Dibble is right about many select teams. See it all the time. Players not knowing basics they should have learned when they were six. A good example is not always using a four-seam grip when throwing to a base after making a fielding play. See lots and lots of supposedly good select team players who just "grip it and rip it" and don't have a clue why it curves or bounces "funny." Or, kids who don't know the difference between a cutoff and a relay.
Many times, it's the coaches who may be at fault. For instance, what should be a no-brainer happens very often before kids even practice or play a game. In warm-ups. The proper order is to (1) run to warm up large muscles; (2) then stretch (lightly) to loosen up' (3) and then to throw to warm up arms. Many, many times, I see teams "throwing to warm up," and just wonder how many arm injuries have been caused by not understanding the proper sequence. Or pitch counts not being monitored properly. Sometimes, we see coaches monitoring overall pitch counts for youngsters, but not realizing that overpitching in a single inning can be as harmful to an arm as pitching too many pitches total. For instance, a pitcher may only have fifty five pitches in a game so far, but if he threw 35 of those in one inning, that was far too much and he should have been taken out long before the count reached that many in a single inning. Kids are really at the mercy of a lot of adults who don't really know as much as they think they do about the game. Sometimes the worst offenders are those who are actually "licensed" to coach, i.e., high school coaches. A personal experience--my own son had been given private lessons by a local retired h.s. coach who was in the h.s. hall of fame. Nice guy... except when my boy switched to a former pro player last year, he learned the curve this h.s. coach had taught him violated every physical rule in the book and if he'd continued throwing it the way this hall of fame h.s. coach had taught him, the new coach and an ortho surgeon told him he'd better prepare for surgery within a year if he kept throwing it that way. I've observed that a truly good select team coach is usually much more qualified than most high school coaches, sad to say. Also, the compeition in higher level select team leagues is much greater than most high school competition. Not talking about "travel teams per se"--there are tons of those and most aren't much better than most daddyball or rec league teams--but true select team coaches are far ahead of most h.s. coaches. (Please note I said "most" in both instances.) A good tipoff (imo) that can tell if the coach (whether h.s. or select team) knows his business is how he begins practices and games. If the kids don't run first, then stretch, then throw (and in that order), then I'd be very wary. This is basic stuff and if the basics aren't being adhered to, then I'd suspect the rest will follow suit. Same with kids not knowing or being taught to always throw with a four-seam grip after fielding a grounder, etc. Like Dibble says, stuff like this is just basic and should have been mastered by the age of six. And... these are just examples--Dibble mentioned another that is easily fixed--the "throwing like a girl." That's usually caused by simply not getting the fingers on top of the ball. It's actually not a "girl's thing" at all. Many girls throw quite well. The reason it's become known as throwing like a girl, is that most boys receive better instruction and learn early on to get their fingers on top of the ball, whereas many girls don't. It's really not a ***-biased thing at all. I teach young kids all the time and that's the first thing we teach--boys and girls alike--to get their fingers on top of the ball--and once they learn that, none of them throw like a "girl." All that means is that they're shotputting the ball.
Good post, Dibble, and great topic.
