How Strict is Your Travel Ball Team?

[SBmom8992]

Everyone and they momma go to a private instructor now. Most of us, 30 years ago, before the dawn of every few blocks there is a TB team, learned skills from our father who played the game.

I was just having this same discussion with a mom on my DD's team today. IMO the difference is that nowadays TB starts at 8YO so there is an elevated expectation of young girls. In my TB playing days 25 years ago the teams started at 14U so the younger kids developed their skills on their own with Dad or little league coach. No girls were throwing windmill at 45 mph at 10YO in the good old days. There wasn't this sense of competitiveness to be on an elite TB team at 10U so either you had it or you didn't by the time you were ready for TB.

As far as discipline goes, I'm all for a strict coach who raises the expectations of his players for themselves. I'd take that over a nicey nice coach any day. I'm also not a fan of the extreme coach who barks at his kids when they do something wrong but doesn't show the same intensity when they do something well. There needs to be a balance. Coaching by fear isn't the answer. Coaching with discipline at all age levels is ideal in my book. DD's coach makes the team run on rare occasions and when he does, DD usually does more laps on her own. I can only surmise that she thinks it's fun.

 

[BuckeyeGuy]

Sounds like Fantasy Land is synonymous with Out in Left Field. I played in the 60"s into the early 70"s and it was much different. Most of the kids today would go home crying or wait for mom or dad to pick them up in the helicopter. Winners got trophies and losers learned to work harder. Kids got cut in tryouts, sucked it up and learned to deal with failure. No phone calls from parents, no lawsuits filed. Pop off to a coach you did not get a timeout, you got smacked upside the head. If you were late to practice you didn't have a conversation and talk it out, you ran till you puked. We carried pocket knives while in school and drove pickup trucks with shotguns in the gun rack. There were no zero tolerance policies and teachers had to exercise proper judgement. The kindergartner was not sent home for the pop tart shaped like a gun, and the valedictorian was not expelled for the steak knife she brought to cut up her salad. Mouth off to your mom and you got your butt kicked for disrespecting her. Was it perfect? No. Did it sometimes cross lines? Yes. Have we gone way too far in the other direction. Absolutely!

Don't feed the troll (advice for you, not aimed at you)...

 

[soonerfan1966]

i dont think punishing for mistakes made in a game helps anyone at all but i firmly believe that being hard (running to the fence, push ups etc.) in practice is a must. all sports have a dangerous aspect to them and as i tell my wife, the harder i am on my granddaughter(within reason) when we practice, the more prepared(safer) she will be in a game against other teams who could care less about her safety.

now back to the military, my son said after his marine corp basic training was over, once they figured out that the drill instructor that was a mean sob was only trying to make sure they could survive a war, he wasnt a mean sob after all. matter of fact my son said he was more respected than the "di's" who went easy on them. im pretty sure softball players, see their coaches in the same light. what a parent sees as being hard, a player might see as becoming better.

 

[CoogansBluff]

i dont think punishing for mistakes made in a game helps anyone at all but i firmly believe that being hard (running to the fence, push ups etc.) in practice is a must.

So if my daughter doesn't play for a coach who punishes her practice mistakes by making her run or do push ups, she is more likely to be injured in the game?

I'm going to have to think about that one.

 

[canyonjoe]

I played little league and Babe Ruth in the 70's and high school in the 80's. I don't every remember have punishment for making an error. Baseball was always a sport that you had fun playing. Some coaches did have no swimming rules and laps for not paying attention in practice, but mine didn't. Now in football it was a lot different. The only time I ever had to run extra in basketball was that our coach had a rule that you had to do 10 suicides( kind of like UCLA's) if you received a technical foul in the previous game.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Running as punishment for making mistakes is a tactic very few high-level coaches/instructors employ. Conditioning is great as are group activities and collective accountability, but team practice time is limited, so it's important for that time to be used wisely. If I think we need 5-10 minutes of running, we're going to do it on the bases or between outfield positions. I can't say it's true to a 100% certainty for every player in the world, but I do not believe there is a general benefit to teaching players to be afraid of making mistakes.

 

[Phathead]

Read this post first to last. I would read one and think of an example-coach or player- that fit the post and one that was an opposite. About every post I could come up with one of each. Mike Dikta hard nosed yeller, Dungy of Colts probably never yelled a day in his life in anger. Players Steve Garvey always seemed composed when I watched him, Gary Carter seemed uptight like and super intense. Kids I know and have coached from 10u thru 16u. One, anything short of a hammer to her head was wasted time to get thru to her, different girl mearly look at her with a slight cock in the eyebrow she was listening like you would ground her for a year . Just like life there are many type teachers, boss's, instructors and coaches. Many type of players, hard nosed intense, calm and quite, everything inbetween. For some Drill sergant works for others soft voice small stick works. Nothing wrong with either if it works it will bring out the best of the player. Running sucides on a team of intense players works, soft speech works on another works and either one may win the championship game.

I have read on here many times "Boys have to play good to feel good and girls have to feel good to play good". Find what makes them feel good about the team and themselves and coach accordingly and they will play to the best of their ability, Strict or Hard Nosed depends on the team and girl.