By Cal Ripken, Jr.
When it comes to baseball, games are fun. No matter what age we are, competition drives us. Even the youngest baseball players want to see how they compare to other players or teams their age. As parents, how many times have you tried to make your children move a little faster toward their destination by saying, “Hey, let’s race. I bet you can’t beat me!” Of course, even 2, 3 and 4-year-olds want to compete and win.
One of our basic philosophies when it comes to teaching baseball is to make it fun. On the surface that means let the kids play games, which we do every day at most of our camps. Still, when it comes to developing young baseball players – from t-ball right up through high school – the importance of practice, even during the season, cannot be underestimated.
Because games provide kids with the most joy, we have to provide young players the opportunity to play in plenty of games. How many really depends on the interest level and skill level of the players. Please don’t overdo it at the youngest ages! However, even though baseball games lend themselves to a certain amount of standing around and down time (between pitches, between, innings, when your team is hitting, etc.), games do not offer an atmosphere that is conducive to teaching.
During games at our camps we make a point not to stop play to single out a mistake or situation that could have been handled differently. We do not want to single out a kid to tell him or her that something could have been done differently or better. That can lead to embarrassment, which is something that could turn someone off to the sport. We prefer to try to do our teaching between innings in the quiet of the dugout or bench area. Still, at that moment, the player most likely is focusing on his or her next at-bat instead of giving you full attention. In a non-camp situation the player might be looking at his or her parents, thinking about the next at-bat or looking for a friend in the crowd.
I even refrain from talking to my son about situations that occurred in his games during the car ride home. At that point he’s had his fill of baseball for the day and probably is thinking about how hungry he is or which video game he will be playing when he gets home.
Clearly the best time to address situations that occur in games and to perfect areas of play that need work is during practice time. Leagues that only play games can really hurt the development of their young players. I would even argue that the more advanced travel teams, who play 50 or 60 games during the spring and summer, may be hurting their players’ development at times because there are too many games and not enough time to address skill development in a practice setting. There is a reason that big league players go through six weeks of spring training. The players must get their repetitions in, refine their fundamental skills and develop their team strategies and philosophies over a long period of time, because once the season begins they play almost every day. Six weeks of practice without playing usually is not practical when it comes to kids, however.
Practice gets a bad rap, especially in baseball, for being boring and tedious. There are so many fine motor skills that must be mastered to play the sport – throwing, catching, hitting, etc. – that fundamental development is a must. Remember, baseball is a very simple game. Whether you are young Ryan Ripken (my son) or Derek Jeter, you have to be able to throw the ball, catch the ball and hit the ball in order to be successful. And, whether you are Ryan or Derek, you do it the same way. The complexities of the game come with the various strategies and team fundamentals that we learn as we get older and the game becomes more serious.
Games provide kids with a fun, competitive atmosphere that is necessary to maintain their interest and attention. However kids just don’t get enough repetitions in games to develop the fundamental skills necessary to improve. There are a lot of fun ways to introduce and practice the basic fundamentals during practice. Those concepts will be addressed in future columns.
