Parents

[Jake Patterson]

Over from another board...

Do parents ever see reality when it comes to their child's ability?

Interesting discussion point.

[Thor]

The other parents can't see reality, but I can--- my kid is the best...

[Baseball gLove]

I think I am fairly pragmatic. I believe all players, including my son, must earn their spots on a team. When I saw that my son was lifting his torso on ground balls at the last second I told him, and everyone, he is going to let a ball go under his glove. Sure enough it would happen once a game. He is finally staying down. I would tell him he needs to be more aggressive on ground balls or the ball would play him; he is now more aggressive on ground balls. We are currently battling that I think he is too much hands to the ball. He is a good player, but he is capable of doing better even though he is one of his team's leaders.

I'm not the webmaster and I do not provide recaps nor keep score for my son's high school website, but my son pops up a few times on the front page of that site. I think it's great when his play is recognized for both the JV & Freshman teams. He participated as a pitcher, F6 & F4 when his JV team won a tournament last week. He is the F6 for his freshman team which currently has a 7 game win streak.

[Utility07]

When I used to volunteer coach youth ball, parents were quite honestly the worst thing about it. I had 2 parents almost come to blows one year.

I now coach high school, and its not in the best neighborhood. I almost never have parents at my games because they all work late, or 2 jobs, or double shifts. I kinda miss them.

Its all about the balance. Parents are good, as long as they arent nutjobs...but youll always get one, as long as you have any.

[Three A's baseball]

Usually from what I found is that you will get some coaches and parents who are jaded and some who are quite realistic.

Baseball is a tough game to fake, especially when you move up the food chain.

I coach my son's team and I treat him the same as everyone else.

At the level I coach I try and move all the kids around and make it more instructional then anything else.

I think I do have parents who feel like there son is much better then he is but I think that is pretty natural. Kind of like the guy who thinks his daughter is beautiful. Is she?

[NewbieBBDad]

The parents whose kids are very talented tend to be more realistic. The parents whose kids are NOT talented tend to be unrealistic.

In some cases, it's cause and effect. Realistic parents can teach their kids better to make them more talented. Unrealistic parents make excuses for their kids inadequacies and instead of working the problems they cover them up.

OK, OK, the above was somewhat tongue in cheek ;) but also somewhat my experiences. I will admit I get frustrated when a parent whose kid cannot hit a lick tries to give me and my son hitting advice, hehe. All I'll say is, when I consider the source of the information, I do take into account the kid's performance LOL!

Here's a major source of frustration I have now with aggressive Dads. They think it's important to toughen up the kids by criticizing kids negatively no matter how inappropriate or ill-timed it is. I would think that if a parent of a talented kid (that's me) is against unproductive negative criticism that maybe parents of less talented kids might take that into consideration but nooooooo..... They think that's the way to go.

[tommybaseball]

You bring up a great point. It's very difficult to be objective. However, with that said, I did not imagine seeing my son throw a baseball on a line from one endzone to another during tryouts when he was a 14 year old highschool freshman. Nor did I imagine hearing the collective Holy #@%&! that followed. I also did not imagine seeing him hit a ball 385 feet with a wood bat last spring a month before he had surgery to repair a torn labrum.
There were lots of other people there to see both events as well.

[TG Coach]

The parents who didn't go far in the game overrate their kids. They can't see the lack of tools. They can only see results on the small field. They're really hoping their kids are a lot better than they really were. In 7th grade, first year on the big field, these parents get angry their kids are getting screwed. In 8th grade they start to see reality.

[bbjunkie]

Kind of like the guy who thinks his daughter is beautiful. Is she?

Mine is. :-) Not only that, she's a great dancer, singer and oboe player. And, really smart. But, I don't like to brag.

[bbjunkie]

I coached my kid through 6 years of LL. I don't think my experience is uncommon. I was very sensitive to being accused of daddyball, so my kid practiced twice as much as any other kid on the team, except one kid whose dad was another coach. I don't think anyone who saw these kids play last year would argue with our feelings that they pretty dominated the league. I don't think that either kid is unnaturally gifted, but they both work hard at being the best they can be.

A guy I know who played proball once said taht average kids can play college ball with enough work, beyond that takes genetics. I don't know how far these two kids will go (mine hasn't hit his growth spurt yet, any day now he hopes) but they are both key players on the JV team as 8th graders. With nothing but their work ethic I'm betting they both will be on varsity within two years.

It's been my experience that coach's kids generally tend to be among the better players around. There are a few who are daddy ballers, but not many.

[hiddengem]

A guy I know who played proball once said taht average kids can play college ball with enough work, beyond that takes genetics. I don't know how far these two kids will go (mine hasn't hit his growth spurt yet, any day now he hopes) but they are both key players on the JV team as 8th graders. With nothing but their work ethic I'm betting they both will be on varsity within two years.


Without saying your kids are good or not, I will say that the area and school that you go to has alot to do with they type of playes making up a JV or Varsity team. I played against some Varsity teams that couldn't beat my freshman team and I played against some Varsity teams that would have given my D-1 college a run for its money.

I graduated in 1995 from a highschool in the center of So. Calif and to my knowledge I'm the only player since then and quite a few years before that to make it to pro ball and one of the few to play at a D-1 college if that adds anything to the discussion.

[hiddengem]

Here's a major source of frustration I have now with aggressive Dads. They think it's important to toughen up the kids by criticizing kids negatively no matter how inappropriate or ill-timed it is. I would think that if a parent of a talented kid (that's me) is against unproductive negative criticism that maybe parents of less talented kids might take that into consideration but nooooooo..... They think that's the way to go.


The worst coaches I've ever had and the ones that got the least out of their players were the negative ones. The best coaches are the ones that stay on a even keal all the time, never too up, never too down and understand how difficult this game is to play.

If the kids are screwing up mentally, different story, maybe they need to tighten it up a little bit. But physical errors will happen, and happen often at young levels.

[Jake Patterson]

The worst coaches I've ever had and the ones that got the least out of their players were the negative ones. The best coaches are the ones that stay on a even keal all the time, never too up, never too down and understand how difficult this game is to play.

If the kids are screwing up mentally, different story, maybe they need to tighten it up a little bit. But physical errors will happen, and happen often at young levels.

HG, good point. I also find that new coaches who start their season with all the "rah-rah we're going to kick some butt this year," type attitude usually have less of an impact than those who are even-kealed and work hard on the fundementals. New coaches who feel they have the answers seem to be symptomatic of our instant gatification society and they do not understand that good coaching, like playing, takes a great deal of time and effort. I find it interesting that while most coaches expect their players to conduct their own extra-curricular practices outside of team practices to improve, they do little themselves.

[bbjunkie]

Without saying your kids are good or not, I will say that the area and school that you go to has alot to do with they type of playes making up a JV or Varsity team. I played against some Varsity teams that couldn't beat my freshman team and I played against some Varsity teams that would have given my D-1 college a run for its money.

I agree. My kid is good for the area we live in, but his 13U travel team, on which he is an average player, could run circles around the JV team.

[Drill]

IMHO

If kept right you can see the whole picture of each players on field ability in the score book.

Also we need to take into account how little Johnny's attitude is at 11 years old. This does come into play and i believe it is called coach ability of a player. Some children make bad decisions. The smart kids/player understands what is the right way to act as a human being.

Chest pounding parent need to be made aware, if they are willing to sit down and look at the score book, to show how you as a coach are helping there child improve and in what area. As a coach it is important to show the guardian(s) of the child what you are working on if it comes to a parent coach situation to bring them back to reality. Show the parents you are trying to help there child not stand in there way.



score keeper

drill