Wondering if anyone has read some of the coaching philosophies of John T Reed. Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated. I just read some of his stuff on line.
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Has anyone read his book? Considering buying it? PM me if you wish.
I read the book, maybe 10 years ago. It's like nothing else out there. It's mostly about coaching pre-teen rec baseball. Reed is a contrarian. He places a low value on batting practice. He thinks youth baseball doesn't place enough emphasis on player safety, etc. If I remember correctly, he nurses grudges about LL drafts that occurred 20 yrs. ago. Having said that, I got a real kick out of reading the book, and there's some genuine wisdom in it, some of which is applicable to higher levels, though you've got to keep in mind that his focus is on winning LL rec games.
Here are some quotes:
"It's hard for a good coach to produce wins in baseball. Baseball is not a very coachable sport...I strive for little victories."
"Any youth baseball organization that win championships year in and year out is probably cheating--either in the dreaft or in the size of the pool the teams draws from..."
"Are pitching, hitting and fielding important? You bet. So how come I was focused on baseruuning, pitcher-cover-first, and so forth? I didn't always. For years, I tried to coach pitching, hitting, and fielding mechanics. But when I stepped back and looked at our numbers in those areas, I concluded that not only were we not better, we seemed to be worse as a result of my efforts."
"By emphasizing those areas in practice, I made my players self-conscious...in games. That caused a deterioration in their performance, not an improvement."
"Getting better in pitching, hitting, or fielding is extremely difficult, but doable. However, the effort required far exceeds the practice time available to a youth baseball coach and/or the time the vast majority of youth-baseball players are willing spend."
"In fact, if you teach batting mechanics to your players, their performance at the plate will almost certainly decline as a result."
"If I had the power, I would take one simple step that would significantly improve the quality of youth baseball overnight. I would order that all the coaches and parents have their mouths taped shut with duct tape at the beginning of each game...Basically, one of the big messages I have in this book is 'Shut up!' "
"Baseball is diabolically designed to subject its players and coaches to a very high failure rate. If you cannot accept that as normal, you will be a very unhappy coach."
"TV baseball--that is, MLB--sets the standard. Almost all of the unhappiness youth baseball coaches feel about the performance of their teams stems from comparing them to professional major leaguers."
Here are some quotes:
"It's hard for a good coach to produce wins in baseball. Baseball is not a very coachable sport...I strive for little victories."
"Any youth baseball organization that win championships year in and year out is probably cheating--either in the dreaft or in the size of the pool the teams draws from..."
"Are pitching, hitting and fielding important? You bet. So how come I was focused on baseruuning, pitcher-cover-first, and so forth? I didn't always. For years, I tried to coach pitching, hitting, and fielding mechanics. But when I stepped back and looked at our numbers in those areas, I concluded that not only were we not better, we seemed to be worse as a result of my efforts."
"By emphasizing those areas in practice, I made my players self-conscious...in games. That caused a deterioration in their performance, not an improvement."
"Getting better in pitching, hitting, or fielding is extremely difficult, but doable. However, the effort required far exceeds the practice time available to a youth baseball coach and/or the time the vast majority of youth-baseball players are willing spend."
"In fact, if you teach batting mechanics to your players, their performance at the plate will almost certainly decline as a result."
"If I had the power, I would take one simple step that would significantly improve the quality of youth baseball overnight. I would order that all the coaches and parents have their mouths taped shut with duct tape at the beginning of each game...Basically, one of the big messages I have in this book is 'Shut up!' "
"Baseball is diabolically designed to subject its players and coaches to a very high failure rate. If you cannot accept that as normal, you will be a very unhappy coach."
"TV baseball--that is, MLB--sets the standard. Almost all of the unhappiness youth baseball coaches feel about the performance of their teams stems from comparing them to professional major leaguers."
Thanks for the reply Freddy. The book seems interesting. I think I will get it now.
