re: WWTOTD - Irate T-ball Coach ** Update OP**

they do play as young as 4-5, but it's a lot of picking grass, throwing their hats in the air, running around in circles, etc.

But to the OP ----

I teach my teams about effort and how to battle. I preach "want to"!

I am the opposite of quitting and claim to be an aggressive coach. Baseball is the hardest sport to play, and I tell my teams this. In order to become a good player, you've got to want it.

In order to be a good team, you have to battle, stick together, commit, and battle some more.

I would take the exact opposite approach you took.....

I would practice my team, and practice my team. We'd get better defensively and we'd get better at running the bases.

The next time we ran up against him and his team, he'd be in for a surprise.

And that, sir, is the best way to handle that.

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quote: So, tball is what - 5 under, right? So according to this guy, they have been playing tball since 2? I think he's saying most of his team is made of of 6 yr olds with a few 5's and 4's. I'm not going to call him a liar. All I'm saying is that in my years of coaching I've never seen a kid less than 6 years old that can catch on a consistent basis. You'll see kids under 6 that can throw at least somewhat consistently but catching is a different matter due to the fact that before someone can learn to catch their reflexes have to develop enough to allow them to react in time to something thrown in their direction. And in kids 5 and under, it's not that they lack the talent to catch, they just have not developed the reflexes yet. And you can't teach reflexes, they have to come naturally, which they do usually around 6 to 7 years old.

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My little boy turned 7 Saturday. This year he has really started catching and throwing really good. I'm telling you. last night we turned a double play on a line drive to our shortstop. Dude hit a line drive at our SS, he snagged it, tagged the guy running to second, and then tried to get it to first. I swear I'm not lying, I know it's not normal. It's great to have such a great little team, they'll be together for most of their youth baseball.

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You're a liar, I know that for a fact.

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how do you know that?

And to your point, our whole infield is 6 year olds.. They're all moving up next year.

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God, this thread makes me want to avoid organized tball with my kids.

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I'm with you. I'm pretty amazed that there are select and travel tee ball teams. Do kids not play every sport now a days? Do you pretty much have to pick only one sport and play it year round?

Been a while since I was a kid, and probably won't have kids for another few years. I'm just kind of curious how everything works in the today's world. Are the playground systems for all sports starting to decline in favor of travel teams?

When I was a kid, we played in intramural leagues at a play ground that resulted in an all star team. The all star teams would then go on to play each other. There were some travel tournaments for some select teams. I just don't remember it being as prominent as it seems today with say select baseball teams and AAU basketball teams.

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have you called the dude yet?

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This! (Or maybe get your wife to call him)

Is it safe to summarize:

1.). I ran across an a-hole youth sports coach and made a too big deal of it.

2.). All responses, I coach the game, we have fun, learn the fundamentals and not that anyone is counting but have won the league two years in a row.

3). People have used the following terms to describe their player. Select, elite, travel, as if those terms mean anything except they wanted to pick their own teammates