Youth baseball in a Nutshell

Newsletter 40/100

The Purity of Youth Baseball

For all of its faults, the pure joy and excitement that surrounds youth baseball is a breath of fresh air in comparison to the collegiate and professional game.

Players show up every day excited for what is to come and smile on their face to play the game, something you truly do not see very often in the professional game.

The professional game is a business, and really does not need to be played for fun (in my opinion), but getting to experience the change from the professional game to spending more time on the youth side is a treat.

The naivete that surrounds the youth game is its best gift, but within this blissful ignorance it is important to offer proper guidance and set the standards correctly when they are needed.

Proper Expectations

Pitching is stressful, every 10 year old that is on the mound is most likely having a panic attack. It’s the hardest thing they have ever done and every single person is staring at them and hoping for them to deliver to help their team. Have you ever had a few hundred people staring at you? Now imagine you're 10 years old and doing that but also expected to perform to your best ability with your team's success on the line.

It’s hard. You see pitchers in the professional ranks crumble to performance anxiety every day and you think the 10 year old is just ignorant to it? They are ignorant in a lot of ways to a lot of the stressors of the game, but when they grab that baseball and get on the mound they are well aware of it all.

We all hate walks, but what is a good walk rate for a 9 or 10 year old trying to fight for his life on the mound? Higher than you would think.

Take a look at this chart, it is some of the stats that my dad kept from when he was my coach in 10u rec baseball. WE played in a league where it took 5** balls to walk someone instead of 4, and there was a run cap of 5 per inning.

What would you say if I told you there are four college and professional pitchers on this spreadsheet?

I bet you cannot properly pick out which four.

So what's the point? The point is this: You as a coach need to manage your own expectations for these players. Throwing the ball over the plate is a very simple thing in concept but is much more difficult in execution.

You being an adult, and throwing a tantrum because your 9 year old isn’t living up to your own expectations just makes it worse for everyone. It makes it more stressful on the kid, and in turn makes it more stressful on you as they inevitably walk more players now that they are stressed out.

Set The Tone

The singular best thing you can do is create a low stress environment for them to have fun and compete to the best of their abilities.

You as the adult must bear the burden of stress, it is on you and you alone to manage the expectations or everyone. You and everyone around you will be better for it.

It Is Not Totally Your Fault

I have said it before and I will say it again, the people who are responsible for the negative impacts of the youth game are almost always the adults. (sorry)

The adults have a jaded perspective of what youth sports is supposed to be, and are being sold a fake ideal of what they should be expected to do for their youth players. They are being shipped ideas of insane showcase fees, camp fees, expenses centered around making the parents think they aren't doing enough to support their kid, and any other way the game could possibly be monetized.

You can do better, and its easier on yourself to do so.

John