Many young ballplayers never make it past the first year of youth baseball because the game is designed to defeat them. When a young player first starts playing, he may be undersized or overweight. He may lack physical strength or confidence. Maybe he can’t throw accurately or make solid contact as a hitter. Perhaps some of these kids have been raised in a home where playing catch or learning how to hit a baseball hasn’t been an option. Most young players simply need repetition and a little coaching. It has been said countless times to players that if you fail seven out of ten times long enough, you have a chance to make it in to the Hall of Fame. But, it’s important for someone to be there when a young player fails. Maybe that someone is a father, a mother, a teammate or a coach. To “be there” doesn’t mean to coddle the one who fails, or sympathize with them. But instead, it means empathy, encouragement and much more practice.
Many of you can relate to this. My first year of organized baseball wasn’t tee ball or coach-pitch, it was Little League. There were big kids throwing wild and hard and I never got on base even one time! Striking out time-after-time is humiliating and discouraging. Many kids just simply say, “I don’t need this” and never play again. Thankfully, my big brother, Tom, and my Little League Coach, David Webb, didn’t give up on me. Tom continued to let his little brother tag along and practice every day with him, and David eventually discovered that my “future” in the game was not as a hitter but as a pitcher. Consequently, I spent the next 48 years of my life either playing or coaching the game I love—also the game that wanted to defeat me. I’m so thankful for a supportive family and for a young coach who believed in me. Someone along the way reminded me that Babe Ruth, perhaps the greatest player ever, struck out 1,330 times!
Recently, I read a devotional from “All Pro Dad,” a ministry designed to help fathers. Their devotionals are short, helpful and well written. The devotional spoke of a blind man, Bill Erwin, who hiked the challenging Appalachian Trail with his guide dog, Orient. The trail goes from Maine to Georgia and is 2,175 miles of rough mountain trails. It took Bill and Orient 8-months and he fell over 5,000 times! The purpose of the devotional is to let us all know that the inspiration is not in the falling but in the “getting up.”
Who’s going to help the player you coach get back up after he falls or fails? Just as Bill Irwin never gave up on his journey on the Appalachian Trail and Babe Ruth never gave up on baseball, we should never give up on learning and growing as a coach. Players also learn, grow and develop at different stages in their young lives. Some guys are shaving and becoming physically mature at 13 or 14 years old; they are bigger and stronger. Those kids may help you win now, but don’t give up on the small, physically immature kid who may be behind. They may help you win next year or even two or three years from now. Continue to help them hone their skills. Be that coach the young player never forgets because you not only never gave up on him, but you also believed in him.
Many coaches love to spend time with the star player and want to attach their name to him as he climbs the ladder of success. The real coaching victories come when we spend extra time with the player who feels behind or isn’t as skilled as the other kids. The progress kids make and the smiles are victories for sure! Winning is our goal. Winning is fun and rewarding, but there are more ways to win other than just scoring more runs than the other team. As coaches, we have the privilege and blessing of having the opportunity to be a part of someone’s success story in life.
Resources such as the American Baseball Coaches Association and Inside Pitch have tools to help us all grow in every facet of the game. I encourage you to utilize these resources to help you to become a transitional coach and to build a winning and rewarding team culture. A coach might be one of a dozen mentors or the only mentor to a young player.
Everything is important in coaching. Every player is important in coaching.
“…let us not love with words or speech but with actions and truth.”
— Luke 3:18