a parent that can force this on any kid. the kid most of the time drives the parent into competitive baseball.