It is so easy to ignore potential problems when things are going well. That goes for any aspect of your life, including baseball. Why mess with that hitter’s swing if he’s smashing the ball deep into the outfield more than any other player in the league? Why suggest that a pitcher changes his motion if he’s dominating opposing batters?

The reason you would intercede is that if you have the knowledge, and admittedly that is an if, you should try to help someone from either hurting themselves or by developing a habit which will become so difficult to overcome in the future that they can’t possibly change. Like Johnny who often hits the ball into the trees, but he has a huge stride which blends in with his swing. At twelve years old, facing pretty much only fastballs and slow fastballs, he seems “fine,” and even great when compared to other kids But this bad habit won’t be exposed until high school. Then he will likely miss any pitch that has significant movement – as all other pitches do. He’ll be ill prepared to square up curveballs, changeups, sliders, two-seam fastballs, cutters – pretty much every other pitch on the planet.

What about Tommy, the 12-year-old pitcher that dominates the competition. He throws the ball past most kids, and even hurts his catcher’s hand. He’s big and mature for his age. But he moves towards the plate in one piece like a telephone pole falling, and stops his throwing arm abruptly after release, like it’s hit a brick wall. When he’s older, his ability to create velocity with his motion will top out unless he learns to separately rotate his torso from his lower half. And abruptly stopping his arm rather than giving it as much time as possible to decelerate put much more stress on the small ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow. So he’ll either feel significant elbow pain, reduce his velocity and innings pitched, or wind up needing elbow rehab or surgery. Or just give up baseball entirely.

Sometimes when a player is doing well, even if we see something that they’re doing that can hinder their growth or hurt them later, we usually don’t mention anything because, hey, they’re succeeding. How many times do you hear “If it ain’t broke, don’t ‘fix’ it”? Most coaches try not to look for problems if things are going well. Who can blame them, especially if they’re not be certain of what’s wrong. But if you are sure its a problem, ignoring it leads someone into a far bigger problem down the road.

Hindsight is always 20/20. It’s easy for me to say now about something of concern that I noticed in Stephen Strassberg’s or Matt Harvey’s delivery. So let me first say that I admire the Cardinals and their long history of success. One of my best friends, Brent Strom, has worked for them over the last six years as their Minor League Pitching Coordinator. Despite the fact that he has become the number-two starter as a rookie and is the kid that everyone is raving about, I am concerned that Michael Wacha will hurt his arm sooner rather than later.

I see Wacha locking out his elbow early in his delivery and keeping it that way for some time. He also uses the hypermobility in his throwing shoulder to create more whip from his whole arm, rather than bending and using his elbow during the beginning and end of his arm movement. This creates a pretty long lever that he uses for a number of advantages, including making his fastball and changeup look very similar. Nonetheless, he puts more stress on both the front and back of his shoulder, and may create bone chips in his elbow. His body obviously tolerates these stresses better than most of us, but if I were his pitching coach, I’d say something. So Michael Wacha, don’t let anyone say they didn’t tell you to watch out.

You see it on nearly every field in every sport, from youth to college. When the game is over, no matter what the outcome, the two teams meet near the middle of the field. Players and coaches hi-five or shake hands and say “Good game” to their opponents. If you’ve participated in this recently, as a coach or a player, do you think this is real? Parents observing from the stand, do you think this is a sincere act by the players? Or are most of the participants simply going through the expected motions?

This week, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association issued an unusual directive about postgame handshakes. It stated that “…postgame rituals such as handshakes, etc. must be closely monitored by school officials and are not a part of the game regulated by game officials.  However, any unsportsmanlike conduct occurring during this time will subject the coach/player to penalties and discipline.”

The KHSAA reported that there have been more than 24 fights and other altercations in Kentucky alone over the past three years, and many more across the country. They add that “Unfortunately, for whatever reason, all involved in contests seem to be more aggressive immediately after the contests are concluded and winning with honor and dignity (and losing the same way) doesn’t seem to be being instilled across the board.”

This directive has been selectively quoted and misinterpreted, even from news outlets such as CBSsports.com, as an outright ban on postgame handshakes, and that’s just not accurate. You can read the KHSAA statement on their website here…

When my son was a youth baseball player, he played for a team that played in one of the weekly tournaments for twelve-year olds held in one of the large complexes in Cooperstown, New York. They played “Team Arizona,” which was not a state-select team, just a cool name for about fifteen kids that lived within an hour of each other who were pretty talent ballplayers. After they beat my son’s team 4-3, they did three things which I remember clearly. They said “good game” to the players on my sons team with sincerity. Then they came to our side of the field, lined up on the foul line in front of our team’s parents and applauded us. Then they did the same to their parents.

A long time coach from the Houston area spoke to me regarding the “Good Game” lines. “I think they’re kinda stupid. After the game, you ofttimes have bad feelings, win or lose. Every postgame fight has started on the ‘Good game’ line. It’s fine to congratulate an opposing player if you wish, but lots of some of those guys didn’t set foot on the field. Sometimes they played dirty and said horrible things to you and your teammates before or during the game. The ‘Good game’ line is half-hearted, it’s fake, and it means nothing. And as a coach, I can tell you that is not fun breaking up a brawl.”

Rocky Ward, the head coach at New Mexico State, has led his team to more than 400 wins. He played for his father Gary, the Hall of Fame college baseball coach at Oklahoma State from 1986-88. From the time Gary began coaching at Oklahoma State in 1978, he believed that forcing players to shake hands after a game had nothing to do with sportsmanship.

“What he believed that sportsmanship was,” said Rocky, “was to shake hands prior to the contest, play hard during the contest to defeat each other, and not force the loser to cow down to the winner. “

It was nearly universal back then for opposing teams to shake hands after every game. He encouraged the players to do so before the series began, and he as a leader, as a professional would always seek out and shake his counterpart’s hand after each game. However, the players on Gary’s teams never shook hands with their opponents after any game (with the exception of the 1987 College World Series championship, when the officials at the event “strongly suggested” that he do so, as he was on their national stage).

Now college baseball teams almost never shake hands with their opponents after each game. They only do so at the conclusion of the last game of a series.

Gregg Brock, the President of the Malibu Little League in California, feels that the KHSAA directive came about “in response to the climate that’s begun to exist in youth sports in general.” In regards to young athletes, Brock stated “The role models that they look to, which are their coaches, who establish anything they’ll try to emulate, that type of response… yelling at umpires, parents yelling at umpires, parents coaching from the stands, coaches yelling at players… there’s no reason for any of those kids to try to understand why they should deal with those emotions rather than let them out. I think it’s killing youth sports.”

Brock feels “this is not about emulating the pros. This is about developing the youth of America to play sports in a sportsmanlike manner. What happens to that kid who gets into a fight with a handshake? What happens to him when he goes into business and someone doesn’t give him his way?””

In the Coaches Clinic that I give to leagues like yours, among many things I discuss several options for post game interaction. I’ll inform and entertain and educate your league. You can arrange for me to conduct a coaches clinic here.

Please let me hear from you on this subject on our Facebook page. Please share your opinion!

I’ve read several books in the last few months about youth sports, most of those about baseball. The current trend of most authors in this genre is to make the goal for every kid to win. This can build certainly confidence in youngsters. It can make them enjoy the game earlier in life, and that can lead to a deeper appreciation of the game. Some people love baseball and learn all about the rules of the game, or statistics (current and historical), or about the interesting stories of players throughout the years.

But baseball is more than that. One of the most important things that a young ballplayer can learn from baseball is about winning. Specifically striving to win. Winning a game is a result of working towards a goal for a period of time and earning the success. You have to work on your individual skills, and you have to work with others to have success for your team. Learning these lessons early will help anyone learn to succeed in life.

Being on the team that loses a game does not make you a loser. Throwing the pitch that an opponent hits for a walkoff does not make you a loser. Dropping a fly ball or a popup that lets the other team score the winning run does not make you a loser. One important lesson we need to teach is that losing today’s competition should never define you, because today’s loss doesn’t make you a loser. You can and should prepare to win next time. That’s an important lesson to learn for most for a fulfilling life.

Kids are smarter than we realize. If we never keep score in a competition, it becomes just an activity. Activities are fine for most aspects of youngsters lives. But if we remove all possibilities of disappointment from their lives, we lose the opportunity to help them learn to compete and learn what it takes to succeed.

Failure isn’t a dirty word. It’s embraced by individuals who have taken a punch in the nose (or several), and only then became truly motivated to succeed. Walt Disney was fired by a magazine editor who told him he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Abraham Lincoln had many failed attempts for public office before being elected president. Steve Jobs was fired by Apple’s Board before they welcomed him back and started the change to make it the world’s most valuable brand today. And in baseball we have Jackie Robinson, who not only had to succeed in the game, but had to deal with the deep-rooted racism that the US had in the 1940’s. To these people and many others, the thought of losing felt far worse than even winning felt good.

Shockingly, ballplayers can reach college (even high-level Division I programs) without understanding how to win. College coaches now go through competitive team building exercises that they never had to before.That’s for a lot of reasons. Some youth baseball programs keep the focus on participation too long through older age groups. It looks like success when everyone is told they win, and few people complain. Another reason is that with the explosion of travel baseball programs, many ballplayers never had to compete for a spot. he and his parents just found a team that promised him the shortstop position, and that was it. But without competition and someone or something challenging you, there’s no incentive to work hard and be great. Do we want to teach our children to accept mediocrity?

Don’t get me wrong. I value participation and inclusion of as many as possible. I even like participation awards for five and six and seven year olds. Because from participants and “samplers” you get kids with goals, dreams, and burning desires. And learning throughout life will make curious youngsters into inquisitive teenagers and adults that always seek knowledge and facts and improve themselves and those around them.

Yet life does keep score. We compete for grades, for jobs and business partnerships, for customers and bonuses, for a coach to notice us to offer us a spot on a team. We’ve “competed” for girlfriends and boyfriends, significant others and spouses. For acceptance into the colleges we in which we see ourselves happy and successful. We compete for things every day. Hopefully not everything and not all day, because that’s just too stressful for most everyone. and hopefully not for unimportant things like the fastest line in the supermarket.

But if we remove all scorekeeping, we remove competitiveness. We remove the chance for passion and greatness. We may remove some temporary sadness and disappointment, but parents (and to some extent coaches) can use losing as a springboard, as real life example of why practicing anything and everything is what leads to you to success. Why a youngster should practice baseball or a musical instrument rather than play video games. To study rather than to hope for an easy test and a good grade. To do more rather than to do the minimum.

So is learning about winning and losing important? You bet. You will savor your earned victories, and become motivated from your failures. Winning is never permanent and losing is rarely fatal. Go work towards success.

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I would be delighted to conduct a Coaches Clinic for your league this fall, winter, or spring. It will be the most enlightening and entertaining learning experience you can provide your coaches to help your ballplayers and league. This can even cost your league nothing out of pocket. Check out this page for details.