By Cal Ripken, Jr.
I’ve had a glove and a bat in my hands since I can remember. But my dad, just like any dad, wasn’t always there to give me instruction every day.So, my brothers and I, we just played.I started playing organized baseball with a team called the Angels when I was eight years old. We played a total of eight games. That was it for our entire season. The rest of the time, Billy and I played our own pickup games with other kids in the neighborhood.That’s a far cry from many youth leagues today, which include as many as sixty games or more in one spring and summer.I don’t know if playing sixty games a season is such a great idea.When my son Ryan was younger, one of his coaches explained to me that he believed more and more games are scheduled simply because kids today don’t go out on their own and play pickup games like we did when we were growing up. As a result, the only way that youngsters can truly improve and hone their skills is by having more scheduled games to play in.I certainly appreciate that approach, but I wish kids today would play more pickup games. An organized game structure does not allow kids to experiment with different approaches. Youngsters might want to switch-hit, or maybe try a different position, or change their batting stance or the way they pitch a ball - all things they could do easily in a pickup game.That type of experimentation isn’t really encouraged during the course of a formal game, and kids miss out. Experimenting is great fun for kids. It allows them to be, well, kids.I have heard that the coaches of youth club teams in Europe emphasize practice sessions much more than games. For every three practices, they will have one game. That’s a lot different than youth teams here in the United States, which might have a handful of practices before diving into a season with dozens of games and very little practice time.When kids have more practice time, they have a better chance of developing their skills by experimenting with their approach to the game. That practice-to-game ratio of three to one makes a lot of sense to me. It could be baseball, basketball, hockey, you name it - every coach will tell you that the more you practice, the better you will become.Game situations tend to restrict kids. Youngsters don’t want to make a mistake in a real game, so they become much more tentative in their play. They’re less likely to try something new because they’re fearful that they may fail and thus risk the reprimands of their coach and even their mom or dad. Conversations like this happen all the time:DAD: Why’d you try to stretch that single into a double?SON: I dunno... I guess I just thought it would be fun to run fast all the way to second and surprise the outfielder and beat the throw.DAD: Well, it wasn’t a good play. You were out by a mile.What’s the chance of that youngster ever trying to stretch a single into a double again? Pretty much zero. But how else in the world is that young ballplayer going to develop his skill at running the bases unless he gets the chance to go out and experiment and push his limits every so often?Perhaps next season you should consider replacing some games with more practice sessions, if possible. Finding a balance between trying new things in practice and then trying them out in a game is a wonderful way to allow a youngster to polish his or her skills without risking a negative reaction from a parent or coach.
via ripkenbaseball.com
The season does go by quickly in youth baseball, thus we travel and play select ball. But, it can be overdone. More about coaching youth baseball at coaching youth baseball
