Posted by: Coach C () on Wed Nov 5 23:01:21 2003

Please explain then.
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> > I been to enough games and around enough boys to know how this game goes, especially with regards to the younger boys.
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> > Teaching an 8 year old boy to act like a bully whether it's on the mound or at the plate may develop him into a good player, but it also develops him into a thug with a bat or ball. There's plenty of them in the major leagues, and no one likes them.
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> > ..And I know very well how important it is for both pitchers and batters to defend themselves in this game and not to take any garbage from the opposing hitter or batter, and I'll admit I rather enjoy a good baseball fight at the ML level -- Yankess v. Red Sox!!! ....but, 8 year olds don't play this way!!!!!
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> > This over-aggressive behavior, knock 'em down, hit 'em in the eye or throat, may be an attitude for older boys, but if you're coaching little kids the objective is to get them to love the game, develop their skills, win games, build confidence, and keep them playing....not instilling fear in the hitters or pitchers, that's for the older boys. Not too many 8 years olds would come back to the game if they were constantly under attack by the pitcher or hitter. Maybe I missed the "to hell with sportsmanship" and "beat their ass" rules in the Little League handbook.
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> > What I'm reading here is it's too bad if your 8 year old gets hit in the face or knocked on his butt by my son's line drive. I won't have any sympathy because my son did his job and that's the way the game goes...it a war you know!! I really hope I'm misinterpreting, but I don't think I am. These are little kid....the hitter may have done his job, but a kid is a kid and we should all be concerned about injuring a little boy and be sympathetic to it.
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> > My son has hit plenty of line drives that have hit or skimmed opposing players. He's beaned plenty of players when he first learned to pitch. He is not taught to aim at an opposing player, but to hit or pitch to a particular spot. He broke his nose this spring after getting hit in the face with a line drive (that wasn't your son rql, was it? -- wink), was back in the game the next week (wearing a protective helmet to his protest) and he and all his teammates are agressive players, winning many championships, but not one of them would take pride in injuring another player or purposely do it. There's more than one way to teach a boy to be aggressive.....teach them to aim at a spot, not at at other children.
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> > Fill me in on what I don't understand.
> >.Some of you are missing the point,you can't teach a kid to actually hit the pitcher with the ball,and it is the hitters at this age who are scared of the pitchers that don't throw strikes that is the problem to fix.Pitchers hit far more batters than the other way around ,I may not see that again in our league for 2-3 years from any kid.As a coach I was the 1st one to the mound to check the kid out I as an adult understand safety and being in the medical field wanted to help,by the way he went and sat out an inning and returned to the game fine.My son only knew he had finally achieved what he thought each of the hundreds of times he has gone to the plate.That is why I said we had a talk after the game and I explained about his mental approach when he is in the box and how he reacted when he got to 1st.I did the same thing when I was 10 and got the same talk from my dad and never reacted to it again.
> For the one who said it is about loving the game ,develop skills,win games,and Build Confidence,this at bat did all those things in one swing more than 3 months of batting practice.

I knew your point the first time. Somehow the message was confused by some with hurting children, when the message you were sending was to be agressive at the plate...and having plan that keeps you agressive. My kid leads the world in getting hit by pitches and it's taught him not to be afraid of the ball. Having our children not be afraid of the ball is the most difficult hitting skill to teach.

Word of advice for all "Don't be a pitcher in slow pitch softball", unless you wear a suit of armor. I've got bruises in places I didn't know I had.

Keep up the good work with your kid and I don't think you want to see people hurt.

Coach C