Found this elsewhere. This guys seems to have his priorities in line.
My apologies if this is too long.
You California guys may know him.
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A great article written by one of the most respected travel baseball coaches in the country:
Just Baseball…My name is Charles Chatman and I run a Travel Baseball organization out of Southern California called the A-Game Academy. The A-Game Academy incorporates two programs ; The Anderson Arsenal program which consist of local players between the ages of 9 and 14 within a 10-20 miles radius of our facility in Placentia, CA and The Team Anderson program which consist of a larger radius of Southern California players ranging between the ages of 12 and 18. The goal of the Arsenal program is to prepare its members to make their high school baseball team and the goal of the Team Anderson program is to prepare its members for college baseball. We are in our 6th year of development and we literally have hundreds of Southern California High School players that have found themselves through the direction of our coaching staff: and has we embark on our 3rd graduating senior class, the A-Game Academy has more than 20 players currently playing college baseball and 3 alumni in the minor leagues.
I use the above as my prerequisite to addressing the below…
In my 5 and a half years of running the A-Game Academy I have noticed a few trends in travel ball that have really begun to trouble me and being a baseball purist, I feel obligated to share my concerns with anyone that will listen … Remember what we are teaching extends way past “Just Baseball”!
1. Team Bouncing- the grass is not greener on the other side… whatever happened to honoring your commitment. I remember the day when you finished what you started and I really miss those days. What are we teaching our boys when we let them commit to something and then back out of it when things get tough? The reality is that things never workout the way that you anticipate… but the truth is that things always workout the way that they are supposed to. What better lesson can we teach our boys than to see it through?
2. Parents that use “we” and “us” when talking about their Childs development- Moms and Dads, it is ok for you to be the rock for your child but it is vital to their development that they be the ones held accountable for the process. As parents and coaches it is our job to provide our boys with the information and direction needed to be successful… it is their responsibility to apply it. We cannot not shoulder this responsibility for our boys. It is theirs and theirs alone.
3. Overbearing and borderline abusive coaches- it is one thing to challenge a player and it is something completely different to be confrontational. Baseball is not easy… and yet as coaches we sometimes forget this fact. Guys get paid millions of dollars to play this game and yet they still make bonehead mistakes all the time (look at the KC Royals). Knowing this fact, I am beginning to see more and more coaches undress 10 and 11 year olds for going to the wrong direction in bunt coverage or swinging a pitch out of the strike zone. You have to take a test to drive a car, but they let any idiot operate the development of a young man’s psyche… go figure.
4. Recruiting Players- I believe in an open door policy and players should be welcome to go where they feel that they have the best opportunity to be successful. However, once a player makes that decision they should see it through until the end of the season. But, a player being actively being persuaded to leave their current team to go play on another team mid-season is ridiculous… this isn’t the Major Leagues and there is no bonus for winning the 13U National Championship. There should be a since of accomplishment that goes with finishing the season at the top of your respected age group and it should come from a years worth of hard work… not from jumping on a team of mercenaries that last month of the season and rolling through Elites.
5. Elite Teams- Last time I checked, in the game of baseball, anyone can beat anyone on any given day. If that is the case, then what separates an Elite team from every other team? In the last few years I have seen more and more Elite teams comprised of hired guns and less and less of teams that just play good baseball. The more I watch college and pro baseball the more I see the game moving towards and importance of role players and the team concepts, being from Southern California and being privy to the disciples of Coach Wally Kincaid the return has not hit me by surprise. But watching the trends of travel ball and the lack of attention to detail has me perplexed. I believe the Elite teams are creating an Elite player with and elitist attitude and that does not bode well for player with aspirations of playing baseball at the next level.
6. Coaches that put themselves before the players- The test of a good coach is how well they adapt to their players… not the other way around. There are certain givens on a baseball diamond; pitchers must throw strikes, infielders must be able to make the routine play, outfielders must catch fly balls, everyone on defense must be able to play catch, and hitters need to be able to execute on offense. Within the paradigm that I listed above each player needs to have the opportunity to be themselves. In our program we call it the “Necessary I Guy”, this is a player that understands his role and wins in his situations. Every player has a unique ability that he brings to a team and the only way that he can truly flourish as a ball player is to be given the opportunity or leeway to the explore and display the full depths of his worth. This means that players need to fail so that they can succeed… which is impossible if coaches don’t check their ego at the gate.
7. Running the score up- What happened to respect your opponent… especially when they aren’t your equal. What happened to play you game and not your opponent and if you are playing the game… at what time do you call off the dogs. I understand that sometimes it may difficult, but what are we teaching our boys if we don’t teach them humility. We are all ambassadors of the game, especially those of us that have been blessed with talent. Most governing bodies have a 10 or 8 run rule after 5 innings… isn’t that margin enough to show your superiority?
8. It’s our responsibility- I am way over watching professional players from other countries take over our American Past time. As youth coaches we have the unique ability to directly affect that dynamic. We are on the front lines and we can make a difference. Who cares how many tournaments we win if our players don’t get the lesson? Baseball, more than any other sport mimics life. Baseball teaches us to find our place and work really hard on fine tuning our skills, it teaches us to study our craft and lead by example. Baseball teaches us to trust our teammates and respect our opponents, it reminds us that we are apart of something way bigger than we are and welcomes us regardless of our imperfections. If we are to regain our past time it is going to start with a transition back to a time when players were allowed to be themselves while at the same time being reminded and instructed to give back two times what they get out.
In conclusion, my intention was not to offend anyone, but to draw your attention to our responsibility as parents and coaches to the well being of our national past time. Sparky Anderson said "Those of us lucky enough to be part of the game have a tremendous responsibility — we're charged with giving back to the game all the good things the game has given us." I think it is way past time that we begin to hold ourselves accountable to this process. According to Tommy Lasorda, "There are three types of baseball players: those who make things happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens." The same can be said about coaches, I know where I fall… the question is, where do you?
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