My sons play little league baseball. One of them has their coach making them practice every day of vacation and every afternoon after school and on Saturdays???? To me this seems like overkill....like the coach needs to get a life!!! Its little league for crissake! When I was a kid practice 2 times a week was enough and we had 2 games a week besides! Do any of you think these coaches these days pour it on a little heavy? :doh:

Not to mention that folks are busy enough with life that to have to drop a kid at ball 6 days a week might be a stretch? Don't get me wrong....I think youth sports is great and necessary and I applaud the folks who give of their time to coach the kids,.......Gawd knows I would not have the patience....but it just seems a bit much at times!

Don't ask us....ask the Kids. If they want to go and play all vacation then thats OK.

The only problem I could see would be if the Coach is giving them attitude for NOT making practices because of other commitments over vacation.....That would be a problem.

No ask the adults, see most adults have to work and do other things, kids do not, therefore, they shouldn't be making any decisions. My daughter played basketball this year and practice was only a few days a week and that was fine. I think the coach needs a reality check, MLB even gets a day off during the week. You should tell him if he wants to practice so much then he should come have pick up all the players seeing he obviously doesn't have a life.

Six days straight is completly unacceptable period.

You should tell him if he wants to practice so much then he should come have pick up all the players seeing he obviously doesn't have a life.

Six days straight is completly unacceptable period.

Man, What an Ass that coach must be.....He obviuosly has no life so he's decided to screw everybody elses up by offering the kids an opportunity to play baseball all vacation.....Doesn't he realize they have Video Games to play.

If the Coach is offering Kids an Opportunity to play baseball all week and is A: Giving up his Time to Do so and B: Is not making it Mandatory, then there is NOTHING wrong with that. The kids and there families can take as much out of that opportunity as they want.

I also think that you should let kids make some of there own decisions, Good or Bad, for themsleves, If we don't and then turn them loose on the World at 18 they run around in a circle completely confused as to what to do next.

Like I said before if he is making the Practices Mandatory then THATS an issue, but If he"s saying we have Practice every night try and Make it if you can.....I don't see an issue with that

If he makes is mandatory he IS an ass, and the way it sounds ...he is making it mandatory. Ofcourse we should let kids make thier own decisions on some things, but not when it comes at such an inconvieniance of the parents. Your right though if he is just offering to come if you want then he is being thoughtful.

And this topic has nothing to do with the kids playing video games at all, it has to do with making life measurably harder for the parents who have to plan their whole day around little leauge. I don't know about you guys, but I own my own business and make my own hours, and it still would be very hard to swing a schedule like that.

I live about an hour away from my kids...yesterday we decided not to make the 2 hours worth of driving just for his practice as he has it all week anyway! The coach called wondering where he was??????:smash:

Unfortunately winning to some is far more important than playing and having fun. Kids sports are a very distorted thing these days.

I'm with Dad Fisherman on this one. I see nothing wrong with having practices available every day during the school vacation week.

I coach my sons' (twin 9 year olds) travel soccer team and they also play baseball. I have soccer practice every Tuesday and Thursday evening and we have games on Saturdays. Can't make a practice? That's ok, that's why we have 2 each week. Have a conflict with baseball? Well, do your best to balance it out.

I know for sure that I'll probably only have 8 or 9 out of my 14 boys at this week's practice and Saturday's game because of vacations.

The baseball coach knows that not all of the kids will be there every night but he does know that he will get some kids every night and maybe all of the kids will make it to at least some of the nights.

No one says you have to bring your kids to every practice. After all, if it's not for the boys then it's for the birds. I will say, however, that every hour they put in at practice this early in the season will pay dividends as the seson goes on.

GF2020:

Read Big fish's last post, the coach called asking where he was, that screams Mandatory not "if you can make it" to me, which is unacceptable. I would watch this coach closely, I would bet he is the type to yell and scream like a nutcase when things don't go his way. Someone needs to let him know that he is not coaching the Red Sox.

Little leage kids who are made to practice like that will probably end up hating the game later.

Little league is for fun, not a preboot camp for the majors.

The coach called wondering where he was??????:smash:

Then thats a problem.....He needs to lighten up.

Then thats a problem.....He needs to lighten up.


Yep, it is one thing to be cool and leave the week open like you said, that would be a very cool coach, but getting a phone call wondering where little 9 year old bobby is, is it just plain obsesive. I bet he likes winning more then the kids.

Voice your concern with the Little League Baseball commissioner for results or to find out if the coach is in the right or wrong.

So far my kids have had once a week practice and one "extra" on Monday after Easter . . . games start after vacation.

Seemed like a reasonable balance to me.

Unfortunately, as the kids get older, the coaches become more intense, by middle school you will hear, "You need to dedicate, to one sport."
The day of the multi-sport kid, is over. Even though I am sure the coach will deny it, PT is affected, by missed practises, probably more so, as age goes by.
Sad to say, it's a different world, then the one we grew up in.

Larry, ya gotta be asking yourself, why is this guy coaching, for the kids or for his ego. :huh: Usually it's pretty obvious ,and if it's all about him he's going to play the kids that will win for him wether they come to practice or not.

Kids get burned out pretty quick from organized sports. My son coaches High school football and baseball and finds alot of kids don't want to continue when its important, and could really mean something to them in the way of scholarships. He get's, "i lost my passion for the game," all the time from kids. :( Let e'm have fun. :D

True story:

I used to run a 4.6 in the 40, which if you know anything it is damn fast, I ran this when I was a sophmore. In the little school I went to the coach both coached track and football. He made me play football because of my speed, did it bother him that I only weighed 125 pounds? Nope He started me at RUNNING BACK! By the time I would hit the line of scrimage I had already beat my coverage, leaving me wide open to the secondary, guess how many times I got toted away in a stretcher? My good friend from another town hit me so hard and knocked me out, he started crying on the field. He told me later that he couldn't feel me when he hit, but he heard cracking and popping. He refused to play the rest of the game and rode with me to the hospital.

So if anyone is wondering if I have a little chip on my shoulder for over zealous coaches, yeah, I do, from experiance.

And we were division D and in like second to last place.

Zealous coach crap...i am glad i dont have kids because i'd go knock that dufus out... now isnt a kids vacation the time he should spend with his father if possible? what a friggan JOKE

when i was on the track in high school....i made sure i was last in line...in gym class, which was my first period...and man did i ever hate that....because after running around you had....like 5 minutes to get dressed after a shower before your next class....with your clothes stickin to ya like they were spray glued on..... :doh:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
so being last in line...i'd dive behind a bush and sneak away in my little red gym shorts and hike to my secret locker trunk buried out in the woods (near home)
where i had a full set of fishing clothes ,a break down rod with a mitchell 300 reel and some poppers i had made in woodshop. :bl2:

Bigfish? do me a favor and go ask dufus BB boy what he thinks about fishing in general or saltwater fishing for striped bass.
i'd be interested to know!

If the coach is calling you because he missed one practice, you gotta tell the guy to lighten up.

My son plays little league down in Plymouth and ALL the teams have practice 6 days a week for the whole month of April. It's little league and it's supposed to be fun, but it's also a competetive league and losing all the time's not a whole lotta fun.

I wouldn't call it overkill because the coaches know they aren't all going to make it to all of them but you can bet the kids that only go to 2-3 a week are gonna be riding the pine alot.

Personally, my kid can't get enough of it, wishes it was 7 days a week and a 50 game season :D

In any sport my twins have played, I have always introduced myself to the coach and offered what I could in the way of assistance, if any. I also used that time to make sure he knew that the kids were often coming from one of two homes, mine or their mother's, to play/practice. This way I was able to spell out that BOTH parents had to be informed, and that communication might be lacking from time to time if both were not informed. This way the kids are not punished, and the coach knows how I view the world from my side of parenthood. Larry, around here, it would be difficult to get field time for six days this week. I do recall that there were a number of vacation practices his last year of LL. And my son would be wary if he missed a practice. After you get a chance to fill him in, this coach will understand the sacrifices you are going to be making over the course of the season, and I'm sure you can diplomatically assure him of putting your son's best interests first.

'Course it's 50/50 that he's another wacko LL coach......

What Saltheart said. when your a kid it is suppost to be for fun. When was the last time any of you saw a bunch of kids playing baseball or kickball or anyother type of game I know I can't remember the last time and that is just to bad. I still have good memorys play kickball in the back yard or school yard changing the rules a bit to fit who was playing and who wasn't. We hardly ever kept score just had a great time doing it. Todays kids just don't know what there are missing. ThomT

Wait until they get to Babe Ruth League or High School baseball. Between the Hitler coaches and the Moms and Dads who are soooo far up their butts ,I was lucky I didn't have a stroke watching my kid sit while kids with NO talent played. 4 years my son played first base and batted in the high .400's on 4 championship teams in little league . He goes to play Babe ruth in the next town and he sits . All the kids from that town play but the 2 kids from my town sit because they have been drafted for the next year and are protected and they are playing all the kids because for some of them its their last year. WTF "Drafted""protected" THIS IS F____ing GLORIFIED LITTLE LEAGUE!!!!! not the Sox or even Cape Cod League.To a guy my age "Draft" is a dirty word and I PROTECT my kid no one else! Little men with big egos. My kid wouldn't quit even after sitting for two years. Third year he's playing and doing great. The coach says to me he didn't realize how good he could play. I just walked way before I did something.
Now he's playing High school and the politics are just as bad. Good thing is the coaches know him from other sports and they are treating him well, but to watch the BS on the side from fathers yelling at not only their kids but other kids as well was pathetic during try outs. We all want the best for our kids ,but face it very few get to play for a living , its funny you don't see these guys at parent teacher nights or at the open house - they must be home planning the next move to get their kid to play at Fenway.
Time to chill I feel my blood pressure rising.

Yeah the crazy coath thing is getting more and more rediclulous, as I said before my coath was a lunatic,when I said he made me play football, I mean MADE me play, he said if I didn;t play I couldn't run track or play any other sport! When I got hurt that last time he came running over to me and my mother heard him tell me to walk it off! I was completly knocked out cold! What the hell was I going to "walk #^&#^&#^&#^&. Ofcourse there are great coaches out theremore than not I presume, but when you get the guys who act younger than the players, and the fathers who back them up, your in for some trouble

I had an alcoholic egotistical LL coach that had won a few championships for the town little league and was involved with running it. I had loved playing up to that point, but hated playing for that guy and never played organized baseball again. I remember going to watch the All Star game the next year - and this coach stopped the game and went out to second base to berate the center fielder after an error. My Dad just about lost it like he was watching Kerry Fraser referee a Bruins game at the old Montreal Forum. Fortunately he didn't sour too many more kids as the bottle did him in a couple of years later.

Just make sure your kids are enjoying it. This is little league - not the pros. Does this guy have kids on the team or even have kids? Are the other teams in this league doing the same thing? Six days a week does seem excessive to me. If you have not begun playing games yet - I am sure you'll be able to tell quite a bit more about him when the games start and how he manages the games.

Whiplash....don't get me started on parents and youth sports!!!! I will need another 10,000 posts on that subject before I cool off!:hs:

is why i get all fired up... because as a youth i was very athletic and could out-run,out-shoot,and out-hit most kids my age in basket ball and baseball but i did not have that kiss ass attitude of 100% full compliance the coaches were lookin for....and so i either sat on the bench or was way out in the outfield in most situations...so eventually i said...I'd rather be fishing.......i am a leo....who wants to have fun and be "outdoors doing something with nature" and not wanting to take any crap from these guys who didnt even think fishing was a sport...

to them, it was just a big waste of time....as a couple of coaches once told me... finally, i realized....that's where i wanted to be, because all the friggan politics and the miriad of rules and regulations were not worth it to me....and that my hero's were Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. I was the only son out of six who ever owned a shotgun, or who hunted bear or fished the USA.

oh and i predict that BIGFISH will reach his 20,000 th post 0n july 9th 2009... http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/ravenob1/mini2.png .....................................waiting for first light........

Guys like that are one of the reasons my dad is my hero. He coached the teams of leftovers. You know, they kids not good enough for the rest of the league or who signed up late. Everybody PLAYED at least half the game and he never had a problem with "superstar" attitudes from the kids or their parents. He was a gifted teacher and while winning was important, it wasn't life or death. It was a GAME, something to do in the summer. My dad figured that kids playing baseball and having fun weren't sitting around trying to figure out ways to pass the summer (and getting into trouble.)