Parents In Youth Baseball

bygisbell

195 followers

Updated 5 years ago

Parents Negative Influence In Youth Baseball

There are many negative influences that parents bring into youth baseball. Below, I will list the most common negative influences directors, coaches, and staff have to deal with.

1.) Parents Expectations Of Their Child Making Professional Level - Many parents see their child have some success early on in youth baseball. As a result, there are many unrealistic parents that do not understand what it takes to achieve the highest level of the sport (MLB) and begin to set unrealistic outlooks that their child will play Major League Baseball. When these parents start having these ridiculous thoughts cross their minds, the expectations of youth coaches and the organizations they belong to start to become of target of negative scrutiny when things do not go as they expect. I am not sure of the odds of a player making Major League Baseball, but I am sure it is some astronomical 1 out of every 500 million players make it big. This parental mindset creates tension within the organization the child is part of and it also creates added pressure that the child does not need. Be realistic parents and enjoy watching your child grow and develop! What will be will be! Let the passion of the child drive and determine how the chips fall!

2.) Non-Athletic/Non-Experienced Parents Expecting Equal Opportunity

Players who participate in the recreation level sports should have an equal opportunity to play baseball from the age of 5-13yrs of age. However, there are parents that go out and spend large amounts of money to play high level travel sports and have a completely different reality that hits them. High Level Travel sports is a completely different situation from recreation sports. High Level Travel Baseball does require larger amounts of money based on the amount of tournament costs, uniform costs, indoor facility space costs, and indoor training costs. Parents whose child has dominated in the recreational sports level make a decision to play travel baseball as they get this sense that their child dominated recreational sports where most of the lower level players play. Parents who have paid $60 for their child to play recreational sports come on board with the travel sports and pay anywhere from $600-$2000 for their child to play. They have recreational perception of playing time and wonder why their child who is the 12th player on the team does not play equal amount of time as the top 5 players on the team. They do not understand that this is high level competition and these programs not only are teaching these players to compete at a high level, but are also building the reputation of their respected programs. These Higher Level Travel Baseball programs are preaching the disciplines of life which include work ethic, accountability, dealing with adversity, punctual attendance, community service projects, and on and off-field development. I agree that recreational programs have the opportunity to cover these disciplines, but the reality is that they don't! Higher Level Travel Baseball Programs decide playing time off of a merit system. This merit system includes on and off-field performance, attendance, accountability, work ethic, how they handle adversity, and following all team rules pertaining to community service projects and fundraisers. This is the real world people! This is what these young people will have to conquer when they venture into the real world stage. Parents whose child had previously played recreational level baseball tend to create conflicts when their child does not receive playing time after they do not follow the merit system. My message to those parents are "Research the travel programs expectations before joining the program, and Nobody forced you to transition to Travel Level programs, stay at the recreational level if that is what you like"!

Enjoy Your Child Grow & Develop

In my opinion, parents should sit back and enjoy watching their child participate in the game of baseball or whatever youth sport they are participating in. Encourage your child to participate in many things to see what they enjoy. Usually, the child will find that sport that they enjoy because of the passion they create within for that particular sport. Sports can't be influenced or pushed upon these kids because mom or dad want them to play them. There is way too much added pressure put on these young kids to achieve high levels of success and/or to even play specific sports. Let your child be a child and let them decide what they love and enjoy doing, not what you love and enjoy doing. Encourage your child to work hard and to see things through once started, but all other lessons will be achieved through their experiences. Your child will ONLY achieve greatness in whatever they decide to choose, because they wanted to do it, not mom or dad!