President Kennedy had a quote that the right time to fix the roof was before the rain or when the sun was shining depending on which version you buy into. I don't know which is better, but I do know the right time to work on things is before you need to which is why I was amazed yesterday when someone had asked me why we (my oldest son and I) were out taking batting practice so far in front of the season?
Ummm, to get ready?
Look, youth baseball is not all about winning, but I know of no coach who intentionally takes their kids out trying to lose either. Part of the game is to learn how to compete, how to struggle and overcome when you are down.
Meanwhile I also know that almost every coach talks about fun and talks about winning, but I hear very few coaches talking about preparing to win. What do I mean?
Well, if you can go out and beat any team without preparing to play, you probably haven't learned many good lessons, if any. I want the team that understands that winning is usually (90%) of the time about executing regular plays correctly 90% of the time. I hear lots of coaches, and even fire officers and other public safety officials, talking about 90% 90% of the time, but they don't back it up with the effort of training. Ugh! Who does this?
I don't want talk, I want work? And I don't just want practice because if you practice sloppy, you play sloppy. In any case, if you want to be great, you have to be foundationally great which means doing the little things again and again and again until they are right.
So my advice for youth baseball coaches is go fix your roof now so that the season's spring showers don't rain on your games.
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