Baseball Career: 75% of Youth Players
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| "If children go practice, perform painful drills, and improve their skills, but have no fun, and if the coach constantly hammers at their mistakes, after awhile they are going to think, do I really want to be here?". |
From "Why Does Johnny Hate Sports" by Fred Engh 1999 Avery Publishing
Top 7 Reasons Kids Stop Playing Sports
A baseball career can end at any time for any number of reasons. Baseball is not for everyone. Baseball is a difficult game to play well and you cannot hide your deficiencies.You are going to have to be able to throw it, catch it and hit it to survive.
Often baseball players just reach their athletic ceiling and are unable to throw, catch or hit well enough to compete for playing time. This could happen at 9 years old, 12 years old or very rarely 40 years old. Definetely by age 14 three quarters of the players will move on to other activiites.
1. Lack of Playing Time: Riding the Pine
Baseball Career: Lack of Playing Time is the basis that sets up the exit to the baseball career door out. Sitting the bench, riding the pine, and bench warming is a sure fire excuse to look for the way out.When a player is not good enough to play a majority of the baseball innings then many of the rest of the seven factors all start snow balling down the hill.
Embarrassment, lack of parental support, dissatisfaction of performance and a lack of enjoyment begin to erode the players enthusiasm.
Baseball players start looking for a way out and search for other activities. Certainly there is no disgrace in ending a baseball career. A baseball career is going to end for everyone eventually.
2. Overemphasis on Winning
As youth baseball players get into middle school baseball and high school baseball winning becomes more of a factor. Developing baseball players skills are put on the back burner and the players who play the best in up playing the most.If a player cannot produce enough offense or defense to help a team win games then they will find themselves more and more picking splinters from the bench.
Eventually, most players are not up to the embarrassment of too much bench time and stop playing baseball and find other things to do with their time.
3. Dissatisfaction of Personal Performance
Hitters will go as far as your bat will take you. You might have heard it said, "If you hit enough, they will find a place for you to play." Well, that is mostly true.If you can 'hit' and/or utilize your running speed enough for the coach to put you in the line-up and help your team's offense, chances are you are more likely to stay in baseball.
Once a player reaches a point (and everyone does sooner or later) when they can no longer create consistent run production for their team compared to other teammates then that is the beginning of the end of the baseball career.
You first sit the bench. Then soon after move on to other activities to spend your time.
Exceptions to the rule will be good pitchers and above average defensive infielders. Especially shortstops and maybe centerfield and catcher.
4. Coaches and Adults Vocally Hammering On Them
I'm not sure why but some adult volunteer coaches feel they have open season license to yell and hammer on kids on every little mistake or bo-boo.Many youth baseball coaches and youth baseball parents fail to realize or maybe forget how difficult playing baseball well really is.
When the adults put too much pressure on kids to perform, over emphasize winning, and have coaches that don't know how to make baseball practice plan templates fun then we start chasing kids away from youth sports. Kids end up looking for other activities rather than get scolded every day.
5. Lack of Social Support from Parents
Parents so often get caught up in the performance and how well the child played. If little Johnny or Katie did well then the parents tend to praise.If they perform poorly the praise diminishes. As the youth player performs less and less and the praise from the folks gets less and less then guess what?
The lack of social support from the parents in effect helps drive the kid away from the game.
6. Other Activities More Interesting
People are attracted to things they are usually pretty good at. When baseball becomes a real struggle to be successful then the youth leeague player will try to find other activities they are better at.Or they will just say, "I'm not going to spend all that time at practice and games with minimal playing time when I could be making money working, doing my homework, or playing another sport, Boy Scouts, band and so many other options out there.
7. Lack of Enjoyment and Fun during Baseball Season
If we are partially good at something then we are more likely drawn to that activity.If we can sing 'take me out to the ballgame' decent then we might be a candidate to sign-up for choir class. if we can't sing a bit then we likely will not get into choir class.
We will lose interest in singing and find other stuff to get involved with. If the game of baseball does not bring enjoyment to us then and becomes an embarrassment to sit the bench then we fold the tent and pitch it someplace else. Certainly there is no disgrace in having interest in other constructive activities.
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