Saturday, April 15, 2006

Reader Feedback

Vince writes:
While I'm impressed that the league wants to make sure everyone gets a chance...isn't it going to be sort of difficult for the kids to learn a position? Each position has tons of different nuances, and if a kid is only playing an inning at a time at a certain position, it's going to be a pain to try to teach a kid to, say, turn a double play at 2B as opposed to at SS. Or to teach a kid when to cheat up in case of a bunt while playing 3B. Or for a 1B to know when to abandon a ground ball to their right to cover the bag.

When I was in little league, I was pretty much a 2nd baseman/Short Stop/Very Rarely a pitcher. Once I started moving up, I got moved to 3B, and eventually to the OF, but I never played 1B or C, and I played the same position usually throughout an entire year.


Great question. Pretty soon Steve and I will decide on a kid's infield position. For most it'll be either 2B or 3B. They will then get 1 or 2 innings a game at that position. Can they in that time learn a lot of the nuances? Not really, but they can get a solid grasp of the fundamentals.

Frankly, advanced instruction is left to the travel teams. I can really help a pitcher, whether he's on travel or not, improve and same for a catcher. Beyond that, I wouldn't say a kid will really learn mastery through house league play, but I also don't think that's the intention of the league.

So basically what I'm saying is you have a valid point, it's just that the league doesn't care about it.

ADDENDUM: I think my initial post might give the impression that a kid doesn't really learn a position. I think I might have understated what we can do. While a kid won't have all of the nuisances down, they will, for instance, learn about where to throw the ball at "their" position in any game situation. And they do get more specific things, like when a 2B should be covering a bag. So while they might not reach mastery level they do get broad exposure to a lot of concepts that you would need to be successful at that position.

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