2 Tips for Baseball Parents

Hey, what's going on everyone? So today we're answering your questions. And this question, I don't know if I answered it before. I was just going through my notes here and I have a bunch of notes on, uh, advice for parents. And I had a question from someone that said that I, you know, I've probably seen the good, the bad and the ugly from parents, uh, throughout my time as, as a college coach, as a travel ball coach. And, uh, it's true. I've worked with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of parents and most parents are great and some are okay. And some are really difficult to work with, but I've learned a lot and I've, I've seen a lot of baseball. And so I want to go through, what do I have here? I have six different points. And again, I don't believe I made this video already because I, I don't remember speaking about all these things. If I did well, if you didn't see that one, now you can see this one. So here are my, here are my six things that came to mind, six tips that I think will help parents when it comes to, uh, just creating a better experience overall for, for the team and their, their son or their daughter that's playing. Um, so the first one I have here is trust others to coach. And this is a huge thing that I see during not only games, games, practices, everything is that parents come to practice and they don't want to trust or hand over their, their kids to the coach and allow them to do the coaching, right? And so when you go to a game, when anyone goes to a game, there's, there's really only four things that you can be. So you can be a player, you can be a coach, you can be an umpire, or you can be a fan, a spectator, a parent, right? And so you can, when you go, you can only really be one of these four things. Okay. And I know what I see a lot is parents want to kind of be everything. They want to be in the box hitting, right? So, you know, get your elbow up, look for that fastball, right? So they're trying to, they're trying to like be the hitter in the batter's box instead of just allowing their son or daughter to hit, right? And they try to be the coach, you know, you know, why are we hitting running here or why is this player playing over here? They try to be the umpire. They're yelling, that ball's off the plate, how are we calling that a strike? And then they're trying to be the parent, right? And they're trying to do all four things. So the biggest rule for me is you can only be one, right? For me, I'm a coach. I try to be a coach. I don't try to be the umpire. I let the umpire do the umpiring. I let the players do the playing. Now I help the players out, but I'm not, you know, I stopped playing a long time ago. I'm no longer playing, right? And some coaches still want to feel like they're playing. You're not playing anymore, you're coaching now, right? And I'm not, I'm not a parent spectating, okay? And so if everyone just does their job, pick one of the four and do that to the best of your ability. And for parents, for me, during a game, it's watching the game, it's cheering on your son or your daughter. I think that's the biggest thing that you can do. Because I think a lot of parents put a lot of extra, an excess pressure on their kids during games instead of just letting them play. When I go watch my son play, I went and watched him play, what, two days ago he had a game. And I know he wants to make sure, like he had a double and he's always looking over to see if we're watching or whatever. I mean, I just sit there and I watch the game, right? And I say, good job. I actually don't really yell. I have no issues with parents, you know, getting up and yelling, good job, whatever. I just, in my mind, I kind of say, good job. And then after the game, I always tell them they did a great job and ask them if he had fun. And if he has questions about anything, then he starts talking to me and we can talk about it. Okay, so that's my advice for parents when you're at games. Or practices, same thing for practices, all right? Those same rules apply. Trust others to be able to coach your kids. The next thing is limit being negative. So this doesn't just apply to the game, but this applies to the ride home as well. A lot of times for players, like the worst part of the day is the ride home after a tough game and a player plays really poorly. Now I've seen parents scream and yell at their kids at the games, which is crazy. Now maybe it's just because I've been in 400 million games in my life and I've been crappy in a lot of them. And I'm not trying to be crappy, okay? So what I try to do, especially during the game, I don't give any tips or anything when I'm watching a game as a parent. I'm just watching the game, like I said, I'm spectating and I'm cheering on. So definitely don't be negative at the game. That's the worst thing. The, come on, throw strikes, what are we doing? That's the worst, right? That's bad. I've seen kids have to scream at their parents. Which is never fun to see. So that's the first thing. But the second thing is on the ride home, specifically, I know this can be difficult for parents. Again, I've been at games, I've watched my son play, I've seen my son strike out a bunch at games and you want to try to help him, right? You want to get in the car, you want to see him and be like, hey man, you got to do this, you got to do that, you got to do this. So I understand that. I'm also a coach, right? So I'm a parent and a coach. And so not every parent is a coach. But even with that being said, I'm still very careful about, I don't want to be negative and I don't, I try not to like bring that up right when we get into the car or right after the game. I'll let him ask me about it. And if he doesn't want to, if he gets in the car and he just says he wants to go get ice cream, like just take him to get ice cream. If you've got hitters that you're looking to improve before the start of next season, this is essential for you. Matt Antonelli here, former major league player, first round pick and college coach. With this course, we're going to show you exactly step-by-step how to generate power, develop at speed and enhance swing mechanics. Regardless of your hitter's age, this course is going to deliver advanced hitting techniques that will allow any hitter to get better and make an impact at the plate this spring. We have a full catalog of training content that you can access from anywhere at any time. This course is perfect for players, parents, coaches, instructors, and more. It offers a comprehensive package of drills and techniques that you can directly implement. Our course has helped hitters all over the country at different competition levels and the feedback that we've received has been outstanding. The work you put in now will drive your success at the plate this spring. Get the essential knowledge that you need to take your game to the next level.