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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tournament "Teams" and the destruction of baseball.
Paul Reddick of the "90MPHClub.com" nails it. Watch the full video and comment. Problem is, this completely falls on deaf ears if you are a the target of his comments.
I understand where he's coming from since I'm also from the school of Berra on how I grew up and played ball for 22 years. I think you can have a healthy tournament schedule with THE RIGHT COACHES! Unfortunately, in tournament situations, you just don't have the right coaches that can mentally be strong enough to handle winning vs. losing.
Last Fall, Some parents and I put together a practice squad of families/kids we liked and decided to play in one of those 10U tourneys just for fun. We didn't even have proper uniforms because we were truly just brushing up on the kids' skill base.
It was eye opening to see how a few (not all) of the "professional" managers/coaches acted around the kids. I even caught one of them teaching his team how to cheat (no joke!). Many of the parents seemed to be accepting of the behavior as long as the team won...sad thing is, one of them was a family we used to coach with, and I really liked them and never in a million years thought they would go along with it.
I understand where he's coming from since I'm also from the school of Berra on how I grew up and played ball for 22 years. I think you can have a healthy tournament schedule with THE RIGHT COACHES! Unfortunately, in tournament situations, you just don't have the right coaches that can mentally be strong enough to handle winning vs. losing.
ReplyDelete-Brad Evans
Brad,
ReplyDeleteUsually the tournament coaches don't consider the making of kids "men of character and better ball players" winning.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteLast Fall, Some parents and I put together a practice squad of families/kids we liked and decided to play in one of those 10U tourneys just for fun. We didn't even have proper uniforms because we were truly just brushing up on the kids' skill base.
It was eye opening to see how a few (not all) of the "professional" managers/coaches acted around the kids. I even caught one of them teaching his team how to cheat (no joke!). Many of the parents seemed to be accepting of the behavior as long as the team won...sad thing is, one of them was a family we used to coach with, and I really liked them and never in a million years thought they would go along with it.
-Ted Browne
Thanks for your comment Ted.
ReplyDeleteAnd love what is happening over at BALL. War Facebook fans!