Learning the Game

Interesting question but awfully general.  Can you be more specific?  Are you talking about a kid who has never played?  Or is there an issue with a coach not teaching the basics of the game?

Are you talking about coaches expectations or your own? If coming from a prospective of how much should my son improve from the coaching the answer depends. If you are expecting tremendous gains from practice alone I think you'll be disappointed. No matter how good of a coach(s) your son has these people have limited time with the players and an entire team to coach. Time spent practicing away from practice will have a great deal of effect on your sons development (IMO).

Brings up a lot of variables I would think.  From a coaching perspective, you would want to have a season learning/development plan in general and then specify it for individual players.

 

Effective coaching is being realistic with where players are at and assisting players to make individual and team goals.  This way the coach would want to harness the players own motivation and delegate responsibility for leadership to come from amongst the athletes.  It is not all up to the coach.

 

Another piece to this is understanding developmental stages for young people and the application of Long Term Athlete Development.

 

Anyway some thoughts

 

The learning never, never stops!

I am not sure what your expectations are for your 13 year old and his team,  but it takes a very, very long time to master bb skills, rules and understanding the intricacies and dynamics of the game at different levels.  Notice that I said master, but IMO 13 year olds should have a basic understanding of the rules. Hitting and pitching skills will develop over time.

Yeah it is pretty general an answer for both wouldn't be wrong. It just seems over the years you see teams/players who improve and some that don't at the fundamentals. I have no grudges with my sons coach . But, to me it seems like he turns a blind eye to some fundamentals. I THINK I have done a good job teaching my son good fundamentals. And that is just from what I have seen watching MLB and on internet. I'm not saying that it doesn't have alot to do with my sons coachabilty. You are going to run across kids that it is like talking to a brick wall. I've just seen him turn a blind eye to things that I wouldn't think a very experienced coach would..I have seen more than a handful of kids not improve on the basics and just disappear. For the money the parents spend I would expect more. But I can't say that I haven't seen other teams with the same issues. One of my sons new teammates is a very gifted athelete. But you would never know he has been practicing for four months now. I know it has alot to do with the kids mind state . But geez no one seems concerned that this kid is showing little to no improvement. Parents drop him off pick him up . Coach don't hear much from . 

You didn't necessarily say that you were looking for this; but, all too often, people want quantifiable answers to this sort of thing when they're really unattainable. Instead, what can be said is that the off season is the period when a player works to take his game from whatever level he exhibited last year to whatever level he's capable of achieving in the coming season. As a result, the importance of doing something meaningful to improve every day during the off season is important to the player who wants to advance to increasingly high levels.

 

While the amount of improvement may be unquantifiable, the off season should give a player enough time to improve that anyone skilled at evaluating play will be able to look at him in the new season and see that his game has improved and matured since the beginning of the off season. Call it the "eye test," if you will. 

Having just read your follow-on post, it prompts the thought that there's probably no more important role for the parent of a developing, young player than making certain that the people who are responsible for developing him really care about his development and know what they're doing.

 

If your son seems to be in the hands of a "caretaker" instead of a "developer," try your best to get him into the hands of a "developer."

I would be asking more from the coaches perspective. I would like to believe that if I were practcing something for 4-7 hours a week for four months I would improve at it and on the flipside that if I were teaching something I knew they would improve. I get what your saying about you have to work on stuff outside of practice. My son wears me out with the requests to go hit or play catch in he back yard. He does get me out there 95% of the time though. I'm just wondering if my son missing out on anymore advanced baseball knowlege. He already knows way more than I do . But, you never do stop learning.

       
       


I was assuming your son plays travel? If so: if he's putting in the work & not getting direction I'd find a team that's a better fit. Took us playing on four teams in four years to find the right fit. Beware of the guys who over promise. Also helpful to look at a coaches roster history; excessive turnover is a red flag. If it doesn't feel right you're not obligated just cause he made the team. Learned lesson the hard way but found the right team my sons been with for four years. I credit much of his development to the coaches.

 

There's your answer.  If the coach is not increasing your son's knowledge/skills and he is beyond what you can teach him...

 

as Prepster said, find a "developer" to work with him.

 

I would suggest that you research some coaches - watch some practices and games and seek out word of mouth recommendations from some other parents.  

 

Like prepster was saying find a developer - if that is in the context of an inseason team or an independent experienced lessons coach.  I also really like the idea of finding some sort of inspiring coaching from a higher level - be that a college player or camps etc

How can you know what has taken place if they really haven't played any games yet?

Or have they?

What fundamentals are you talking about?  Those that you see on the internet for ML or fundamentals for 13 year olds?

Just wondering.

My expectation is that each year the players would build on the fundamentals that they learned the year before.  Each year, they pick up more advanced techniques and details.  If it is just a bunch of dads hitting ground balls, that won't work as the kids get older (been there, done that).  If the coach breaks down the skill to its details -- footwork, hands, etc. -- then they begin to develop advanced skills. 

 

Now some kids will never get it. No matter how hard you work with them, it just doesn't register. 

At thirteen I'm still looking for constant improvement of fundamentals. The big thing about being thirteen is transitioning to the full size field. Improvement of velocity, foot speed, power/strength, etc is subjective. Some thirteen year olds are six feet tall. Some are five feet. My son was 5'2", 120 at thirteen. I only looked for proper mechanics. Three years later he was 6'1", 170. He's now 6'2", 195.