@GrahamD14 haha... I may be a bad father, but, "balls up," means the boys do that
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RB
169 posts
Between coaching and my kids, I think I spend 35% of my time picking up baseballs and putting them in buckets
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@multiplanet1 Add in randomized "failure" and you have a reason why baseball is one of the best sports to develop young minds.
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Elon Musk's first wife once described what it's like to watch him fail.
She said he doesn't react the way normal people react. When a rocket explodes, most people in the room go silent. Some cry. Some start calculating the financial damage.
Musk pulls out his phone and starts making calls. Not emotional calls. Engineering calls. "What failed. When can we fix it. When's the next launch." His voice doesn't change. His face doesn't change. The rocket that just cost $60 million is already in the past. The next one is all that exists.
She said it was the most unsettling thing she'd ever witnessed. Not because he was cold. Because he genuinely wasn't affected. The failure didn't register as failure. It registered as data. An experiment that produced results. Results that inform the next experiment.
This is why he wins. Not because he doesn't fail. He fails more spectacularly than anyone in history. He wins because failure occupies zero psychological space. It enters as data and exits as action.
Most people lose not because they fail but because they spend weeks processing the failure before acting again. Musk spends zero seconds. The gap between failure and next attempt is a phone call.
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@JermaineCurtis agree. external cues are oftwn superior to internal cues. the best of your examples I believe is through the ball.
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The biggest mistake I made when trying to hit for power:
Trying to “swing harder.”
My mechanics broke down, I rolled over, and hit a ton of ground balls.
Instead, focus on:
- increasing bat speed
- improving your swing to drive THROUGH the baseball
- using the lower half correctly
- understanding your hot and cold zones
If you do these things:
your exit velocity increases,
the ball explodes off the bat,
and you start hitting the ball harder and farther.
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@JermaineCurtis I lucked out as an 8 yo that when I was denied the opportunity to pitch, my brain defaulted to, "I'll show them," & then threw a baseball 60,000 times or so. Most kiddos need more guidance & love to get there but when they experience overcoming an obstacle, it's wonderful to see.
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If you play this game long enough…
eventually you’re going to sit the bench.
And when that happens, a lot of players start thinking:
“I’m wasting my time.”
“I might get cut.”
"I suck"
“Coach doesn’t believe in me.”
I’ve been there too.
Over my baseball career...all the way to MLB... there were times I sat because organizations invested millions more into other players or college coaches simply went another direction.
Here’s what I learned:
The players who survive those moments don’t become bitter.
They:
- show up early
- stay late
- support teammates
- keep improving
- figure out what the team needs
- stay ready for their opportunity
Because eventually…
baseball gives chances to the players who are prepared when their moment comes.
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@BradleyGloves my eldest is pitching ambidextrous... local coach said he hadnt seen it in 25 years
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I have sold 50 youth ambidextrous baseball gloves this year. I find this to be amazing and odd. Any of you dads and youth coaches seeing some type of trend out there. Are kids really throwing with both hands?
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@WillPounderNY @BBGreatMoments the answer if it isnt a given the person will back you up. he will
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Too many great ones to choose from 🤣
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@FixingEducation it's about culture. my father talked about classrooms of over 70 in Philly. nuns ran them and were scary. parents backed up the nuns.
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No classroom in America should have more than 20 students. Period.
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@LeftistAudit I see. I can’t understand why forests require herbicide. True. Please educate me.
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This is indefensible: Spraying glyphosate over wild lands is ecocide, and toxic to humans, of course. But there is one upside: It allows us to see the full corruption of our system, which pretends to be preoccupied with our health, even as it poisons the world behind our backs.
Massimo@Rainmaker1973
The U.S. Forest Service is spraying glyphosate (Roundup) across tens of thousands of acres of national forests this spring to support commercial timber production. Following wildfires, forests naturally regenerate with diverse shrubs, wildflowers, and wildlife. However, a recent investigation reveals that the Forest Service and private logging companies are routinely applying the herbicide to eliminate competing native vegetation, favoring commercially valuable species such as Douglas fir and sugar pine. This practice has created large areas with significantly reduced biodiversity, often described as "dead zones", where insect, bird, and plant populations have sharply declined. Glyphosate, classified by the World Health Organization as a probable human carcinogen, has seen its use in California national forests quintuple over the past two decades, reaching a record 266,000 pounds in 2023. Local communities, environmental groups, and residents are raising concerns about potential impacts on water quality, endangered species (including salmon and rare foxes), and public health. Critics argue that prioritizing industrial timber production over ecological diversity conflicts with the broader mission of national forests as public lands. The issue has intensified debates over forest management, balancing economic interests with long-term environmental and community health.
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@thereallsu777 Yes. It often reflects that they are learning the fundamentals early. There are kids that don't see results in stats, command, velocity, etc. until later and some that grow physically later, but learning the fundamentals early is key.
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Being really good at 12 is a cheat code, add in really good S&C & you have the recipe where other kids can not catch up.
stop with the myth that the elite 12u kids suddenly suck come HS. Its not remotely true.
Jeff Leach@CoachJeffLeach
I constantly hear "The best players at 12 don't become the best players at 18" but I don't often see evidence of that. Been coaching in south central TX since 2009. I can tell you most of the best local high school seniors were amongst the best players at 12 w/few exceptions-
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Teaching and coaching is one of the hardest jobs to do well, and one of the easiest jobs to do poorly.
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@TheSportParent @TheCoachRandall Like the point but in fairness, they do both.
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How come parents never tell their kid’s math teacher how to teach calculus but they think as parents they have the right to tell a coach how much playing time and with whom and when their kid should play.
~ via @TheCoachRandall
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@ZubyMusic Agree 100. After accepting that fact, the next question: What are the tradeoffs most worth it? I subscribe to the virtues-based tradeoffs approach. Love > Gratification; Honesty > Culpability Escape; etc.
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@CoachDavidKlein The best moments I've experienced are helping the kiddos that needed the help most and watching them succeed. First hit, first out made, first strike thrown, etc.
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My little league team is undefeated. I’m convinced what I’m doing right is making our bottom 4-5 players serviceable. They strikeout less than other team’s bottom end players.
The top players will improve naturally. I some a ton of time with the kids who need it most.
This is AA machine pitch and almost everyone can make contact off the machine consistently. Super fun when they all contribute! @LittleLeague
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@TheJacobTurner Agree mostly. I try to identify with the parents who have more at stake: their failed dreams, their off-kilter but from-a-good-place desire to maximally support their child, etc. Good people can act badly. I try to empathize as a starting point to guide better behavior.
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I spent 11 years as a pro athlete, and today I coach my 8-year-old.
A few things I believe about youth sports...
Most kids will never play college sports.
Even fewer will earn money from playing their sports.
Yet everyone can experience life lessons through sports.
Now, to do that, it requires you, me, and everyone involved to understand the stakes.
The stakes? Well, there are none.
Ya, the 8u tournament where the coach lost his mind on a call by a 14-year-old umpire.
The play your first basemen didn't make that he should have.
The game you lost because the coach put the players in the "wrong positions".
None of that matters, and understanding that...well, those are the stakes.
You see, kids are incredible at watching, repeating, and forming habits.
As a coach and parent, my goal is pretty simple.
*Teach them the game
*Make sure they enjoy it
*Show them how to live with the results
The most common pitfall I see in youth sports today is the excuse train.
The umpire made a bad call.
The coach feeds into it, the players follow along.
The one player missed the easy play.
The coach yells, the players feed into it.
The team had a run of bad luck.
The coach makes excuses, the players think that is ok.
My friends, youth sports is a tool to teach your boys and girls about life.
That's it... For the select few that will go on and play college or pro, good on them.
Chances are that isn't my kids or your kids.
So our job? To make sure they understand what is important and that we remember the stakes.
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@CoachMarcusHill Agred. If you aren't younger than 15 and aren't the obvious top 1 or 2 player on your team, you've got some work to do or are a crazy late bloomer.
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If you think youre good enough to play college baseball you should be absolutely dominating high school baseball. Not like 1-3 with an rbi single every other game. Not like like 4er thru 6ip. DOMINATING. Like it should be easy for you. Some of you have never even made all conference talking about getting committed like bro you’re not even the best player in your town. Get real guy there’s gonna be a pissed off D1 transfer dying for your spot that already knows how to do college and you think you’re gonna win because you hit .325 once at a small high school. You better hope somebody does you a favor and tells you the truth before it’s too late. You’re lucky you’re even getting this information for free some of you are getting charged 3k a summer and don’t even get that truth.
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