Youth Baseball Podcast

In this episode, I explore the differences between youth baseball in Canada and in the United States with Bryan Howcroft of Baseball Oshawa.  Everything from player eligibility, to educating coaches through the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), to baseball bat specifications are covered in this episode.  

In this episode of the Youth Baseball Podcast, I sit down with Head Coach Buzz McNish to discuss the West High Rebels baseball program, the importance of academics, and some of the major pain points of youth baseball that permeate into the high school game today.  

Coach Jimmy Filingeri brings over 30 years of coaching experience to the Cadets Player Development Academy, from T-ball to high school Varsity level baseball.  Jimmy now coaches for the Cadets Baseball Academy in Dutchess County, New York, while also serving as the head coach for the Junior Varsity baseball team at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, NY. Coach Filingeri is a certified "C" Level coach with USA Baseball and is a scout for USA Baseball Northeast NTIS.  He is also a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association, or ABCA, and a frequent contributor to the official ABCA publication, Inside Pitch Magazine.

In this mini episode, I am going to be talking about the reality of playing Major League Baseball for youth athletes.  I do not do this to crush anybody's dreams, as we all need things in our lives to strive for.  However, I do want to spend a few minutes breaking down the probabilities as to reinforce the need for student athletes to focus on their schooling and not rely on a dream of playing baseball professionally as an adult.  

Welcome, welcome, welcome to today's show!  This is Episode 4, and in this episode we will be talking about the Lost Art of Baserunning.  Too often, we take for granted the importance of good, fundamental baserunning.  In practices, we dedicate so little time to improving our baserunning.  However, good baserunning can make a tremendous difference to the youth athlete's ability to contribute to the team's success.

We are measuring success in relatively small terms….  Tenths of a second in many cases as being the difference between being safe and being out.  So while being fast does reduce the time needed to go from base to base, there are plenty of other techniques that can shave tenths of a second without the need for blazing speed. 

In addition to speaking about baserunning, I will be reviewing the SKLZ Reaction, Reflex and Agility Trainer ball located at https://www.amazon.com/SKLZ-Reaction-Baseball-Softball-Agility/dp/B0042XALSC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

In this episode, I review the Max BP Pitching Machine and provide my thoughts on pitch calling from the dugout in youth sports.  In addition, I have my first guest interview with Chris Gissell of Baseball Dudes.  

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book "Outliers", famously noted that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at a skill.  So why not have those 10,000 hours completed by the time the child is 10?  Research shows that there is not a very strong correlation between a decision to specialize in baseball and achieving elite level athletic status.  However, by specializing early, parents are risking injury to the very athlete they are trying to help.  

In this mini episode, I examine the pros and cons of early baseball specialization from the research perspective, and provide my personal recommendation on whether or not specialization is right for today's youth athlete.  

There is always a bit of excitement in the air when Opening Day comes around.  Butterflies in the belly meet feelings of happiness and joy as the emotions of hitting the field wash over me.  My playing days are long over, and the best of what I can offer come as moments of surgical advice and non-surgical enthusiasm as I watch my son and his friends take the field.

Today marks Opening Day in the world of this podcast.  Once again, the butterflies are present as I stumble towards making this podcast accessible and useful to however many parents and players it reaches.  Of course, everything is experimental.  There are guides that teach one how to create a successful podcast, but the primary goal is to have a point.  The visceral feeling of virtual sunshine on my face and a cool breeze take me back to a much happier time, when I, myself played baseball with such reckless abandonment.  It is the feeling I hope to instill upon my listeners and friends as we take a journey back to when baseball was nothing more than a simple game played by youthful spirits. 

Forget for a moment about all of the ways that adults have ruined such a magical sport for our children.  Forget that more children are walking away from the game by age 13 than ever before.  The dichotomy of trying to vicariously live through someone else's dreams has forced many parents and adults to view youth baseball as a business; a cutthroat competition.  Only a select few get to call baseball their career; therefore, it is imperative to let the children enjoy Opening Day, and every day that they get to see the magic of baseball.  

This podcast is designed for all of the "dad coaches" out there.  I do not consider the phrase "dad coach" to be a bad thing.  I am proud to be a dad coach, and find that conversations with other dad coaches are more vibrant in many cases than a traditional baseball coach.  The opinions come out a little more freely, the statistics are a little less precise, and the level of embellishment on a child's spectacular play(s) are a bit more exaggerated.  My point is that all of this is okay.  We are not supposed to be perfect coaches.  We are allowed to Monday Morning Quarterback a decision that the real coach made.  More often than not, it is being done out of love for the child and love for the purity of the game.