Making the Game of Baseball about Positive Outcomes, Part 1

Baseball can be such an amazing and rewarding game. It can lead to great memories, lasting friendships, important life lessons, and if done correctly, character development. The purpose of this blog series will be to shed light into how to make sure your journey with baseball produces the intended positive outcomes, and helps avoid the negative ones.

Remember, baseball ends at some point for everybody, however the character you develop during your time playing doesn’t.

Starting Out:

Kids start playing baseball at different ages, but it usually starts as most sports do; parents sign their children up to try out something new with the hope that they will enjoy themselves. If the child enjoys it, they will want to play again. If not, on to the next sport. Because of this, it’s important to make sure the focus of the sport is on fun. Most young children don’t care if they win or lose, or really even if they do well, so it’s important to have them in an environment that will cultivate fun, while showing them that working on improving skills can be rewarding.

It’s also important to teach them at this age that they are going to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. And most of the time they won’t really care about those mistakes, which is completely OKAY! The things parents should be concerned about is the attitude their kids have on the field, how they treat others, and that they learn good character habits. Parents should only think about discipline to stop laziness, outbursts of anger, and disrespect. It is important to keep that in mind instead of caring more about the outcome of a game than the child does.

If you have a coach or a parent yelling and berating players, it’s time to change teams. No game is so important that it’s worth an adult yelling at kids. No trophy won at this age will affect their long-term future in the sport or as a person. Being yelled at and humiliated by an adult can end a player’s baseball journey early, or even scar them emotionally. Baseball ends at some point. The relationship that a child builds or destroys during it doesn’t.

Next blog we’ll discuss the different options for getting started such as little league, dad coached select, true select, or elite baseball and the differences between them. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].