Need advice for 10U travel team

I'm not sure I'd worry too much about it at 10 years old. You said they have played Rec and All Star ball together the last few years. So it sounds like a town team turned . . . something bigger, but still basically a town team.

Most travel teams I've been a part of have drawn from many communities, and the kids have not played together in town rec ball. At an early age though, that is how teams are put together, mostly kids who've played together some. Then an upgrade process starts to happen. This is the start of what you're looking for - an injection of some very good talent. Over 2 or 3 years, as new guys come in and old players fall by the wayside you'll have more of that drive you're looking for. Every year you have fewer guys who've been part of that rec ball team and the rec ball mindset.

Nothing like a bit of strong competition to up the drive factor. And Attrition can be your friend.

But I'd let them have fun and not expect any sort of Ty Cobb mentality. And next year at tryouts for the 11 Y/O team, they'll get the idea when some of the guys from this years team aren't there anymore and a handful of stud players from other areas provide an influx of talent.

OK, here's my opinion based on observations from 6 years of coaching kids. Sometimes it seems that winning is more important to the adults than it is to the kids. I've seen coaches who always give a pre-game pep talk to kids explaining about how important this game is, how they can WIN, how hard they've got to play to WIN, .... Then during the game the coaches are yelling "we need you to get a hit here to WIN", "you need to get this out to WIN", "you gotta score this run to WIN".... It doesn't take the kids too long to figure out what's important to their coaches and parents, that playing well doesn't matter if they don't WIN. The kids develop more of a fear of failure than a desire to play well. If things start to look the least little bit bad they develop a sense of resignation and just give up.

Remember, these are just 10 year old kids. My son is now in middle school, we saw a group of 10 year olds playing ball the other night, with all usual stuff with parents giving the umps grief over perceived bad calls, yelling at their own kids for missed catches, etc. Those kids sure look small to us now, and all the fuss the grown ups were making seemed kind of silly (but we were just as guilty of all that when my son was 10).

I don't know if any of this applies in this instance, but for kids this young I'd just concentrate on giving them praise for when they do the fundamentals well, never criticize when they make a mistake (rather, calmly explain how to do it better), and not put too much pressure on them to WIN (they seem to be able to do that well enough themselves).

Maybe I should have explained further. I can assure you we are not of a win at all cost mentality here. We concentrate on teaching the fundamentals. We will not sacrifice the psyche of one our players just to win a game. I am becoming concerned that they are accepting losing as we have NOT stressed the win at all cost mind set. I am thinking we are actually on the other end of the spectrum by not getting them mentally or physically prepared to win. In other words going thru drills to make them perfect instead of putting pressure on them in practice with game type situations is one thing that comes to mind. I think there is an extremely fine line here on stressing winning and letting them have fun so they want to continue to play. We have been making it fun but I fear they are making a habit of losing that they can not break. Hope this clears our situation up a little.

Well said Style!

Think about this for a minute: THEY ARE ONLY YEARS OF AGE !!!!

THey forget wins and losses pretty fast

aueagle7, I understand exactly what you're saying. You didn't give the impression of a win at all cost guy, I know what you're looking for. I just don't think you'll find alot of it at that age, particularly if the team is pretty much the same as the rec team. And from what I've experienced, the level of drive and desire you're looking for, to not give up when getting behind early for instance, I think that comes, to some degree, with age and with new blood, new chemistry, a feeling that this is a new team, a kicka** team. Every year we added new kids with skills and saw players from last year drop off or not make the team. And every year the drive you're looking for got better. Kids know when a new team is formed how it compares with the previous team. They know when a kid drops out and it is justified. It's a wakeup call and they experience sacrifice, along with am excitement that the upgrade brings. This is a prime ingredient I think in what you're looking for. But it happens with time and age.

And some players/teams never get there. I'm not sure how much you can coach that sort of thing to 10 Y/Os. But you can look to draft it in upcoming team tryouts.

But that's just my opinion, I'm sure there are some coaches who have put together frightening 10Y/O teams with a ferocious drive.

Why do you need "ferocious drive" at the age of 10 ?

Good points Dad. I don't think we are looking for ferocious drive in 10 yr olds maybe just a sense of urgency. I am more so putting blame on myself for maybe not putting an emphasis on game situations with pressure. Don't get me wrong we do game situations in practice along with our list of drills, but not simulating the pressure of doing it like they would in games and I think that may be alot of the problem. I was just curious if anyone had encountered this problem and how they may have adjusted their practice routines to get the little light bulb to go off in their collective heads.

Boy, this one brings back memories! Definitely been there.

If your plan is to build a team for the future, don't try to make every 10u you have fit your model. They won't. There's an old saying, "You can't teach a pig to sing, and trying will only frustrate you and confuse the pig." OK, nobody's kids are pigs, but the point is, each child has his own personality and if you think you're going to change it you are mistaken.

What you will find as you go along is that the boys will, by and large, sort themselves out for you. You will begin to see who the true competitors are, and who will likely fall by the wayside in those critical years from 13-15. In all likelihood only a handful of your players will play high school ball, or even want to by the time they get there.

What we found is that between ages 14 and 15, the kids who never had the fire find other things to be interested in, and the competitors consolidate into a handful of teams instead of dozens of them.

In other words, it'll all take care of itself -- and it'll pass so fast you'll miss these fun days if you're not careful. Bottom line, my advice is, enjoy the 10u's while you can! It's really a fun age.

TRHIT

quote:

Why do you need "ferocious drive" at the age of 10 ?

I'm with you TR.
I don't care how hard you try you to make them driven, it's up to the Individual Player.
Let them Play, Practice Hard, Coach them without Pressure from coaches/parents to win at all cost.
Its a game at this age, and it's a game in the MLB.

Gotta agree with posts above. Not gonna get much fire out of 10 year olds. Seriously, they haven't even reached puberty yet. 10 year olds with lots of "fire" are usually burn outs by high school.

Fun and more fun is the key at these younger ages. Things get pretty serious by high school and certainly beyond-that's when the fire needs to be there.

eagle, I was thinking about this tonight. I'd suggest splitting your kids into two teams and play a scrimmage game for maybe the last 20 minutes of a practice. There are any number of games you can come up with. In the past we've done things like have the batter hit off a Tee with their back knee on the ground (score 1 point for reaching first safely, 1 point for grounders and line drives reaching the grass, an out for fly balls into the grass, and no bunting). A short game of kickball is good fun, and gets very competitive (it won't take any pushing from adults, the kids will play to win). We've played softball, kids vs. parents - the kids will REALLY want to win that. Mix it up, do different things at every practice - make the kids want to be there. Doing the same old stuff at practices gets B-O-R-I-N-G. Come up with some interesting drills and scrimages that make use of their skills and you'll see their desire to succeed come through.

Continue to work the fundamentals at practice, prepare them to play the game by doing as Style has suggested. Heck, you can have one practice of 5-10 minutes of infield and the rest can be a scrimmage.
While keeping in mind their age, ask them right before a game, if they thought they worked hard at practice. Ask them whats more fun, winning or losing.
Then just tell them to keep in mind those hard practice's and the game situations you worked on.
Then please, tell them to just have fun, you coaches too.
Look at each other during those trying times and have an occassional laugh.
There will be plenty of time for pressure and winning 5 or 6 years from now.

Heybatter, burnout issue is the main problem we coaches had in mind when we went to travel ball. We may have been somewhat too cautious with practice scheduling and tournament scheduling. Our thoughts were to give them just enough practice and tournament play to make them want to keep coming back and not to say "oh **** practice again today". In other words let them be kids. I have seen too many teams practicing 4-6 times a week and play tournaments every weekend which I think is too much at this age. I think a little mix of old school coaching (demanding some perfection) and keeping it fun as Style and CoachRic have said should help. Yesterday at practice I used a 9 straight out drill for infield practice to put some game type pressure on them to make plays. You could see the frustration start when they made an error and had to start over at zero outs. I will be interested to see how they progress with this drill over the coming practices as you could begin to see that sense of urgency come over them. We also thought that during rounds of BP that we would send them up to our live on field hitting station that they would go to the plate with a simulated 3-2 count. As long as you keep the bat on the ball you stay at the plate for a predetermined amount of swings. Base hits would keep swinging with same 3-2 count, foul balls, pitcher throws a ball, etc. If you swing and miss your turn is over, and if you watch 3rd strike your turn is over. I wish we could scrimmage but with only 11 players it would be tough. I was thinking about this last night and thought about getting some of those foam type golf balls and let them use Swiftstiks to play a scrimmage since we have limited numbers and those balls have limited flight range. Any other suggestions are welcomed and thanks for the ideas above.

10 year olds need plenty of pats on the head and ice cream. Wish I'd done that more!

Man, I know exactly what you mean! I am coaching a traveling 5 year old t-ball team out of Louisiana. We just got back from our California tournament and I am so frustrated. Our problem stems from the mental side of the game. I try to reenforce the fact that they have to know the game and not make STUPID MENTAL ERRORS! that kills us! I'm trying to teach them to control their breathing...we are doing some breathing exercises before the game and reading Gary Mack's "Mind Gym" but it's just not helping. I blame my assistant coaches mostly because our scounting reports suck. We really have to figure this thing our before we head overseas. Any suggestions?

quote:

Originally posted by LouisianaTexan:
Man, I know exactly what you mean! I am coaching a traveling 5 year old t-ball team out of Louisiana. We just got back from our California tournament and I am so frustrated. Our problem stems from the mental side of the game. I try to reenforce the fact that they have to know the game and not make STUPID MENTAL ERRORS! that kills us! I'm trying to teach them to control their breathing...we are doing some breathing exercises before the game and reading Gary Mack's "Mind Gym" but it's just not helping. I blame my assistant coaches mostly because our scounting reports suck. We really have to figure this thing our before we head overseas. Any suggestions?

LouisiannaTexan,

Gary Mack's "Mind Gym"? Are you nuts??? Try Walt Herbison's "Mind Games" instead. I think it will teach your players better visualization techniques. Good luck overseas.



Mike F

Ps for aueagle7: Please don't take offense, but IMHO, if you are frustrated by a group of 10 year old kids' who have a lack of "fire to win", you may want to re-think your approach.

Competitiveness will come...or it won't. Building pressure into practice for 10 year olds will likely make it worse rather than better.

You've received some excellent advice from some of the coaches here (except for LouisiannaTexan who is pulling your leg, I hope). Let the kids have fun. Build fun into your practices. Always teach the basic skills and fundamentals of the game.

Tell your team that winning is NOT important yet. It will be later in life. There are only two important goals for 10 year olds...get better and have fun. If they learn how to play now, the wins will come. If they don't learn, they will lose more than they will win. If they have fun, they will fall in love with the game. If they don't have fun, they will leave the game and do something else that they like. It's that simple.

By the way, you should carry more players so you can scrimmage. And teach them all to pitch. You'll have the added benefit of teaching more kids to love baseball.

Good luck to you.

I would hope the purpose of your travel team would be to let the kids see the best competition out there.. In doing that it will help prepare them to take the next step up the ladder.Winning at that age is not important, but improving is. Seeing the best pitching and players will help them achieve their goal...However from my experience most of the kids may have given the game up by then.13 to 14 is the telling age, by then they either want to play or find something else to take up their time.

Been coaching travel for 3 years and currently coach 10 yr old travel. we teach fundamentals and situations at practice. then we try not to coach as much during the games, just call pitches and base coach. they typically will motivate themselves after a few tourneys together when they find themselves behind on the scoreboard. attrition over the years will build you a better team and encourage as many players as you can to tryout, the weaker kids will be weeded out and the stronger ones will strive for excellence and make you a great little team.

Louisiana Texan, you made me laugh out loud!

But seriously, folks ....

I mentioned above that over the coming years, teams will weed out and consolidate. The competitors will continue on, others will drop out voluntarily. What I didn't address was, whether you the coach will still be involved at that point.

As teams consolidate, some coaches attract the competitors, some find themselves unable to retain or attract players. You can guess why. Then these guys get increasingly frustrated and that just makes the situation worse.

Make sure you're the kind of guy that kids want to play for and that parents trust with their kids. Yes, it is a team sport, and kids should learn to put their selfishness aside to help the team pull together to play as a unit and strive to win. But they also have to learn that you can't win all the time and that for every game there is a winner and a loser -- and you have to take your turns taking your lumps, just like everyone else out there. You have to have more than good instruction in baseball skills. Ultimately you have to be the right leader and role model.

It's OK to strive to win, even at age 10, but as LaTX's joke should make clear, overdoing it will push people away from your team. Don't be the guy with the bulging neck veins and the after-defeat team meetings focused on venting and extended chewing out of your players. Take it from a parent of the kind of kid you would want to play for you: we wouldn't be part of any team led by someone like that.

In short, it's not all a function of the kids' makeup. YOU set the tone, YOU determine how things work out over the long run.

Thanks for the comments however I feel this thread has turned into something that I did not intend. Do our kids enjoy playing for us? Yes. Do we pat them on the back and let them know we like them and they did a good job? Yes. Do we teach them the FUNdamentals? Everyday with every drill we can think of. Hitting, fielding, pitching, baserunning, hardly enough time to fit it all in but we try. Do we stress a win at all cost attitude? NO. Do the kids want to win? Yes, evident by their attitude and actions after they lose a game. So how do we as coaches prepare the kids to win in practice? What are some techniques and drills you use to be game ready? To me practice is the place you can afford to make mistakes and correct them. We have been implementing more game type pressure and situations in practice. We have been timing our infielders from crack of the bat to 1B for a putout in infield practice. During live BP we send them to the plate with a 3-2 count. Also we will make it a competetion with these type of drills by splitting them into groups. These are the type of things that I am wondering if some of you add to your practices to get your team game ready. I want all of the kids to have fun and enjoy this experience. I am also very well aware that not all of these kids will be playing into high school age. If what I hoped mattered then they all would still be playing at that age. Now throw some practice ideas out that will help these guys out. Thanks.......