Head Coach-11U baseball team

[dl1340]

My son plays on a 11u baseball team. Team started out the season on a good note, won the first tournment going 4-0. Since then they have gone 4-8. They have played stronger teams but mainly beat themselves with errors and not hitting the ball. Head coach bunts hitters 6-10, two out of three times they go up to bat. I can understand if the runner is on third and there is only one out, yes try to get the run home. But if you keep giving batters the bunt signal all the time, it tells me the Head Coach doesn't have confidence in the team that they can hit. Also, after the game is speech is usually long winded, and tells the boys they don't know the game of baseball. In my opion, it is the coach responsiblity to teach them the game of baseball, that is what they are there for, to learn and develop. Any suggestions, I am one of the assistant coaches and not sure what to do. Several players have stated they don't want to come to practice and play for the head coach anymore.

[Jake Patterson]

My son plays on a 11u baseball team. Team started out the season on a good note, won the first tournment going 4-0. Since then they have gone 4-8. They have played stronger teams but mainly beat themselves with errors and not hitting the ball. Head coach bunts hitters 6-10, two out of three times they go up to bat. I can understand if the runner is on third and there is only one out, yes try to get the run home. But if you keep giving batters the bunt signal all the time, it tells me the Head Coach doesn't have confidence in the team that they can hit. Also, after the game is speech is usually long winded, and tells the boys they don't know the game of baseball. In my opion, it is the coach responsiblity to teach them the game of baseball, that is what they are there for, to learn and develop. Any suggestions, I am one of the assistant coaches and not sure what to do. Several players have stated they don't want to come to practice and play for the head coach anymore.

Seems like you should switch teams after this season is over. Is this TB?

[dl1340]

Head Coach-11u

Yes this is Travel Ball

[Jake Patterson]

Yes this is Travel Ball

Lesson learned... Next year play rec have fun, maybe start your own off-season team. Keep it simple - keep it fun.

[wogdoggy]

Lesson learned... Next year play rec have fun, maybe start your own off-season team. Keep it simple - keep it fun.

now cmon jake whats the lessoned learned stuff,,he could have gotten on a junky in house team with the SAME TYPE of coach..bad coaching and coaches can be found anywhere,,

my son played in house basketball last year,,half the time 6 kids showed out of 11.
One kid opted to stay home and watch nascar on game day..remeber in "in house' some kids are there just to have fun,,unless something else comes up more funner ,,like nascar.

[BallCoach06]

Lesson learned... Next year play rec have fun, maybe start your own off-season team. Keep it simple - keep it fun.

I agree. Don't take the fun out.

My philosophy has always been, practice is the coaches time, games are the players time. Game day is for the players. It is their day in the sun and show what they have learned or worked on in practice. If something goes wrong during the game, I chalk it up as something we (as coaches) need to do a better job with at practice and will work on it in practice, not at the game.

Now, that does not mean I do not teach during the games. I will still teach on situations that come up, etc., but I do not talk fundamentals, mechanics, etc., during a game. That is what practice is for, IMO. Players have enough to think about during the game, they do not need me on them about mechanical things. If I have done my job properly during practices, they should be able to just go out on game day and react and play.

Following games, I have a very short meeting with them (win or lose) and we discuss the schedule for the following day (practice or game), mention only good things from the game (no negatives), and excuse them. Then the following day at practice, we work on the things that gave us trouble the day before, fix mechanical things, etc. It is back to the coaches time.

[LAball]

My son plays on a 11u baseball team. Team started out the season on a good note, won the first tournment going 4-0. Since then they have gone 4-8. They have played stronger teams but mainly beat themselves with errors and not hitting the ball. Head coach bunts hitters 6-10, two out of three times they go up to bat. I can understand if the runner is on third and there is only one out, yes try to get the run home. But if you keep giving batters the bunt signal all the time, it tells me the Head Coach doesn't have confidence in the team that they can hit. Also, after the game is speech is usually long winded, and tells the boys they don't know the game of baseball. In my opion, it is the coach responsiblity to teach them the game of baseball, that is what they are there for, to learn and develop. Any suggestions, I am one of the assistant coaches and not sure what to do. Several players have stated they don't want to come to practice and play for the head coach anymore.

At the end of his speech you can say "I'll end on a positive note and commend some good plays and/or effort." Maybe the head coach will get a hint about feeding positive thoughts to the kids.

[TG Coach]

Lesson learned... Next year play rec have fun, maybe start your own off-season team. Keep it simple - keep it fun.

The lesson learned is don't join just any travel team. Watch the coach's behavior. Look at the team's fundamentals. Is there teaching going on. It isn't good just because it's called travel. Too many dads start travel teams and think if they have talent they will win. Then they get to tournaments, find out other teams have more talent and get beat. Of course it's the kid's fault. Always look for coaches who can teach the game. I coach 16U. We're still teaching.

[Jake Patterson]

The lesson learned is don't join just any travel team. Watch the coach's behavior. Look at the team's fundamentals. Is there teaching going on. It isn't good just because it's called travel. Too many dads start travel teams and think if they have talent they will win. Then they get to tournaments, find out other teams have more talent and get beat. Of course it's the kid's fault...

Agree .

[mudvnine]

Too many dads start travel teams and think if they have talent they will win. Then they get to tournaments, find out other teams have more talent and get beat.

Do any of you feel as I do, that over the years the quality of travel ball has really diminished?

Seems as though so many dads want to brag to their co-workers that their kid "plays travel ball" they they start their own teams when their kid can't make a legit travel ball team. Now to help make their average kid look good, they recruit similar average ball players. I can't tell you how mediocre teams we play at tournaments before we get a real good team that really challenges us.

Heck, a few years back I took our rec league's "B" All Star team to the USSSA AA World Series and finished third with our second all star team. We played "travel" teams that had only been together of years, when we had been together for about a month and only about a third of the kids on that team even play on a TB team today.

Now granted AA is not the pinnicle of travel ball, but just thought the competition should had been a bit tougher and I continue to see weaker TB teams then we saw in the past with my older boy.

[Baseball gLove]

Do any of you feel as I do, that over the years the quality of travel ball has really diminished?

Seems as though so many dads want to brag to their co-workers that their kid "plays travel ball" they they start their own teams when their kid can't make a legit travel ball team. Now to help make their average kid look good, they recruit similar average ball players. I can't tell you how mediocre teams we play at tournaments before we get a real good team that really challenges us.

Heck, a few years back I took our rec league's "B" All Star team to the USSSA AA World Series and finished third with our second all star team. We played "travel" teams that had only been together of years, when we had been together for about a month and only about a third of the kids on that team even play on a TB team today.


Now granted AA is not the pinnicle of travel ball, but just thought the competition should had been a bit tougher and I continue to see weaker TB teams then we saw in the past with my older boy.

AA is pretty ugly baseball. AAA has 2-3 decent pitchers with some decent players and defense; usually have 2-3 weak players. Majors are pretty good teams usually bringing in players from a wide area; they usually have 1 or 2 stud pitchers and 3 or 4 good pitchers. They might have 1 weak player ( coach or team sponsor's son).

[mudvnine]

They might have 1 weak player ( coach or team sponsor's son).

Glove, that's awesome!!

Yeah, pitching is definitely the key, we're playing AAA looking for that one more good pitcher to allow us to move up to the majors and compete. It's just that many of the AAA teams we see should probably play AA, but they're here anyway.

What I'm talking about is that seven or eight years ago there just weren't as many TB teams and the ones that did exist were typically made up of the top 3 or 4 kids from several leagues of a pretty large geographical area, making up just a few elite teams playing each other.

Now it seems that kids that can't even make their league's all star teams are somehow showing up on TB teams. . . go figure.

[Encinitas]

I am a dad who started a 10U team (we don't play during LL) and we spanked several programs who were legit "travel ball" programs. However most of us were not interested in "real travel ball" and two practices a week (plus lessons on the side) for a couple of reasons.
a) No interest in playing $1-300/month for the "legit" programs
b) no desire to play countless tournaments
c) absolutely no desire to leave SoCal to play in Steamboat, Cooperstown or Vegas.

So maybe we are just good recruiters or ex-athletes with above average kids, but the concept was well-liked and was mostly just to have some fun on Sundays. We practiced once a week, and overwhelmed a lot of teams with talent, but there were times when you could tell we were very part-time compared to more seasoned teams. That said I am not sure if I want to really do it again. It does take away from watching my other son and the hard core kids are now playing on another team right now since I don't want to play during LL.

[Ursa Major]

Now, I'm not involved in travel ball, but it seems to me that it differs from rec ball in that there is not an established league where parents sign up and have to live with wherever the kid is drafted to go. It would seem that the parents who are paying all this money and hooking into the team should have more say about what's going on.

I don't care what league you're in, any coach who has kids bunt more than once every two games (except in sacrifice situations) is an utter idiot. I don't pay that much effort and time to watch my kid bunt. He can do that in a batting cage.

And telling kids after a game that "they don't know the game" is almost as heinous. Look, Coach, you picked the team and you train them; if they don't know baseball, whose fault is it?

I'd say a minor revolt is in order. It should be done collectively, as it sounds like this is the sort of jerk who will cut into the playing time of any kid whose father raises a stink.

[Jake Patterson]

Do any of you feel as I do, that over the years the quality of travel ball has really diminished?

Unless you are in a position to have gone through the process and be in a position to look back, I am uncertain how you could make a fair assessment. I did the TB thing, my sons are adults, I would not recommend on the small field.

To understand the answer to your question go back and read some of the old TB threads.

While at the WBC (World Baseball Convention) I asked a number of college and pro coaches what they thought of youth TB and while they all attend the showcases they feel the direction we are going WRT TB is hurting baseball.

It's an old conversation that is wrought with preconceived answers. Many who ask the question have already made their minds up. Most who support TB are the parents involved. Most who feel it hurts baseball are those who coach HS and above. U-Big field - Let them have fun and don't worry about winning. Teaching and development (for ALL the players) is most important.
Hope this helps.