We have a 10-year old camper with us this week in Palos Verdes who had literally never played a minute of baseball in his life until he stepped on the field on Monday morning.
I absolutely LOVE getting to introduce the greatest sport ever invented to new players, no matter what age they are, and I take great pride in Spring Training creating a fun and welcoming baseball environment for kids of all ages, abilities, and experience levels. We have complete beginners, legitimate All-Stars, and every type of player in between all sharing in the unique experience we create at camp of relentlessly positive and fun-first baseball.
This young man is improving by leaps and bounds every day, but what’s been really heartwarming to watch is how he’s been embraced by the rest of the group on his field.
While he is completely new to the game, the majority of the other players on his field this week are All-Star level players with years of experience and who play baseball at a really high level for being 10 and 11 years old.
These more advanced kids aren’t just being patient with him as he starts to figure out the game; they’ve become his biggest cheerleaders!
When he fields a groundball during the game and is a little confused where the play is, rather than scream at him “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!” or “COME ON, THROW IT TO SECOND!!!” the other boys are positively calling out where the play is, really pumping him up when he gets it right, and when it gets it wrong, they calmly explain what the correct decision was so that he’s better prepared for the next opportunity.
On the offensive side, having never even picked up a bat before, he really struggled at the plate on Monday but the other kids were super encouraging and now that he’s starting to hit the ball in our games, the campers (including players on the opposing team) are genuinely excited for him when he gets a hit and reaches base safely.
THIS is the type of environment we should be striving to create in youth sports, even (especially?) in actual real games, not just at Summer Camp.
We can, and should, be able to do two things at once: play hard and compete trying our best to win, while also respecting and recognizing our opponent when they have success.
Watch this 2 minute video of MLB players doing exactly that; it will bring a smile to your face:
Those are the best players in the world getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars to produce results in order to win as many games as possible and yet they still possess the ability to recognize and respect their opponent’s accomplishments.
If they can do that at the highest level of the game, shouldn’t we be able to do the same at the lowest level of the game? I would hope so.
But if we show up to a Little League game thinking the group of kids and coaches in the other dugout is the enemy, we’ve already lost sight of the big picture and have no chance of creating the best environment for our kids to play in.
If we’re jealous of another player’s success because of what that might mean for our own child’s experience, we’ve lost the sense of community that can make localized rec sports so special.
If we find ourselves actively rooting against another child, then we’ve got personal issues to deal with that are much bigger than whatever is happening on the field in a meaningless youth sporting event.
On the other hand, if we can find joy our peer’s successes, if we can recognize accomplishments on the other team, and if we show up to the field thinking about how to make the environment supportive and rewarding for all the kids, then we’re doing youth sports the right way.
We can do all that while still doing our best to win the game. Being competitive and acting with integrity/respect are not mutually exclusive!
This isn’t just an attitude that we need in youth sports. If we want to feel a true sense of community in our lives, then we should be looking to celebrate other’s wins as much as our own.
I’m good friends with the best tournament poker player on Earth – if you follow poker you would recognize his name immediately.
Professional poker players refer to their world as “the poker community,” much like we refer to ours as the “baseball community” or “soccer community,” or “tennis community” and the top guns work hard to take care of it by acting respectfully at the tables, making it inclusive to all types of players, and not being shy about shunning dishonest and obnoxious people who poison the playing experience for everyone. (Maybe that’s something we should consider doing in youth sports? But that’s a topic for another time.) Anyway…
After one of his good buddies won a WSOP bracelet a few weeks ago my buddy posted on Instagram that, “Being genuinely happy for your friends when they have success is a superpower.”
And that attitude is coming from a guy in a profession where it truly is “every man for himself,” as the top players are all battling for finite prize pool money as a way to support their families. There are no teams in poker, and yet, the really good guys still root for their friends.
I know that my buddy appreciated every text message that he got (mine included) after his own most recent bracelet win earlier this Summer and I know he’s genuinely happy when his friends have success at the tables, even when their win means his loss.
And back to baseball, as I’ve watched the kids in camp this week rally around an inexperienced player and as I’ve watched them cheer for their buddies on the other team when they hit a double or make a great play defensively, it gives me great hope that the purity and innocence of youth sports is still attainable. I know this for a fact; I’m a regular witness to it at camp!
And most of the time, all us adults need to do to help them create this type of environment is to stay out of the way, and let the kids take the lead 🙂
PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!