COACHES, STOP HOARDING YOUR YOUNG ATHLETES

Backspin Blog — Free Instruction / The Early Days of AHD

BillyKrush · September 21, 2015 · Coaching

I was at a youth baseball tournament in late March 2009 in Scottsdale Arizona. My good friends threw together a team of kids from Montana and Idaho and entered the tournament. Excellent vacation idea: sun, palm trees and green grass everywhere! On a secondary note, the kids got to play somebaseball in the 12U division. Winner, winner!!! Everyone was loving it...players, parents and coaches. Their first couple games were competetive playing a Colorado and an average Arizona team. Spirits were high as the climate and diamond were the focus of a beautiful trip. Getting some some swing instruction in local batting cages, doing batting drills in the warm Arizona sun... these kids and coaches were loving it! The next morning, the northerners squared off against a southern California team. They looked slick in their pregame routine and the boys knew it was going to be a challenge. They were wrong... in the second inning the Socal ball club dropped 13 on a talented but raw team form a cold weather area.From there, it just got worse. The kids from the Golden state were playing nice and seemed to not be showboaters and were good sports. I wandered over to one of the parents from California to compliment them on their team. Little did I know that conversation would change my perspective on youth baseball... and other sports as well. The polite and slightly sarcastic lady replied, "We better be good, we play about 200 games a year." After I got done choking on my diet coke(They are horrible for you btw), I asked her to repeat that again. She just looked at me and held up a 2 and 2 zeros shaking her head like I heard her the first time. SHOCK crept from my brain to my stomach as I asked how many of those 11 year olds play other sports...she made a zero sign with her hand and went on to explain the coach doesn't allow it. It took me a while to come to grips with the 200 games in one year for 11 year olds. I started doing a little math about innings pitched, innings caught and any other number that might make me ill. But the number that i despised the most?...ZERO. Zero football games. Zero basketball games. Zero hockey games. Zero soccer games. Zero (fill in the blank) games or matches or whatevers. SERIOUSLY? The first thing I thought was how many opportunities were lost for those kids. Opportunities like meeting new friends...important? Heck yes!!! Lost opportunitities to become more athletic, missing chances to challenge themselves in other arenas in the sports world. MISSING OUT ON CHANCES TO LEARN MANY, MANY THINGS ABOUT

THEMSELVES. I despise talking about myself but I have had a few experiences that helped transform who I am as a person, a coach and back then, an athlete. Sport is one of the few platforms we still have to help instill character traits and each sport emphasizes different ones. When I entered high school, I was a good baseball player and an above average football player because of my athletic skill sets. But what I was until September 13, 1982 was an absolute wimp. I tackled like I was scared. I played a smart, be in the right place at the right time and make a play. I did that well but picture this... I made the tackles but got decleated most of the time. Why? Fear. Fear of getting hurt if I tacked as hard as some of the "psychos" on my team tackled... until that September day. I was playing safety against Tempe high school who had a back that ended up playing at Northern Arizona University. He was big. He was fast. He was tough. He looked for contact. Several times in the first half I "tackled him" but took the brunt of the blow. At halftime, something clicked in me and I kind of "got a little crazy". I had a buzz about me(not a concusion), I was sick of getting trucked and wanted to hit someone... THE FEAR WAS GONE! Early in the second half a sweep came my way, the fullback took out the linebacker and it was me and him with 10 yards between us. He stuck his foot in the ground and sped right at me. To be honest, that was the last thing I remeber until I "woke up" on the bottom of a massive pile of JV football players. Once the pile started to untangle, I could here my teammates going crazy yelling at me. Congratulations was abundant as we walked off the field. I had stuck my foot in the ground and sped straight at him... the result was a fumle and I knocked him out of the game. And it felt great. I was fine. It didn't hurt, it felt great. I was teased that my eveil twin brother snuck into the uniform that halftime the rest of the season. What just happened? Many years later, it is very clear. Football created a fight or flight opportunity and I fought like heck! IHAD NO IDEA I HAD THAT IN ME! My life literally changed right there. From then on, I was fearless on the fields of play. Later in my baseball career, I became a catcher worthy of a draft pick by the Oakland Athletics and a division 1 catcher. COACHES, PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS STATEMENT. I would have never achieved what I achieved in baseball if it weren't for playing football.

Brandon Nimmo, New York Mets Baseball, Football, Track

That is my story but every young athlete can have a life changing opportunity when we let them fly. Let the kids PLAY and play every sport, explore the arts, etc. NEWSFLASH... it is NOT ABOUT YOU! It is about them! Winning does matter but in order to get the best, most complete athlete and person, the kids have to have variety. Stop hoarding your athletes and literally robbing them of opportunities to grow as athletes and people! In my opinion, it is a selfish crime that isn't punishable by law but how can any youth coach sleep at night if they confine their athletes to one sport? This is reality... if you do not let your kids play other sports, YOU are responsible for every opportunity lost for each of your athletes. Wrap your brain around that. LET THEM PLAY LET THEM PLAY LET THEM PLAY