Posted April 14, 2005 03:27 PM
Im sure im going to catch a lot of grief for this post, but I just wanted to share some thoughts
I have seen only a few high school games and college games this season, but I have spoken with a lot of coaches at both levels and am hearing the same things. " We cant catch the ball" "we kicked the ball around" " Kids lose focus when we practice defense" Even reading some of the posts on the game results page i see the same things
I think their is getting to be way to much emphasis on hitting, hitting lessons and offense and not enough on defense. In the offseason I bet kids spend 85-95 percent of the time on hitting. There is so much you can do in a gym to work on defense, footwork and so on. My first year of college from fall ball on we spent about a half hour doing partner drills..glove, no glove, just rolling the ball..getting the the point where you can feed someone up blindfolded.....now it seems like its hitting, hitting hitting.
I think kids think they have to hit .400 to make it to the next level, and maybe that is true...but you have to be able to play a positon. There may never be another Ozzie Smith, not because of lack of talent, because he may never make it out of AA with a low average.
I just think that there is not enough emphasis on defense and or kids want nothing to do with it. I think it may have been Vince Coleman that said "speed doesnt slump" well defense doesnt either. if you practice and preach your fundamentals, it not only gives your pitcher confidence it puts pressure on the other team. I see a lot of posts from pitchers that say they pitched well but there were 4 errors or what not, solid defense takes away the need a pitcher feels to strike every batter out. WE all know the defense does crack at times no matter how good, but thats whe the pitcher pikes up his defense and k's a guy, or vice versa, defense bails out a pitcher. Thats baseball.
I think that there is way to much emphasis on hitting and not enough on other fundamentals like defense. I want to see kids say "hey will you hit me some grounders and can we work on turns" rather then "hey lets go hit" There needs to be a balance of both.
Personally id rather see a 3-2 game then a 12-11 game and I would like to see wood used at all levels.
Original Post
