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TIPS FROM THE COACH
8/9/06
TIPS FROM THE COACH
Like no other team sport, baseball teaches individual responsibility for one's actions. You booted it. YOU made the error. You K'd, YOU make the long walk back to the dugout. A player must EARN the right to have success playing baseball. No one ever just walked out onto the field possessing the skills to play the game well.
Recently, a young man introduced himself to me and reminded me he had played for me when he was 9. He had been new to the community. He had never played baseball. He just wanted to make new friends. I had challenged him to work to develop skills to be able to help the team. He realized that he didn't want to let down his new friends and teammates so he worked hard to uphold his responsibilities to the TEAM. He only played a few years but wanted to thank me for helping him to become the man he is today. Although, 16 players that have played for me have gone one to make it to THE SHOW, I could not have been more proud of them than of the young Marine captain who was standing in front of me.
We are not just teaching kids baseball skills. We are not just about winning trophies. We are not supervising an aerobic playground activity. We should be challenging young players to strive to develop skills that will allow them to help the TEAM to be successful. We are teaching lessons in life from a little boy's games that hopefully will help them to become successful doctors, or lawyers, or cab drivers or plumbers or MARINE CAPTAINS. Sempre Fi!
Yours In Baseball
Bruce Lambin, The Coach
8/1/06
TIPS FROM THE COACH
I wanted to play Major League Baseball. You would love to play Major League Baseball. Your kids and the kids on your team want to play Major League Baseball.
When I was a kid, I was sure I would progress to play with /against Mickey Mantle. I played against Nolan Ryan in High School. We beat him 5 of 6 times. We were the champions. We went to state. If you had asked any of my teammates back then if Nolan Ryan would make it to the Majors let alone the Hall Of Fame, we would have laughed in your face. BTW Nolie is great and a great man.
Ask your young players if they want to play Major League Baseball and just about everyone will say, “YES”. There will be that lone kid that says “actually I would prefer to develop a molecular transparency to the 7th dimension”. Oh well, he probably isn’t going to make the All Star Team. LOL
KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE. We all know reality, I hope!? HE should dream, work, and believe. It is HIS dream. It is HIS driving force. He will work. He will be disciplined. He will learn lessons in life. But you as an adult, you as a parent, should understand reality. It is your son’s baseball experience. You must not be delusional. The facts are:
Nothing that happens prepuberty matters in terms of a baseball future. Just enjoy it.
Look in the mirror, if you and your wife both played 1st chair clarinet and oboe in the HS band, the odds are you did not pass along “World Class Athlete” genes.
He must work and from the work, he will learn disciplines and lessons in life that will allow him to be successful in life after ‘little boy games’ are over.
THIS IS NOT YOUR BASEBALL EXPERIENCE! Don’t get too personally invested in HIS baseball experience.
Help HIM to be the best that HE can be. The GAME will tell him how long he gets to play.
What I, as THE COACH, try to do is provide the tools to allow you to help him to strive for HIS dreams.
Yours In Baseball
Bruce Lambin, THE COACH
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