What I'll Miss the Most

All good things must come to an end, or something like that. This has been an incredible summer for me as a coach because of the kids and families that I have been around. As a result of the chemistry that we have had all year, this has been the most special baseball season I have experienced in my 8 years of coaching travel baseball. I entered this season thinking this would be my last year coaching travel ball as I expected my son to move to a different organization, which would mean turning the reins over to someone else. To my surprise, a few things happened that will allow me to continue on this coaching journey into my son's high school years, yet I know those years in travel baseball are drastically different as a coach.

A coach at any youth level needs to be a teacher and mentor first and foremost. Before your kids enter high school, there is so much to try and teach them and get them to experience prior. When the kids are younger, it seems as soon as you get one concept down then another glaring area pops up that you need to devote significant time and effort. I've always believed that there are many coachable moments in games, but the true teaching and coaching takes place during practices. I'm going to miss the practices and those moments more than anything moving forward.

For the past 14 years, my favorite thing about coaching has always been the practices. The games and strategies during them are always fun, but that's more about the kids getting to shine because of the time and preparation you have put in with them. I've always believed the really good coaches earned their stripes in practices. This is why college coaches invite people to come watch their practices. As an average fan or student of any game, you can fill a notebook full of stuff by watching practices of good coaches. During games it is more difficult to pick up things, other than a strategy that may or may not work during a game. But guess what, those strategies and schemes have been repped over and over during practices.

The group I am now coaching is going into high school, but I remember those first couple of years when they were much younger. I would spend so much time agonizing over practice plans. How are we going to cover everything? I was a bit crazy and had multiple practices and didn't necessarily think about or consider the time commitment that the other parents had to invest to consistently get their kids there. I was too worried about figuring out how I was going to get 3 hours worth of stuff into a 2 hour slot. And how were we going to get all of this stuff covered only practicing once or twice a week?

Those first couple of travel baseball teams I coached had a tremendous amount of success, which made the payoff very appreciable; however, that didn't calm my nerves. No matter how many games or championships we won, every Sunday night was spent hammering out a practice plan. In fact, it's what I've always looked forward to the most. What situations will occur during our games over the course of the weekend that will having me going to my phone or computer so I don't forget to cover that in practice the following week. It never mattered what time or how late I got back home, I had to get some notes down before my head hit the pillow.

Now as the kids I coach move into their high school years, those practice opportunities become so rare. Yes, there are workouts in the winter, but that's not the same as practice. Practices are the time where you can just talk to your players about what they did well or need to work on. Practices allow you to have conversations that aren't as emotional as they would be during or right after a game. Practices are where you get to teach in a non-pressure environment. Once the kids get to the high school level in baseball, the time to practice just is not there or practical. Kids have already been practicing baseball with their high school teams for months. On top of that, they typically have open fields/practices throughout the summer season with their high school teams on Monday/Tuesday. Additionally, a number of kids will go to showcase events during the early part of the week in the summer. Then next thing you know it is Wednesday or Thursday and you're playing again. Holding a travel team practice doesn't allow kids to get the rest they want and need. And plus there is that whole travel thing too. It just doesn't make much sense to practice consistently in the summer.

I'm really going to miss getting to see the different sides of the kids on a consistent basis. Practices are where you get to see the personalities of your players. You also get to see who thrives on competition and instruction versus who just goes through the motions or doesn't want to learn from their deficiencies. Kids that hang their head or don't respond to challenges in practice often demonstrate the same traits in games. As a coach, if you run a good practice you should not be surprised by what happens in the games. Practices also give coaches the behind the scenes look at things that parents do not get to see or understand. There is a reason that playing time, positions, and the batting order might look a little different than what outsiders think it should be. So many times fans will be watching a game and yell at the coach wondering why a certain player isn't playing more. What they haven't seen are the countless missed assignments in practice, wrong routes run, or errors in practice. A coach's trust is earned in practices.

As I eluded to above, practice is also the time you get to be around your players when their parents are not. This is not about throwing parents under the bus, but kids feel a certain amount of pressure to perform while in front of their parents. They know they expected to act and perform differently when their parents are watching. Practices are the times coaches get to see the kids for who they are and learn how they really feel about things. Kids can say and ask things in practices that they would not in front of their parents. Kids know they are allowed to make mistakes in practice because nobody is their to see or critique them about things the entire car ride home. For a number of kids, practices can be a kid's safe place to just play the game they love without being judged.

Baseball and basketball are so different, and I love coaching both of them. Basketball involves so much preparation and attention to detail. There is nothing better than preparing your kids on how to take away certain actions defensively or how to vary an offensive principle based on what the other team's defense is giving you. When you see it play out on the court because the kids are prepared and ready to execute it is one of the most satisfying things in the world, especially when the other coach is yelling at his kids during game action. I miss coaching basketball and those practices more than baseball, but the principles of practices remain the same.

I have always believed that if you're doing extensive coaching during a game then you're not a good coach. Some coaches put on a really good show, and people can get fooled into thinking they're a really good coach based off what they're saying during a game in front of an audience. However, if they're doing and saying all of that in games, why are they not teaching that in a constructive practice environment? Kids do listen and learn if you rep things consistently. Nobody learns much when our adrenaline is flowing and we're performing in front of people. Baseball coaches talking about approach at the plate during an at-bat or how to properly execute a cut-off in front of a group of parents at a game sound really smart, but what have they taught your kid during the hours of practice you've driven them to?

When I first got into coaching I thought some guys were really good coaches because of the instructions they were shouting out during games. I kept thinking to myself, "They are spot on with what they are saying/telling the kids to do." Then the more I was around them I realized that they were still saying and doing those same things later in the season. Why? How had they not been able to teach the kids to do and understand these things in practices? This helped me realize that I wanted to be the coach that didn't have to yell and shout instruction. I wanted to be the coach that had his kids more prepared than others. I wanted to be the coach that didn't have to yell at his kids because they already knew the mistake that they made.

I have no doubt that a number of people perceive me as someone that is arrogant, smug, or indifferent during games. I'm okay with that. I just hope that they understand that I come off that way because I am confident our kids are prepared. I don't need to be giving them extra instruction to do a job they are prepared for. I don't need to remind them of their failure to execute in front of people because they already know what they did wrong since they have been taught how to do things in practice. When I talk to them before a game, I am prepared to get my message across in a short and effective way to keeps their attention while making my key points.

This is why people have a hard time telling if we are up or down by 5 runs. Games are players time to shine. There is so much that is now out of a coach's hands once the kids step between the lines, so a good coach's job is to put the kids and team in the best position to succeed while taking note of what needs to be worked on at the next practice. I'm really going to miss that moving forward. Talent helps cover a lot of things for all coaches, but good coaches get the most out of their talent through what they do and how they prepare for practices. While I know the kids will be prepared from their years on our team and the wisdom their going to get from the high school coaches, it's going to be hard not to go to the computer on Sunday nights and prepare for the next practice.