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Information overload? Keep. It. Simple. Please.


At the end of the day, baseball really is a simple game.  You need gloves, a bat, and a ball.  

 We have made it increasingly difficult to play, however, by overloading our kids' brains with details they can't even begin to absorb.

 So what do I do?  Keep it insanely simple.  And fun.  

 I tell my kids that baseball is a glorified game of tag.  Someone has to throw the ball, someone has to hit the ball, and then you gotta tag 'em out.

 But go out and pay attention to the next practice.  Listen to the flood of information that these kids are supposed to process.  Elbow this, feet that, head there, hips like this, on and on and on.  Now put yourself in the shoes of that kid.  When the kid gets frustrated, is he justified?  You're damn right he is.  When we practice, my kids have more fun running relays on the bases than the fielding or hitting drills.  The reason is simple: just go out and run.  

 As coaches and parents, we must focus on one thing at a time.  If you want his feet to be in the right spot, focus only on the feet for a few weeks.  But instead of that, we give the kids 10 different and separate instructions for how to move that the kid is profoundly confused.  

 Bottom line: micromanaging the game defeats the purpose of this being fun.  Let you kid have more fun, the bad habits will get resolved over time -- one at a time, and not turn them away from the game at such an early age.  

 Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that your kid shouldn't be coached.  But I think we need to be smarter about how and what we coach.  No one is turning into Mike Trout overnight.  No amount of yelling and correcting will turn your kid into Mike Trout.  

 Quite possibly more important than anything else:  work on finding out what your child's goal is.  Ignore your own interests.  Ignore how close or not close you were to achieving your own personal glory.  Truly listen to that child and find out what they want.  Let them guide you and then develop a set of common goals you can have for the season.

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