"Curiosity"

Middle School. 7th grade. Coach would scream at the players "Throw your hands!" at players during BP. Finally, one day, junior says to the coach "What exactly does that mean and how does that make me a better hitter?"

Coach's reply was: Shut up and just do what I tell you.

15U travel team. PG tournament. 1st and 3rd situation with one out. Coach tells junior at catcher to pump fake on a SB attempt. After the game, junior asks the coach why not try and throw out the runner at 2B, get an out or maybe a rundown of runner at 3B, or, just try to pick off runner at 3B?

Coach's reply was:  Why are you bothering me with all these questions?

Sometimes asking the coach questions is a waste of time.

Francis,

my catchers were always my Assistant coaches. Two are now Orioles MLB Manager and Coaches. They called the games. I drove the bus. And set the team strategy to outmaneuver the opposition’s Coaches

Bob

I know a d1 commit catcher...calls pitches for hs & competitive ball games and talks to the coaches between innings. Obviously there is more to it and he's doing what they are wanting, but there is a lot of trust and respect going both ways and they also chew on him when necessary. I think the "don't ask questions" mentality is just a personality flaw on the coach's part and will hold back the whole team. And of course, asking questions to understand better is not the same as a player disrespectfully questioning decisions in front of other players. A kid who wants to learn should be rewarded with information.

At nearly every level of baseball, often if you ask a question you can easily expose how little some coaches know.  Buzz words are easy, knowledge is harder.  If a coach can't or won't tell you why a drill, technique or strategy works or what it's purpose is, you can bet they don't know.

That is why it is critical that you ask WHY.  Sometimes it has to be asked differently.  Like:  Coach, I'm not sure I'm doing this right, what should I be feeling?  If I do it right, what does this help me with?  What is the best way to take this feeling and blend it to game situations?

A good coach will be excited that you actually asked.  If they don't answer your question, #1 don't burn your bridge by being a smartarse,,, but then research it on your own, if you want to get better, you need to understand the Why to perfect the How.

@HSDad22 posted:

At nearly every level of baseball, often if you ask a question you can easily expose how little some coaches know.  Buzz words are easy, knowledge is harder.  If a coach can't or won't tell you why a drill, technique or strategy works or what it's purpose is, you can bet they don't know.

That is why it is critical that you ask WHY.  Sometimes it has to be asked differently.  Like:  Coach, I'm not sure I'm doing this right, what should I be feeling?  If I do it right, what does this help me with?  What is the best way to take this feeling and blend it to game situations?

A good coach will be excited that you actually asked.  If they don't answer your question, #1 don't burn your bridge by being a smartarse,,, but then research it on your own, if you want to get better, you need to understand the Why to perfect the How.

I think you make some valid points. Many coaches, especially at the sub varsity HS level, don’t know the game well enough to teach it. They may be good at other elements of their job but they aren’t teachers. To be able to teach you have to be able to talk about feel. And to be able to talk about feel you have to have done it yourself as a player. You can’t teach feel for something that you have never felt yourself. That’s the problem I have with coaches, instructors, and analysts that never played. They are attempting to teach things they never did and never felt. Some of them are good at teaching the science but none of them are good at teaching the part of the game that is art.

@adbono posted:

I think you make some valid points. Many coaches, especially at the sub varsity HS level, don’t know the game well enough to teach it. They may be good at other elements of their job but they aren’t teachers. To be able to teach you have to be able to talk about feel. And to be able to talk about feel you have to have done it yourself as a player. You can’t teach feel for something that you have never felt yourself. That’s the problem I have with coaches, instructors, and analysts that never played. They are attempting to teach things they never did and never felt. Some of them are good at teaching the science but none of them are good at teaching the part of the game that is art.

I used to have problems trying to express that feel so that my kids could grasp, I often knew how it felt to me, but just couldn't express it,  so I started looking to others and how they phrased things, etc.  Often that led down directions that in my heart I knew wasn't quite right, etc.  but heck they were professionals and it "made sense".   Later I realized, f-it.  IF it doesn't feel right to me, then I'm not using it... I had to learn how to express feeling and get them to explain back in their own words.  When I started using their words, things began to click.  I had to learn to listen to them and how they processed the information to know they were getting it.  The best day was when one said to me, dad, it just feels right this way and then did what I was trying to teach.  I learned my feel keywords were not theirs so we went with a trial and error approach- I'd show them, try to express what it felt to me and then leave them to figure it out till they could tell me what felt right to them.  It wasn't about me teaching and them doing the action correctly, it had to be about them learning to feel, on their own.

Curiosity is the key to success in just about everything. The desire and ability to understand, not just execute makes all the difference...

@JucoDad posted:

Curiosity is the key to success in just about everything. The desire and ability to understand, not just execute makes all the difference...

Most of the comments in this thread are about playing the sport and on-field performance and rightly so, as that's how this thread started.  I would add that the curiosity, especially for transferring athletes or even for incoming freshmen, needs to also extend to "what courses and academic performance do I need to achieve to be eligible, and/or be accepted for enrollment at this college/university."

We've heard from too many athletes this year across various sports that they aren't/weren't eligible this year or are crossing their fingers for a waiver because they didn't ask the right questions or enough questions about what it would take to be eligible at their new school. 

That ranges from a softball player who unfortunately was attending a small rural high school that had not updated their core course listing with the NCAA since 2015, to athletes transferring as walk-ons to D1 programs who aren't asking the coach "please have my transcript reviewed by your academic staff as soon as possible so I'll know that I have the right number and mix of transferable courses to be eligible this year." 

When a coach can’t answer questions what you may find is you have a coach with one year of experience twenty-five times as opposed to twenty-five years of experience.

At my first high school we had a Casey Stengel act alike as a baseball coach. He knew all the cliches. But he wasn’t much of a coach. Questioning him got a “Donwhat I told you to” response. But, so much talent came through this high school “Casey” rode the wave (title after title) to the state baseball hall of fame.