Summary

This conversation is essential for parents looking to ensure their kids have the best experience possible while navigating the often chaotic world of youth sports. We’ll offer you a list of helpful questions to ask your child’s potential coach about the team and the program to ensure that it's a good fit for you. Whether you’re a parent trying to advocate for your player or a kid just trying to figure out where you fit in, we’ve got insights that’ll help you make informed decisions. It’s all about laying the groundwork for clear communication and setting realistic expectations, because let’s face it, nobody wants to be that parent grumbling in the stands when things go sideways! So, grab a seat and let’s break it down together!

Podcast Partner Bios

Ethan Dungan - Owner of Glovehound Baseball Glove Repair Shop. Ethan played for several teams during his career including Midland and Fairfield High School. He now operates Glovehound from his shop in Fairfield, OH.

Rick Finley - Founder of MD&I Academy Baseball Training Facility in Fairfield, OH. Rick has successfully coached and trained hundreds of players at the Select, Travel, and College levels in both baseball and softball.

George Foster - Major League Player with the Giants, Reds, & Mets. NL MVP 1977, 5-Time All-Star, Silver Slugger and member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. Founder of George Foster Baseball where he offers private baseball instruction.

Timestamps:

• 00:02 - Introduction to the Complete Game Podcast
• 01:56 - Interviewing Prospective Coaches
• 31:22 - Navigating Expectations in Travel Baseball
• 36:43 - Understanding Coaching and Mentorship in Youth Baseball
• 01:03:56 - Managing Expectations in Youth Baseball

Key Takeaways:

• Interviewing a prospective coach is crucial to ensure that expectations align for everyone involved, especially the players.
• Understanding the philosophy and practice structure of a coach can help parents make informed decisions about their child's development.
• Youth baseball today is a mixed bag of positives and areas in need of improvement, reflecting the evolving landscape of youth sports.
• Navigating the world of youth baseball requires proactive communication between parents and coaches to avoid misunderstandings about playing time and roles.
• Parents should not shy away from asking about travel plans and costs to better manage expectations and budget for the season.
• Encouraging kids to play for fun can lead to a more fulfilling experience, especially if competitive aspirations don't align with family values.

Links:

• glovehound.com
• mdaiacademy.com
• georgefosterbaseball.com
• twocreativedigital.com

Teaser:

Next week we trace George's journey through the Minor Leagues and discuss the importance of the Minor League system. Then we finish with some fun Minor League Mascot trivia. Join us!

Companies mentioned:

• Glovehound
• MDI Baseball Academy
• George Foster Baseball

Welcome to the Complete Game Podcast where we're all about baseball with Ethan Dungan, owner of Glovehound Baseball glove repair shop, Rick Finley, founder of MDNI Baseball Academy and the creator of George Foster Baseball, the MVP himself, Reds hall of Famer George Foster.

I'm your host, Greg Dungan.

Now let's talk baseball.

All right, welcome Back to episode 15.

Regardless of what it says on the top of the page.

Welcome to episode 15.

Today we're going to talk about how to interview a prospective coach and a prospective baseball program.

We've alluded to this in previous episodes and today the goal is to create and leave you with a huge list of questions that you can use to get the information you want and need when it comes time for your child to try out for a, for a program.

So, yeah, today we're pretty much talking to parents, but also to players to, to figure out how to navigate this, this system.

We had, we had a long conversation the other day about the state of youth baseball and where it is and where it's going.

And there are some things about youth baseball that we really, really like.

There are some things about youth baseball that we really wish would change.

And both of those things are going to come out today and you're going to hear a very, a varied group of opinions.

But the point is always to create the most valuable experience we can for young players and coaches and parents.

And I think that there's some things that, that youth sports needs to take a look at in order to make that happen.

So we're going to talk about that today and a bunch of other things.

So, so let's get right into it from, from the beginning here.

So the first question, why should you interview a prospective coach?

Why shouldn't you just show up and just, just take whatever handouts they give you and, and you know, try out and then just take whatever they hand you.

Why should you interview them?

I say number one, just to make sure that everyone's got the same expectations because you know, you gotta, you gotta, you got one coach and maybe a couple assistant coaches and then you've got anywhere from 12 to sometimes 15 players you know, you got by the end of, and once you count in parents, you've got a couple dozen different ideas going on and if you don't lay out common ground from the very beginning, that's just asking for conflict non stop.

Well, yeah, and I think this is the theme that we're going to come back to over and over today is that generally when people are disappointed in any situation in life, it comes back to unspoken or unmet expectations.

And if you had expectations that didn't get met, you now you're disappointed, whether that's in relationships or work or sports or whatever it is.

And that at that point in time we have to ask ourselves, are those expectations realistic?

And did we make those expectations known?

And I think these are the two things that are going to govern this situation.

Because either we have unrealistic expectations, we really thought that things were going to be different than they are, or we really had a lot of strong expectations.

But we never told anybody.

We never found.

We never said anything.

So now you're halfway through the year and you're sitting in the stands and all the parents are griping and angry because they're all mad that the coach didn't do this or that or put their kid in or whatever.

And that generally results from just not having those expectations out front from the beginning.

I don't know.

What do you think?

I think why you should interview a new coach is to find out what is his philosophy for the team.

For your.

For your son, but also for the team.

Okay.

And in.

Hopefully the coach will bring that up again.

Like during the season or once the first team meeting, you'll probably bring that up.

But philosophy.

And that's the reason why I would interview a new coach.

Yeah.

But I find a lot of the parents are reluctant or afraid to talk to the coach.

Cause they think it's gonna hurt their kid playing time.

But it's like if you go to a new school or anything involving your kids, you wanna make sure that everything is out front.

Right.

And not that word, assume.

You don't want to assume something's going to happen.

Ask the coach.

You know what, like Rick had said, your philosophy, your practice time or what positions are open and.

And does my kid have a chance to.

A chance to play for this team and.

But a lot of parents, they like say reluctant to do that because they feel that, well, the coach knows.

Put in the hands of the coach.

But I. I know as a coach going way back they would want me to interview new coaches because they knew I practiced with my team.

But other coaches did not practice with their team.

And.

But I tell them right up front that we're going to practice a certain number of times during the week and we're going to have your kids out.

I'm going to call and see if they're available and going from there.

And this is the position he would be playing mainly one kid.

He was a pitcher.

But I Found out that, well, he could catch.

So I needed a catcher, would.

Had a good arm.

So all those things should be talked out even before you go to a tryout to get a chance to get the coach's number and talk to him.

Well, and that's kind of where I'm headed with at the beginning here, is that first very important conversation has to be between parent and player.

Yeah.

It has to make you.

You have to be on the same page with your player.

If, if you are looking at your son or daughter, if she's playing softball and you're looking at this situation going, you.

You really want them to be at a certain level, doing a certain thing, whatever.

And if they don't want the same thing you do or want it as badly as you do, then you're.

It doesn't matter what questions you ask the coach, you're kind of headed for trouble.

Yeah.

And I, I think first and foremost, we need to be on the same page as a family.

And then going forward, just because you're asking questions doesn't mean that you're one of those parents where you're always going to be discontent, discontented, and grumbling and complaining and, you know, overly hard on the coach and whatever.

That doesn't mean that.

What it means is that you're kind of thinking in terms of if you were the agent for your child and you're basically saying, okay, I just want to make sure what the deal here.

And it.

There's a difference between asking questions to get information and advocating for a certain outcome.

So if George is coaching and I go and I'm asking George questions about how the team runs and what it does and what his philosophy is and things like that.

That's one thing.

If I'm going to George and saying, hey, George, you're going to play my child?

And he says, well, you know, here's the policy and whatever.

I'm like, come on, George.

I mean, I got, you know, and if I'm laying into him, leaning on him, trying to get him to play my child.

Back up, get off.

That's.

That's totally different.

That's not what we're talk.

Talking about.

We're not talking about.

Yeah, we're not talking about trying to leverage playing time out of the coach.

We're talking about simply when you go getting all the information so that you and your player can make the most informed decision.

Also, too, is that most will see an ad or something or Facebook posts or social media posts about a.

A team.

Yeah.

So you want to make sure you interview the coach to make sure that what they are posting is what you're trying out for.

That's true.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, you want to circle back around and kind of reaffirm, you know.

Okay, this is what you said.

This is tryout is going to be for this level of competition.

And this.

Is this what we're going to play?

Sure.

Another thing is to.

To find out, to enter why, to interview a new coach.

How many dad coaches is going to be on the staff?

Right, right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And these are all.

These are all important questions that we're going to be listing out here in just a second.

So I think we're clear on why we should interview a coach.

I think that's.

It's just good to get the information so that you can make a solid decision.

So you finished the season last year exhausted from all the travel and the tournaments, and you tossed your gear in a bag where it's been sitting all winter.

Now you're ready for another year.

But your favorite glove that fits just right is an error waiting to happen.

The leather is dry, the laces are brittle, and this year you're on a new team with new colors, and it sure would be cool if it matched well.

Wouldn't it be great if you had a glove guy who could help you out with that?

You do.

His name is Ethan and he owns Glovehound baseball glove repair shop in Fairfield, Ohio.

Just contact him@glovehound.com and upload pictures of your glove.

He'll give you a call back to talk it over and then you can send it in for a repair, relays, recondition, whatever you need.

If you're in the area, you can even just stop by the shop.

That way you don't have to bother with shipping.

And a lot of times he can even fix it while you wait.

Rawlings, Wilson, Mizuno, all Star, Nakona, he's seen them all.

And he's helped players at all levels, from beginners to pros.

Last year he worked on a glove that Jose Trevino used in the world Series.

And he can help you, too.

You can find Glovehound on Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and on the web@glovehound.com you're only going to get busier.

So reach out today and give your glove the love it deserves at Glove Hound.

Yeah, let's get into the actual questions that we're going to ask.

Okay, so let me give us some overall questions and then we'll kind of bring in how you, what Questions you would ask to, to tackle that issue.

Okay, so if a coach won't talk playing time, and most of them will not, most coaches will tell you, I'm not in talk plan time.

Don't ask me about playing time.

I'm not going to answer you about playing time.

It's not going to happen.

If the, if the coach won't talk playing time, what questions can you ask to get the information that you need?

Roster how many players?

That's the first thing.

How many players are you looking to feel?

How many spots are you looking to fill?

What's going to be the capacity of your team?

So that's one thing.

And I, I think a lot of parents and sometimes coaches don't understand that as you move up.

It used to be that, say, for instance, 13, you should have about the same amount of players that you have for that age group or one under or one over, depending on if you're doing POS and stuff like that.

So you're saying if you're playing 13, you.

You should have about 13 kids.

Yes, yes.

That's an interesting rule.

And then, and then from there, and then from there, and George, and you guys know this.

And then from there you got 13, you know, you can only play nine or 10 or roster bat.

So we'll, we'll get into that later.

I think this is because I think I'm getting ahead of, so.

But yeah, that roster is a great.

Place to start, right?

Yes.

And how many positions are open?

Yes.

Well, how many position you need to feel?

Yes.

And now you're gonna, you're gonna see how much playing time.

Get a feel how much playing time.

That there is in the playing time.

Thanks.

Yeah.

Like, how much, how much is there to be earned?

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Another one that I've, I've heard in the, in the job interview kind of space is what does a successful person at my position look like?

So if you're a third, a third baseman, you ask, okay, what do you want out of your third baseman skills?

Yeah, what, what is going to earn that guy the playing time?

Or if I want to pitch, what, what, what kind of skills do I need to have that would make me the kind of pitcher you want to put me out there?

And maybe he goes, okay, you need to locate two pitches.

You need to be able to throw this many pitches in a given outing.

I need this.

You know that.

Yeah.

So that's a way to, to flush out the expectations.

And you can go, okay, I think I can do that.

Or this isn't a fit.

Let me go somewhere else.

Those are great questions because also guess what?

Asking those questions should set you up.

To understand the experience of that.

So.

Yes.

So I, I always love for, for parents to ask me questions because that lets me know.

It doesn't put me on guard at all, man, because I'm, I'm.

I'm just open, open book type guy, and I'm straight up and, and very transparent.

And if you see guys as kind of scared to do that, then you kind of, kind of like get irritated.

Yes.

They get irritated because of the questions.

Yes.

Here's a, Here's a couple of questions that go hand in hand.

Number number one, how often will you practice?

Now, this would be.

So let's say, let's say your child tries out.

There's 13 kids on the team, and your child does not be, does not end up as a starter.

Okay.

So how does your child have the opportunity to earn one of those starting spots?

How can he demonstrate that he has the skills?

Maybe he had a bad tryout, maybe he was struggling that day, maybe, whatever.

But yet, you know, he's got the, the, or the, the potential.

Yes.

Okay.

Also, if he's working with a private teacher, you know that by the end of the season he's going to have improved.

So how does he display that improvement?

That's a good question.

Sorry, it's.

Do you asking the coach, do you mind my son getting outside help?

That is true, because I had work with kids and it was on a high school level, though, and, and then the.

He told the coach that was working with me and that they said, well, if you're gonna play for this team, you don't work with anybody getting any outside help.

But if you do, you know, don't, don't tell them about it.

Right.

But just finding out, because a lot of these coaches, they get, they want to have control.

Yeah.

So along with, I think what I say.

Oh, how often will you practice?

Okay.

Right.

The second.

How.

Well, how do you run a practice?

Yeah, well, the second thing is how often did you practice last year?

And this is going to be a theme with me all, all this episode.

Okay.

Because people don't change that dramatically that often.

Okay.

This is the whole leopards and spots thing.

Okay.

People might make incremental changes to the way they do things over time, but very rarely does someone make a large change to what they're doing.

So if they are telling you this, we're going to practice three times a week, and then last year they Only practiced once a week.

And they, yeah, they didn't practice from about half the season on.

It won't be long and they will regress to the mean and they will go back to doing what they did.

Because that's what people do.

Yeah.

Okay.

Making promises that don't fail.

Understand that what we're going to do, if what we're going to do is different than what we did, then the truth is somewhere in the middle.

And manage your expectations accordingly.

The other thing is, where will you practice?

Okay.

If the person you're.

If the coach is like, well, I don't.

I mean, we'll get a, you know, there might be a thing.

I don't know, we'll find a field somewhere.

If he doesn't have a plan for where they're going to practice, I'm telling you, they're probably not going to practice.

And if they do, they're not going.

To practice consistent or a backup plan.

Yeah.

If you're going to play for a large organization that's known for being around for a while or whatever, do they have a facility?

Do they have access to a facility?

How often can you get into that facility?

A lot of people, yeah, can't.

And that's what I've been hearing.

Is that facility just for that top team or top two or three teams, and your kids team isn't one of those teams.

So even though they had this really nice facility where you went for this tryout and it's all kinds of impressive, your kid never gets to play there because they're not on, you know, the certain level of team that plays there all the time.

So, you know, these are questions asked, where will you practice?

That's always a good, A good way to go because if they don't have a plan, that tells you something.

Here's another one, too.

And this is more for younger, younger ages because it's going to diminish as they get older.

But ask the coach, do you ever roster bat?

So sometimes they'll say, yeah, we roster bat if we're in pool play, or we roster bat if we're in scrimmage games or pickup games or whatever.

Nobody roster bats when the, when the, when the game's on the line and you're trying to win a tournament.

Okay, that just.

That doesn't happen.

But find out.

And by roster batting, in case you don't know.

It's just when they bat, everybody, even if they're not playing a field position, and there are pros and cons to that, and it can get you into some situations where it limits your flexibility as a coach to bring people in, put people out and that kind of thing.

So you have to be careful when you do that.

But a lot of times a coach will say, yeah, you know, we do those, we do that in some games.

So that at that point you at least know that your child's going to get some advantage.

Yeah, guaranteed in some of those games.

Now it may be down to the, to the starters when you get to later in the tournament, but at least you know that there's a shot he'll get in.

But that goes back to what you had said about how often do you practice?

Because you're probably going to ask how many games do you anticipate to play?

Yeah, not all games are created equally because if you're not, you're supposed to play a six inning game.

But in a tournament, very rarely do you actually play a six inning game.

And so if you play a, a three inning run rule or even a four inning, you know, time limit game, you're going to count that as a game.

Because I played a lot of, a lot of games where I only got one or two at bats.

And it's like how, how advantageous was that really?

But technically it went into the catalog of we played a game.

Yeah, that's another huge drawback to the tournament system is that because everything is time limited to try and get all the, all the games in, in a weekend, very rarely do you ever actually get a full six.

It's kind of, it's kind of like going off of innings, pitch versus pitches thrown.

You know, it's not, they're not always equivalent.

Let's move on to what should you ask about travel now before, I mean, let me, let me preface this.

Okay.

I know that because Rick has made the distinction many times of having a difference between travel ball and select ball.

And I'm going to ask us to come from the perspective of since there's hardly any wreck ball anymore, that sort of wreck and travel have kind of compressed themselves into this thing called select baseball that is kind of, kind of a, a lot of different things.

So we're going to talk mainly about the travel that you do playing on a select baseball team.

We're not saying that you're flying to Denver to play in some national tournament.

We're talking about the, the normal travel that a, that a local select team would do.

Yeah.

So what, what coast, what questions should you ask about travel?

Well, how many, how many times you're going to travel where are you going to travel and what's the.

An additional cost that's going to be involved.

And because a lot of times, you know the key they're traveling just to like a vacation and not traveling to really help develop the kids.

But I, when I travel I'm making sure that okay, we're looking at the funding because you're doing hotels, that's how you set your budget.

Yeah.

So I'm concerned about number one developing the players.

And secondarily as for travel because if you know Tri State is okay.

Yeah.

But not having to stay overnight and.

I'll say be leery of travel with a brand new team because if you're joining a team that's been together and the coach has a pretty good idea of where they're at, maybe a little further travel makes some sense.

But I can speak from personal experience.

It was a first year team and we had at least we had several out of town tournaments.

One of them we went down to a Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach.

Nice facility, all that.

We went 0:10 in pool play.

We lost 10 straight games in 101 degree heat.

Yeah.

Play a supernatural Buffalo Bills going to the Super Bowl.

And then it came time for the first elimination game and everybody was kind of hoping that we'd just lose the elimination game and go home because we were already 0 and 10.

We won the first elimination game and then had to play the second one.

But not that going to that tournament in and of itself was a bad thing.

There was no way to predict how good our team would be.

It was already on the schedule and you know, you'd already paid your entry into that.

So just not saying that it's bad to travel, but you got to see.

The strength of your strengths and weaknesses of your team to be able to compete.

Yeah.

You need to have a little reassurance.

Before you agree with that.

That makes that cost a lot because back then we, our mindset travel wasn't selected was travel.

We played the top teams around the country and stuff like that.

And we were playing for a national championship.

But all but we'll play regional, we'll play Tri State and we'll play around the country.

So that was three.

And we averaged 60, 65 to 70 games in today's market.

You couldn't play that many games, the cost is too, too vast, man.

And we traveled a lot now even from 13, 14, probably anywhere from 30 to 50, maybe 30 to 40, give or take.

And I think what.

And then you got to know the makeup of your team to put them.

And if you're going to playing a, a travel or like George said, you know, around the country type tournament, you got to make sure that that tournament fits what your team is of not guess, guess what?

Because if you, you go 0 and 10, you get 0 and 5, there's probably a chance that your, your players or parents won't come back next year.

Yeah, they get discouraged and that's, they get discouraged and that's pretty much what happened.

And I played on several teams where there was a, there was a mind towards, oh well, we'll play a big one at the end of the year.

And, and that got canceled because everybody realized we had no shot and didn't feel like paying the money.

And I'm, I'm glad that they got canceled, but I think some of those expectations could have been tempered in the beginning and avoided.

Yeah, you gotta, you know, work on their confidence.

You don't want to put them in tournaments that's over their heads.

But being able to be competitive out there.

Yes.

And it's gotta have a balance too, of being challenged and being stupid, you know.

Well, here's my thing is as a parent, what I really want to know.

You can't straight up ask the question because no one's going to give you a real answer to it.

But what I really want to know is why are we traveling?

What's the purpose?

What's the point?

Right.

Are we traveling because we feel that our team is so good that there's no local competition that can touch us and we have to go somewhere else in order to find it?

More time than that is that, that the parents or parents driven or the coach driven because they want to, they want to go to this certain place, not just, I mean, the play is secondary.

Yeah.

Compared to just going on so called.

Exactly right.

And that's planned vacation.

Yes, plan vacation.

Where I'm, where I'm going.

Is that are we going because we are big shots or are we going because we want to feel like big shots?

And this is going to be sort of along with the, the, what did you do last year?

This is the other theme that's going to be with me today and that is the, the whole, the idea of expectations and dealing in reality.

Here's a couple more that I came up with, for instance, how often did you travel last year?

Right.

Okay.

If they went to one local tournament last year and now they want to go, you know, take on the universe in, in, in Alabama or, or Myrtle.

Beach or wherever they go, Florida, whatever, Ethiopia.

They're going to go down there like you're in Ohio.

Okay.

You're going to go down to Florida and you're going to play against teams that have been playing all year round because they have no winter.

Then do you really have a shot at that or do you just want to go to Florida?

That's, that's a question.

Okay, so how many did you play last year?

The other thing is, where did you travel last year?

Like last year, where did you go?

Did you go around here?

Did you go like Kentucky, Tennessee, wherever did you go?

You know, was it, was it a, an overnight for one night?

Was it, did you go down there and start on Thursday and come home on Sunday?

Right.

And stay several days?

And what, like, what, what does that look like?

And then how did you travel?

Drive or fly?

I mean, that's.

More money's involved.

Yeah.

So, you know, you're looking at some of these questions about travel, so you're not going to get an answer to why are we doing this?

Okay.

Because they're going to look at you like, oh, well, you obviously don't want to be here.

It's what everyone does.

Yeah.

This is, this is what you do.

So then ask those questions.

Ask, ask the, the little bite sized questions.

But it's fine.

What's the purpose as the parents, the purpose of having your kid to play?

Is it to you play?

Because you're playing.

But I got to, I want to go to Disneyland.

That's why you're putting your, your, your, your son on that team or they're gonna go to Disneyland or you putting the team, the player on the team to learn to get better.

Because that's what I feel it should be all about, the growth that you're going to get from having that kid on that team.

Yeah.

And I've had parents that they see in the middle of the season that no, this is not a fit.

Even though they played, their paid, their money is not going to get any, the monies back.

I said that's a good, good move because you're looking at your kid development and you start to mold the kid.

I mean at, at any age, but especially when they're young and they, they're sitting on the bench now, they start getting negative thoughts.

You know, I'm not.

I'm not.

It's not that I'm not good as the other player.

I'm not good.

Yeah.

So they get too personal.

Yeah.

So that's why I took pride when I was a coach.

Making sure everybody's going to play.

Yes.

And then everybody's going to practice.

So make them feel special, that they have something value to offer to the team.

Like we talked about last week, making sure everybody plays is not something.

You're not doing that out of charity.

Right.

What you're doing is you're saying, I took 13 kids.

I'm going to win a game with 13 kids.

I'm going to have a strategy that involves these kids more.

So winning is the byproduct.

I'm going to go out and try to be competitive.

There you go.

That's.

You win.

It's.

It's like, say it's a byproduct.

But if you focus just on winning, you're going to find that you're going to.

A lot of kids going to be limited in what they're.

As far as playing time.

But if you're looking to develop these kids.

That's a good point.

You want to make sure that they get a lot of playing time to show.

Show you and then show themselves what they can do.

But if I got 13 kids on the team, I'm going to compete with 13 kids on the.

Right.

Right.

And that's.

Yeah.

Otherwise, don't take 13 kids or don't take those 13 kids also, too.

And this is for parents.

Not everyone is going to be playing shortstop.

Right.

Okay.

You know, so your kids should be working at home on other positions.

Outfield, second base, third base.

Yeah.

Always have a secondary.

Oh, yeah.

Always got to have a secondary.

Well, yeah, because if your kids mainly.

If your kids only ever played.

Only ever played the infield.

And go back and listen to our episode on playing the outfield.

Yes.

There was some really good stuff in that one.

If your kids only ever played the infield and you go to practice and you notice there might be a shot to, you know, earn one of those spots in the outfield, man.

You find a private teacher and go ham on learning how to play the outfield because you know, that could be your ticket in.

Yeah.

Ticket in and get a lot of playing time.

Another thing to interview just.

It just popped in my head.

Am I going to be looking outside of our team for other players, like guest players?

Yes.

That's.

That's.

That's a plus.

I've had.

I had.

We've had that happen to us before with my younger son.

Well, with Ricky's team.

And it was okay, I think again back then we circle back, it was bad.

Now since people are connected to the amount of money that they, they pay and someone comes in, man, and you sit your kids sitting on the bench, I would be probably be pissed off too, man.

Like, dude, yeah, he's playing ahead of my son.

I don't care if my son ain't that good.

So.

And I understand.

So I see both sides of it again, as I.

As you get older, you get smarter.

And I hopefully, I see.

I see things a little bit different from the travel baseball that I coached in to now because of, I think, expectations, what we've spoke about and reality.

Sure.

But it's back to people want their cake and eat it too.

Yes, sir.

So I want to be competitive over here, but yet you bring, you bringing it if you're bringing in a guest player and to play in my son's position, because I had this situation come up.

The catcher, I said, I kept telling him, don't throw down, don't throw in second.

Just throw back to the pitch.

What did he do?

Throw down and throw the ball in center field.

So, okay, I'm going to teach him a lesson.

So I brought another kid in, another catcher in, and he had a good arm.

And now I say if somebody runs, fine.

Then the parent got upset.

Why?

Who made this decision to bring in somebody else?

And she thought I was gonna back off, but I was like, ethan, no, I did it.

Anybody have anything to say about it?

Looks like the dashboard is lighting up, man, with these calls.

Well, let's move on to the next.

The next subject, which is instruction.

So what should you ask about instruction?

Oh, that's.

Oh.

Do you work on fundamentals?

Yes.

Do you work on fundamentals?

And do you work on.

I would say situational play.

Yes.

But that's.

Situational play is really the foundation of.

Of learning or playing a game because you don't know, say, doing cutoff.

You don't know where to be in certain situations.

But working on fundamentals.

Fundamentals of hitting, throwing, running, sliding, all the aspects of the game.

And, and you, you might ask that question a little, a little differently or with a.

You'd ask the same question, but with a little different expectation if they're 12 than if they're 16.

But you could still ask the question.

I agree with you.

How much does.

Do you.

Because in the end, you know, we, we watched the Reds play and we've gone man, these guys need some fundamentals.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes you can never, never let go completely.

Oh, no, that's, that's.

Yeah, that makes a sound.

Sound Ball club.

As a, as a coach, you should know the strengths and weaknesses of your players.

Okay.

And the strengths and weaknesses of your coaches.

Because if you got a kid, that is the, the fact that the, the players are playing for you and the parents are paying, then guess what, you got to step outside.

And if a kid is struggling hitting as a coach, someone has to spend that additional time working with them.

Okay.

For me as a coach and the programs that I've been a part of, I wanted to make it seem like you got more than what you paid for because of the extra time we put in.

Sure.

So that means that as a coach again, you might tell the kid to show up for practice about a half hour earlier or we'll, we'll do something after practice.

Yes.

Yeah.

And when you, when you set philosophy like that, you start noticing that a lot of kids want to do.

So practice ends up going a lot longer.

And we used to always tell the parents, don't, don't worry about picking your son up on time.

Right.

Because that we, we built that expectations that players know that if they wanted to work on something.

No.

They can stay an extra minute trying.

To improve the game.

Yes, exactly.

And also tell you which players are hungry.

They're right.

Yeah.

Right there.

I had a kids this on a pro level and I intensely sometimes would ask, are you able to stay later?

Oh no, my girlfriend's coming in town.

I had to do something else.

So it becomes priority.

So you pay, you're paying to be on the team, right.

You're not paying to play, you playing paying to be on the team.

But as a coach, it's your implied obligation to work with that kid to get better.

So let's come back to, as we come back to, to instruction.

Okay, here we go.

So here are some questions.

Who will instruct them?

Is it the coach?

Is it the assistant coach?

Does the coach have assistant coaches who all have specialties?

This guy teach pitching and this guy does hitting and this guy.

Okay.

Or are you bringing somebody in like, okay, we're all going to take our team and we're going to go to Rick's facility or we're going to go meet with George once a week, whatever it is, and they're going to get instruction.

Really?

All 13 of them?

How's that going to work?

Okay, so what does that look like?

That's when you say okay, how.

All right, so what kind of instruction are they going to get and who will instruct them?

Then you ask, what position did the instructor play?

Right.

I want to know this.

If the instructor was a pitcher and your kid is an outfielder or a catcher or whatever, then that's something to factor in.

It doesn't mean that he's not good at teaching those things, but it does mean that you're not.

You're not getting instruction from somebody who played the position that your child is playing.

So just know that.

Just have that information so that if it, if it does go sideways or you don't get what you maybe thought you were going to, there's probably a reason.

So what position did they play?

What was the highest level that the instructor played?

That's very important.

That's important.

You know, Is your instructor part of the 3% that played in high school?

Is your instructor part of the 1% that played in college or the minors or the major?

Is.

What's your resume?

Okay, so what's the highest level?

Did that instructor play?

Also, what position did you play as a coach?

George mentioned this earlier.

You're talking to the coach.

Just curious.

What position did you play?

Just like to know exactly when you.

Certain positions lend themselves to more strategic ways of seeing the game.

Catchers, pitchers will see the game differently than infielders or outfielders.

That doesn't mean any of them can't be effective coaches.

It's just something to have in mind.

Okay, then finally, what was the highest level that you played?

Right.

Highest level you played.

And you're talking about as a parent, as.

Yeah.

You're asking the coach.

Okay.

Yeah.

Right.

Let's assume that the coach is not the one instructing the children.

Yes.

What was the, what was the highest level that the coach.

And then have some references behind that.

Seriously?

Yeah.

Have some references behind that.

Because I think that, like, I played with a lot of friends of mine that, you know, played minor league base, and they don't even know that they can go to Baseball Reference and pull up their, their, their stats and stuff and see their backgrounds and stuff.

They don't even know that I did.

But today, Today's game, you can, like, they call them hitting instructors, but they're, they're not really hitting instructor batting instructors.

But you, you have these guys making tens of million dollars a year, and yet you got a guy who doesn't have the knowledge to be able to teach these guys because you haven't been in that situation before.

And it's, it's not you can read a textbook said, this is what you do.

Amanda, third base.

This is what you need to do.

But you experience.

Experience.

And then what?

Because in my case, what can I do to encourage that pitcher to throw a certain, certain pitch?

Sure.

And I used this example before with, with Austin Hayes.

He had struck out three or four times in a row against the Rockies, but they got him out on the slider, slider, slider.

But you don't have an instructor in the dugout saying, okay, crowd the play.

Right crowd to play like fastball.

Yes.

And the thing is this is, and my final question would be this.

If you're talking to the coach or you're talking about the instructor, who did they study with?

Who did you study?

Okay, who was your instructor?

Because, you know, I can look at any of the people that, that coach teams that Ethan was on, and most of them may have had a high school coach, may have had a, may have had a college coach.

In one instance, there was one, one of them played in the minors.

He had, he would have made it that far.

Then some of the people that you went to for instruction, they had played in the minors or whatever, so they would have had that level of instruction.

I'm not talking about picking apart the individual that they started, that they studied with.

I want to know at what level were they receiving instruction.

Right.

So it's one thing to say, well, I received, I had a really good high school coach.

It's another thing for George to say, okay, I spent every day with Ted Klosewski.

Okay, There's a difference there.

Okay.

You were learning from one of the greatest hitters of all time on a regular basis at a level that most people will never see.

That's a whole different quality of experience and instruction.

So again, I'm not saying ask any of these questions because you're trying to say, I got you.

You're just, you don't qualify.

You're trying to gather the information to manage your audition.

Since you're, you're going for an audition, you want to make sure the right people are there to see your, see your child.

Well, funny thing about that is I know a guy right now that he, he teaches hitting.

I don't even think he played high school.

Truthfully, I never said anything about it.

But people, I don't think people ask.

They just say, oh, he does this and that and well, and it varies.

It matters how old your child is too.

So like if my child is 10, well, goodness, I can start teaching a 10 year old how to swing a bat and get basic instruction, but then I'm not going to be much good beyond that.

I need to find somebody with a higher, higher experience than that.

Now if my child is 16, 17, 18, got higher aspirations, they are working on putting those guys, they are trying to get there, then.

Okay, then I need to know that I need to find somebody at a higher level than that.

That doesn't mean that every hitting instructor needs, needs to be a batting champion from the major leagues, but it does mean that if, if you want, if you think your child is, has a shot at getting there right, then at some point you do need to move on to a higher level of, of instruction at that point because you are going to be moving beyond what the average did.

Also, you get into hitting our pitching, but you want to be able to.

It depends on your, your cow, your child specialized.

So if your, your child is a power hitter, big strong kid, you don't want to go to a guy who just singles hitter.

Sure.

Right.

And so being able to drive the ball and yes.

Knowing the, the strategy of hitting.

Sure.

And so but like in pitching, if, if, if the, if the coach was like a Randy Jones, you know, sinker, slider, screwball, compared to a guy who.

Nolan Ryan, he's a power pitcher.

Yep, absolutely.

How about, how about this one?

How about how many of your former players have gone on to play colleges or the majors now?

Especially on the college level.

Yes.

So who do you get?

Because you're knowing that, okay, they're gonna be the scouts here, watching, watching the team.

There you go.

It's like, oh, yeah, more.

How much exposure will my kid get if it's a high school?

More high school and college level.

And that's the other thing is if your coach played in college or played in, in the majors at some point or in the minors, odds are he was probably scouted and he's familiar with the process.

If your coach never played that high, he's not thinking in terms of how scouting works.

You've mentioned several times I had kids on my team.

They were here.

I wanted to make sure this kid got playing time because I knew they were going be to be scouts there.

And what the, you know, if a coach never played at that level, they may not be thinking about those things.

Right, exactly.

Ethan is more than my podcast partner.

He's my son.

And like every baseball parent, my first priority was his development as a player.

Every year we'd start out with a new coach and a new team, making new promises, only to end up Playing the same old tournaments with little to no practice in between.

You know what I'm about talking, talking about.

That's why I'm so thankful that we found MDNI Academy.

I first met Coach Rick over a decade ago when Ethan was just a kid.

And I'll never forget the relief I felt watching his first lesson.

I knew right then that no matter what team he played for, my son would have amazing, consistent instruction from someone who cared.

Rick has trained baseball and softball players at the select, travel, and even college levels.

So I knew that Ethan could continue his extra through training approach.

For his whole baseball career.

He learned hitting, pitching, catching, fielding, and more all in one place.

Most of all, he learned to love the greatest game in the world and how to play it with character and integrity.

So if you're wearing yourself out running all over town to multiple teachers or worse, you're counting on that new select coach to actually develop your child.

You need to check out MDNI Academy today.

Go to mdaiacademy.com and contact Coach Rick to learn how you can get all the baseball instructions to you need from someone who cares about your favorite player as much as you do at MDNI Academy.

All right, so the next thing would be talking about games slash tournaments.

What should you ask about?

Games and tournaments or if you, if.

You'Re going to play during the week or you're going to play during just the weekend.

I found that was convenient for me to play weekend, I mean to play tournaments.

Because during the week, you know, you have school involved and the parents working, they're not able to get the kid there.

And I just found that on the weekend it's easy.

So we're letting him know right away, you know, this is a tournament play.

You're going to average three, three to five games a weekend.

I don't do a lot of games during the week, mostly on the weekends because parents are running availability.

Yes.

Now, I would, what I would do on occasions, even though we said we'll practice twice a week, if I have a kid that might be struggling pitching or something, I might do a round robin, like a little scrimmage game during the weekday, but I would let the parents know ahead of time so they can set their schedules up and, you know, so.

But I would do it probably at about, I think we'll do about 6:30 and we probably wouldn't play a full game.

We'll play as long as that sun stayed out and then we'll just shut it down.

So it wasn't really.

It helped get those Players the reps that they needed.

Ethan, what would you ask about games and tournaments?

I would like to know how much preparation you're going to have before the game.

Being a pitcher, nothing was worse than not knowing if you're going to pitch when you show up.

I mean, that drove me nuts.

I had some.

Some coaches who are really good about letting me know the night before.

Right.

And I always.

That's what I did.

Always appreciated that or even.

And that.

That mainly goes for starters, but also for relievers.

And say, these three guys are my relievers for this day.

And then, you know, if you got to go to another guy, so be it.

But to have a game plan, man, because that was.

That was such a pet peeve of mine.

If I wanted.

If I was going to catch that day or if I was going to play infield or if I was going to pitch, I wanted to show up to the park knowing that was going to be my role that day and not have it to try to do too many things all at once.

That's the word.

Role.

Yep.

Your role.

And that's what Sparky Anderson was good at.

He let everybody know what their role were, the ones who weren't starting.

So now you feel part of the team and then you being prepared.

And people would say, well, you're on the team, you should be prepared, but you want to be prepared first.

If you're going to pinch hit, okay, you're going to pinch hit or pinch run.

If this guy gets on base, are you going to.

Going for defense?

So you get yourself prepared for not only physically but mentally prepared.

Yeah.

How many ask how many games did you play last year?

Again, trying to figure out what that is.

It's not going to be dramatically different if they now.

Now the other, the other runs into another.

One of my questions is if they go, well, this is really.

This is the first year for this team.

Okay.

At that point in time, that tells you something.

Okay.

That tells you somebody got disgruntled and started something new most of the time.

Now it could legitimately be the first year of a really great organization.

That's always possible.

I don't want to cast aspersion on that.

But at the same time, if you're the first guinea pigs in, you got to know they're going to be bumps in the road.

So that in addition to that, is that I don't.

I'm not stressing winning or losing, but find out what.

What the record was.

Sure.

Yeah.

So that is seeing that if it's the team's competitive.

Yeah.

Also kind of take a little bit of a, of a shortcut here or a little bit of sidebar here.

How long have you been with the organization?

You can ask the coach that.

How long have you been with the organization?

If this is your first year in, you know, maybe, maybe whatever natural disaster or predatory animal was, was the name of the thing and they've been around for a while, but this is his first time in or her first time in.

If you're playing softball, then you know, that's cool, but just know that going in also.

How long has the team been in existence?

How long is this team right here?

This poor number of people, how long has this been in existence?

If it's.

We've been doing.

We've been playing together in one iteration or another for two, three years.

Okay.

You got a much better shot at being part of a quality program.

If it's all brand new, then, you know, it's all up in the air.

And you should know that this part makes sure that.

Get specifics on it, not generality.

What is the fee?

Is the fee is this.

Yeah, because it's going to change.

When is it going to change?

Yes.

And we're going to talk about money here in a minute, but that's a good question.

So also, how many non tournament games did you play last year?

Like, I'm just curious, is it all tournaments?

And you know, if, if it's like what George has said or what these guys said when they've said, hey, we're going to come right out front and tell you this is all tournament tournaments, that's fine.

If they're not going to come out and tell you it's all tournaments, then how many non tournament games did you play?

Because then one.

Nothing's quite as aggravating as thinking that there are going to be more games than there actually are.

So if you come into the, into the thing thinking that we're going to play, you know, each week we're going to play a tournament.

So there'll be, you know, or let's say we're going to do four tournaments in the year and each one of those is going to have four or five games.

Yeah, but we've always, that we've already discussed those probably aren't going to be full games and they're not going to be roster batting for all those games and they're not going to be playing everybody for all those games.

Because when you're in a tournament, everything is the playoffs and everybody's trying to win.

So if all you have are tournaments and you're not part of the starters and there's no plan for practice and a way for your kid to win a spot, know where you stand because at that point in time there may be a different route that you want to go.

So how many non tournament games did you play last year?

I want to know that.

I gotta.

I'm gonna add to that.

Sure.

So from, from the younger age groups probably ask when will you release the schedule?

There you go.

So they can plan vacations or get off work early.

Now from 13 and up.

I think parents need to know that depending on certain tournaments, you might play on a Wednesday.

Especially in your high school age, you might play on a Wednesday or Thursday.

So then you got to find a ride if they're not driving their kid, you know.

And also as far as out of town tournaments and stuff, you got to let a parent know ahead of time so they can schedule vacations or that time off or whatever that might be.

So.

And when you actually that usually because.

And I'm just errand on, on with coaches, I don't think.

And I think coaches also look at, see who's in the tournament also.

So sometimes that that schedule might not come out till February and March maybe.

But then again that parent is waiting like man, I gotta hurry up and put my vacation time in.

So I need to.

So you always made sure I got the schedule out?

Yes, you got to try to get it out earlier so they could, so they can know.

And then the other question is, okay, so if we've already pre scheduled our tournaments like what Ethan was talking about earlier, we've pre scheduled these tournaments.

What do we do if.

What do we do if we're not prepared to go to those tournaments?

Like what happens if half the team is injured and we're.

Or it just, it didn't go the way you wanted it to go and whatever.

For me that's when I go out and get guest players.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it worked pretty good.

Yeah.

But you want to know they have a plan for that, right?

Let them know.

Let the parents know up front.

Yeah.

What is.

You need to have that because otherwise what?

Nothing.

Nothing is more frustrating than having the team did not come along the way you thought it was going to and they overshot and promised into tournaments that you have to be on top of your game in order to be part of those tournaments.

And so now your team is a subpar team.

You're.

You got to go because you're obligated.

They've already paid the money, but, you know, you're just going to go and get your head handed to you in some other state.

That's frustrating.

That's hard to handle.

So what, what are the, you know, what's your plan?

Yeah, what's the plan for that?

But we talked, well, I know we talked about money before, but questioning where's the money's going.

Was it for uniforms?

You got to have more uniforms.

It's for the umpires and for the, the rental of the field.

Let's go down that route right now because I have a question about that.

So what should we be asking about money?

It's number one, asking the fee.

Yeah, the fee.

And then, then, then farther, the more detail is, well, what is it paying for?

Right.

Yeah.

Or it's going to be an additional amount later on.

It just.

Is the total amount for the whole year or are we going to have to come up more money later on?

And what, yeah, and what are you getting?

Like, is your, is your, are you paying this fee and you're just getting, you know, five different uniforms and a, and a duffel bag and, you know, a bunch of swag or, and if you do, if you are getting a bunch of swag, then who's doing the instruction?

And are we paying for good instruction?

Like, you know, I would much rather my kid get a couple of shirts and a hat and go to really good Instagram instruction.

Yeah.

Then get a lot of fancy swag and not have a good hitting or pitching instructor.

And does the, and does the fee goes towards the, the older teams?

Well, you, I mean, they'll, they'll always tell you no, but.

Yeah.

Yeah, man.

So here's the other question.

Is, does, does any of the money that I'm paying go toward travel cost or coach?

Is travel cost entirely on top of what we're paying to be on the team?

Either way, that's fine.

Just know that.

Right.

So prepared.

Don't get, don't get halfway into the thing and find out there you're going to Florida and you're finding out that you're going to Florida and peak.

And they want to play in Orlando and it's peak tourist season, so all the hotels are expensive and you know, next thing you know, it's costing you an extra 5, 700, you know, a thousand dollars to, to travel down here.

And you were like, wait a minute, I didn't see that coming.

So just no going up ours all travel on top of that or does this go to kind of COVID some of the Travel costumes.

Over, over.

And another thing as a.

And one of the things you don't want to do.

Circle back around and ask parents for more money.

No.

So make sure you set your budgets a little higher so you don't have to.

Have to do that.

And also, parents should ask, are there any fundraising opportunities?

Some parents in these days, they have just, you know, pay the full cost.

Some parents don't have it like that.

So they want to find out what the fundraising opportunities.

Or can I pay it in installments?

Yeah, and usually it is.

It's usually, okay, first team meeting, we need what about 2, $300 or whatever it might be?

And then you break it down from that point on.

Yeah, so.

Yeah, yeah, so what?

Yeah, that's very good point.

What is the pay schedule to get that?

And what options do I have to help with paying the fees?

The other thing about money, does the coach get paid to coach the team?

Yeah, exactly.

I just want to know.

Yeah.

Like, I don't, I don't need to know how much.

I'm not picking at you because you're getting paid or I'm not angry because you're not.

I'm just curious.

I want to know.

I want to know what, what role money plays in everyone's motivation.

That's just an important thing.

So I was a paid coach, and so we would break down the budget to.

To the nil, and we'll send it to the parents so they'll know.

It's.

Everything's pretty transparent.

So when I coach the Riverbats, even mdni, and you know what other team, the other team I coach, I had a Colorado, two or three people.

I let them handle the budget and stuff, and we sent out the emails and stuff to the parents.

And that's the other thing.

Like if I have a.

If I have an amazing coach and I'm having a great year and it's.

Everything's.

And I'm getting what I paid for and my child is developing, I want the guy to be compensated.

I want.

Yeah.

I want there to be to be some reward for all the hard work that's going in.

I get that.

So it's not always that you're trying to be, as you're trying to be cheap about it, but you just want to know.

It's good to know if someone's being paid or they're not.

Yeah, I agree.

And talking about organization questions, okay, so who actually runs the organization?

Like, who is that person?

What is his name?

Yes.

And then how can I contact him if I have questions about the organization, not about you.

I'm not picking at you.

The coach who's in charge.

Yeah.

Who do I whine to if I get my nose out of joint?

What I'm saying is, if I have more questions on an organizational level, so I don't have to bother you, how do I get in touch with that guy?

Because it's good to know how to get in touch with the person who's actually calling the shots for the organization.

Yeah.

And the other thing to keep in mind with organization is that that name doesn't speak for every team.

That's true, man.

We got.

And that's hard now.

We got tripped up by that a number of times, especially because this stuff was really at its peak craziness when I was playing.

But, like.

The.

The teams are.

The team is as good as the team is, and if they leave the organization, then that team, that organization is now not as good as that team was.

Does that make sense?

Like, yes.

And now if that team jumps to a different organization, they just made that organization better.

But it doesn't.

It doesn't have to do with the organization, has to do with the individual team.

And so I would wonder, where are your teams from last year now?

Did they jump ship and go somewhere else?

Exactly.

Yeah.

I don't know.

That's very important on a college level.

Oh, very.

Yeah.

The college, you know, recruit you.

Yeah.

And then now he's gone to another college.

And that's a good thing to say.

How many of the current.

How many of the players on the team this year were on the team last year or the year before?

Like, how.

How many of these players have been a.

Whatever the, you know, disaster is for any.

Any number of time.

I was just talking to a parent yesterday and.

And we were just talking about.

I know her son is on another.

On another team this year.

A couple of them on.

Well, yeah, several of them on another team.

And some of it is outside of their control, so to speak.

You know, maybe it was a dad coach.

And you see a lot of that dad coaches.

And sometimes by the time they're 14, going back to experience, oh, they go to high school, I go to coach my son no more.

So the whole team disintegrates.

That happened to me.

That happens a lot.

So many times.

Yeah, that happens a lot now.

So they're out without a team.

Okay, so those are important questions.

Well, and let me clarify this, too.

Dads can be good coaches.

Yes, they can be.

Yes.

Especially.

I agree.

Especially at younger levels.

Yes.

The older you get, the harder it's going to be for that.

For your dad to coach you or for you to coach your son and be impartial.

Yes, it's going to get harder and people are going to start looking at you very skeptically.

You're going to have to make sure that you treat your child like you treat everybody else.

And even when you do, they're going to second guess you all the time.

So, yeah, there is that.

As you get older, there is a kind of a time to kind of take your hands off of things if you can do it.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that all dad coaches are bad.

No, no, not at all.

And it doesn't mean that, that you can't use them.

But again, asking how many coaches have kids on the team is a good thing to know.

And, and again, along the sides of the dad coach.

I coached a handful of teams that Ethan was on.

Usually they were inconsequential.

They were fall ball or they were, you know, whatever.

And we were, we were doing it for fun and to learn our skills and to work on our mental game and whatever.

But I committed a purpose.

Yeah, I coached more than once.

I can, I can honestly tell you, I can't remember a time when I, when I, when Ethan got any preferential treatment.

He probably, he probably got a tougher treatment than, than, than other kids most of the time.

But I also knew that there came a moment where it was like, okay, look, I can't.

I don't have the expertise for this.

And the last time I coached was a very strange situation.

A person came to me who was running the organization at the time and said, hey, we need a team here.

Would you be the head coach?

And I said, sure, but this isn't my skill set.

And he's like, well, there's going to be some other, other coaches who help, who have experience.

And we did.

We had one guy who had a lot of experience with competitive youth baseball.

He had raised more than one son who played competitive three boys.

And he guy could throw batting practice like a champ and do it all day long.

He was fantastic.

And so, but they wanted me to be the head coach.

And so what I did was I took more of a kind of a major league approach to it.

And I said, okay, I'll manage the details and delegate the instruction to this guy because he's far better capable of doing it than me.

And the parents just couldn't handle it.

They were, they just didn't make any sense to them.

They're like, well, if the coach is not that he should be the coach, then if he's like, I agree with you actually.

But they came and asked me to do this and so I'm doing it to the best of my ability.

And then eventually they turned on me and I just, I took the opportunity.

To just out of town, get out.

Of there and be done with it.

But I remember one year I coached three teams at one time.

One was because of a need, so they needed a coach.

If they didn't have a coach, they couldn't play.

So I was coach today, Babe Ruth of another summer league team and a high school team.

So I got good sleep that night.

But it's, but it's learning the different mindset of all these kids.

It was, it was fun.

But if someone asked me if I would do it, would have done that, would do that again, I don't know.

That was, that was, I was younger then and more energy level, swing, let.

It travel, wait for your pitch.

Be aggressive out there.

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Apply at George Foster baseball.com okay, let me wrap us up where we've been today.

Okay, so we've talked about the reason you ask the questions because we're trying to make our expectations known and we're trying to manage what those expectations are based on the information we can get about the team, I may have lofty expectations, but the team may not be able to develop or to deliver on all of them.

But yet it still might be a good experience based on what I know.

So having all that information allows me to manage those expectations and still say, okay, this team might still be a good idea or this team is not a good idea, but if I don't have that information, it's hard to make that decision.

So that the other thing we talked about is dealing with reality and realizing that this is not, you know, rocket surgery here.

Okay?

We're not, we're not changing the world.

This is one season or two seasons or three seasons with a select team.

In the grand scheme of 10,000 hours, eight solid years of every single day.

This is not going to make or break any one thing.

So keeping that in mind and also realizing that if our child is not, if our child is not headed toward that 3%, that 1%, and that is not the goal that we're going at with everything we've got in us.

If they're not absolutely hungry for it, it, you may be better off to have the conversation and say it's time to play for fun.

Yeah.

And that leads me to the final thought for today, which is back to rec ball.

Now hear me out.

Until parents start saying, look, I appreciate it, we're going to spend our money differently, we're going to do this differently, we're going to live in reality, we're going to talk about this when he's seventh grade, eighth grade and we're going to, the kid is gifted in robotics, we're going to focus on that and we're going to play baseball for fun.

The kid is really gifted with his hands.

We're going to focus on that and we're going to play baseball for fun.

Until parents start doing that, there won't be a place to play baseball for fun.

Right now if you went to your local rec organization and said, I've got a, you know, 15 year old kid who wants to play baseball for fun, they're going to say, well, there might be a team, there might not be a team, there might be two teams, I don't know.

We'll just of see how it's going to go.

And you're going to find a lot of that because everybody has gone to select ball because everybody is living detached from reality thinking that their son is the next Bo Jackson.

And so here's the thing.

Even if you're not delusional and thinking that your son is going to the Majors, you may not be realistic in thinking that this investment is worth it to get him down the road.

Time is short.

You only have so many years, and they're grown up.

Look, this kid was born last week and now he's got two kids of his own.

And I'm sitting around going, where did the time go?

Okay, there.

There are three resources in life.

There's time, there's talent, there's treasure, and they're not of the same value.

Time is the most important thing because when it's gone, it's gone and you can never get it back.

So let me encourage you as a parent, spend that, live in reality, and spend that time the best way you can possibly spend it.

And if that is not traveling to Myrtle beach to play in a tournament because you want to make believe you're a big shot, then be real with yourself and use that time more effectively.

When parents start doing this and start going to their local rec organizations and saying, we want to have an opportunity for our kids to play for fun at a younger age and.

Or at an older age.

I'm sorry, at an older age and can continue this program, then it's going to start happening.

Then what you're going to have to do is get involved, right?

And you're going to have to get involved and you're going to have to put together teams and organize things.

And in.

This is.

This is a bargain you can make.

You can say, look, son, this is what you did, daughter.

This is what you do really well.

Let's focus on these things and let's play for fun.

And I'll tell you what, I will help you organize that.

I'll get involved, I'll get on the board.

I'll do whatever it takes.

We'll figure out how to put some teams together.

We'll play, we'll play ball for fun, but we're going to concentrate on the things that really matter for where you're heading in the future.

And let me give you some suggestions.

Go to your local youth organization and say, I will coach, I will organize.

I'll run a league, whatever it is, and then get some training if you need it, and figure out how to do that.

You don't have to be a super elite athlete to put together a.

A league or an organization or a couple of teams that play each other on a regular basis.

You can totally do that.

That's not that hard.

And you can start by just asking around by putting it out on social media.

Hey, we're putting this thing together because we're going to go play for fun.

Anybody want to be a part of this?

Get some help if it gets to the point, Run some ads, you know, do a fundraiser, sell some brownies, raise some money and run some ads.

You can run Facebook ads for a very, for a very affordable amount of money.

And you could say, hey, are you, are you ready?

Yeah.

Are you ready to do this just for fun?

Are you tired of the, the, the, the select ball merry go round?

Are you really wanting to do this at, you know, for this reason?

Fine.

And then give them a, give them a place to.

Phone number to call or a website to go to or whatever.

And look, I've been running Facebook ads since Facebook had ads, okay?

And I've, I've been working in design and marketing for longer than he's been alive.

If you need help, contact us through the, through the, through the podcast.

Go to completegame podcast.com and contact us.

I will help you.

I will help you figure out how to advertise for this and how to organize it.

That's how much I believe in this.

Because I think that until parents start to have a voice, ask for more, and though they're willing to pay for it and organize it and make more at a different level, you're not going to get that opportunity.

We have to make rec ball happen again.

It's not going to happen automatically.

We have to do that.

We have to decide.

All right, look, you know, there's a reason why Cracker Barrel decided yesterday that we know what, we're not going to go with a new logo.

We're going to go with the old logo.

We're going to stick with this because it's what here and this is what we're going to do.

Okay?

They listened to the people and they said, okay, we're not going to, we're not going to go and do something that the, the world doesn't want.

Learn to pivot.

Learn to make those opportunities happen.

So that's our, that's our encouragement for you this week, is that if you're going to play select ball and you're going to go forward or travel or whatever level you're playing, you know, okay, fine.

Ask these questions and know what you got going on to manage your expectations.

If you're ready to have that conversation at a younger age, and what you need is an older rec program and you need help organizing it, get in touch with us and we'll.

And we'll help you any way we can.

But you, you have options.

You don't have to be a parent, a frustrated parent sitting in the stands in the middle of July going, how in the world do we end up here again?

You don't have to go through that.

Got to give the people.

Give the people what they want.

There you go.

All right, well, until next week, we hope that you'll check us out on the CompleteGame Podcast.com you can also find the podcast on George's website at George Foster baseball.com you can find it at MDN dmdaiacademy.com or glovehound.com so we're also on Facebook, you can find us there and on YouTube.

So hopefully you'll check us out.

Go back and listen to some of the older episodes from earlier in the year.

There's a lot of good stuff there.

And then we'll be back next week with another one.

Let us know.

Have a great week, everybody.

Have a good one.

We hope you've enjoyed the Complete Game Podcast, the show that's all about baseball.

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Check us out at 2CreativeDigital.com on behalf of Ethan, Coach Rick and the Silver Slugger George Foster, I'm Greg Dungan saying have a great week and we'll see you real soon.